Wasn’t the original Oz a political allegory?
The Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City had something to do with the gold standard for the greenback. “Following the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City” was a metaphor for supporting the gold standard. Or opposing it. Or something. :)
The Scarecrow represented the agricultural workers, who were “following the Yellow Brick Road” because apparently they didn’t know any better. The Tin Man was the industrialists, who apparently stood to unfairly benefit from either opposing or supporting the gold standard at others’ expense, ergo they “had no heart”. The Cowardly Lion was, I believe, the military. The Wicked Witch of the West was the seductive veins of gold in the West, with their corruptive influences at the prospect of easy wealth.
Oz itself, of course, was named after an ounce, in this case an ounce of gold.
Or something. :)
I don’t know, but I do remember that we use to be on a gold standard and there was a panic in 1857...
Too, in the book, Dorothy had *silver* slippers - not ruby, as in the movie. You know the ratty suit that the wizard wore in the movie? It was a stage prop, of course, bought at a thrift shop. By strange coincidence, it was found that the original owner was L. Frank Baum. Can’t make this stuff up.
1894: Coxey’s Army.
**Wasn’t the original Oz a political allegory?**
I don’t know about that, but the Oz story is a close allegory to the book ‘Pilgrim’s Progress; Part 1’, written over 200 yrs before the WWOO.
PP, in a nutshell: ‘Christian’, after a life changing experience, faces a challenging trek to the Celestial City.
It only makes sense if you watch it listening to Dark Side of the Moon
Backwards
or something
The wizard, in that scenario, is supposed to be William Jennings Bryan.