This is a story about a young girl named Dorothy who lives in Kansas with her Aunt Em, Uncle
Henry, and pet dog, Toto.
Her house is carried away in a tornado and she awakes to find that her house has landed
in the Land of Oz and killed the Wicked Witch of the East, a cruel witch who ruled over
the Munchkins.
Trying to get home, Dorothy puts on the Wicked Witch's silver shoes and after consulting
with the Good Witch of the North, learns that she must ask Oz, the great wizard in Emerald
City, to help her get back home.
Travelling along the yellow brick road, Dorothy meets three unique individuals all hoping
Oz can grant them their desires.
Scarecrow, a dumb scarecrow, wants Oz to give him a brain.
Tin Woodman, a man made from tin, wants Oz to give him a heart.
And Lion, a cowardly lion, wants Oz to give him courage.
The group finally arrives at Emerald City, a grand city colored in green.
There, they talk to Oz, who says that he will grant each of them what they seek if they
will destroy the Wicked Witch of the West.
At first they are all against it, but then decide to give it a try.
When they enter the land of the Wicked Witch of the West, the group is attacked by wolves,
crows, and bees, but defeats each wave quite easily.
Seeing this, the Wicked Witch calls on the Wicked Monkeys to attack them.
The monkeys destroy Scarecrow and Tinman, but capture Lion and Dorothy.
And while being held prisoner, Dorothy destroys the Wicked Witch by splashing her with a bucket
of water.
The group goes back to Emerald City and demands that Oz reward them as promised.
However, they discover Oz to be nothing more than a normal man.
Oz pretends to give Scarecrow, Tinman, and Lion what they want, but to help Dorothy,
he builds a hot air balloon.
Unfortunately, the balloon flies off without her.
Upset, Dorothy is told to go to the Good Witch of the South for help.
The group meets the Good Witch and Dorothy is told that her silver shoes can magically
send her anywhere she wants.
In the end, with the special power of her shoes, Dorothy goes back to Kansas.
Color is an important device in this story.
Early on, Kansas is described in tones of gray, giving it a lifeless and mundane feel.
This is a stark contrast to the vivid colors of the Land of Oz, with greens, blues, and
yellows.
The juxtaposition of these two worlds can portray the differences between how some view
the real world and the world of the imagination, where the real world can tend to be empty,
while our imagination can be vivid.
And although Hollywood portrays otherwise, it's also important to note that Dorothy's
magical shoes in the original novel are silver, not red.
This story's main message is about how we all, at times, feel inadequate.
Scarecrow lacks intelligence.
Tinman lacks heart.
Lion lacks courage.
And Dorothy seeks family.
On some level, readers can at least relate to one of these characters and what they seek.
However, as the story demonstrates, we all have seeds of these things already inside
of us.
In the story, we see this in the scene where the group is crossing the canyon.
Scarecrow uses problem-solving skills to think how to get over the canyon, Lion demonstrates
courage to jump over, and Tinman has enough heart to feel sympathy toward killing animals.
As such, a strength of the story is the characters and the interactions each of them has with
each other.
Early in the story, there is an interesting discussion between Scarecrow and Tinman about
what is the most valuable thing to have.
Scarecrow believes that knowledge and intellect are the most important thing, while Tinman
believes that heart and happiness are the most important things.
Whether a reader falls into either of these camps of thought - knowledge vs. love - is
not necessarily the point.
Rather, this discussion exposes the notion that priorities are highly subjective and
are often rooted in what we seek most out of life.
That not everyone should or has the same needs and wants.