The Wizard of Oz

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The Wizard of Oz

• A Populist Parable?

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(No Transcript)
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Late 1800s

• Period of rapid growth in westward expansion
• Industrialization and the growth of big business
• Immigration and the growth of urban centers

The Mid-West
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The Setting

• The Great Plains
• Rapid growth
• Good rainfall
• Railroads move crops
• Land was cheap

The Great Plains
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Trouble Begins

• Severe drought
• Overproduction
• Farmers in debt
• Blame the railroads (monopolies)
• Natural disasters occurred

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Political Organizations

• Farmers Alliance (rose from the Grange)
• began as a pressure group
• attacked the monopolies
• had surprising success at local polls
• Farmers Alliance the Knights of Labor
• The Populist Party (originally the People's
  Party)

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The Populist Party

• Members were people in rural areas
• Strong support in the South and the West
• Some support in the North

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Their demands

• Land
• Believed is for the people/not be monopolies
• All land for settler use only
• Transportation
• a means of exchange and a public necessity
• Owned and operated by the government
• Finances
• called for the increase in circulation of money
• free silver bimetallism
• graduated income tax
• And for the working man
• eight hour work day

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Their Power

• Ran James Weaver (IA) for president in the 1892
  election
• Join with the Democratic party in election of
  1896
• Supported William Jennings Bryan for president
  nomination
• Party dies out after election of 1896

Historical cartoon of Populist Party as a snake
with William Jennings Bryan's head swallowing
donkey of the Democratic Party(Library of
Congress)
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Cross of Gold speech

• "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor
  this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify
  mankind upon a cross of gold."

July 9, 1896, at the Democratic National
Convention, Chicago
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Legacy

• Goals of reform did not die out
• Reappears during the Progressive Era

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A Populist Parable The Wizard of Oz Symbolism?
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Kansas?

• Hotbed of Radical Agrarianism Populism

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Dorothy

• Miss Everyman

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Tornadoes

• Political and
• Economic
• Controversy

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Wicked Witch of the East?

• Eastern Bankers and Industrialists

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Glinda the Good Witch of the South
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Munchkins?

• Workers Enslaved by Money Power

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The Ruby Slippers?
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Silver
or
Ruby Slippers?
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Yellow Brick Road
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Toto?

• Teetotalers (Prohibitionists)

Dont mind Toto,said Dorothy, he never bites.
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Scarecrow

• Brainless
• Hayseed
• Farmers

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I dont mind my legs and arms and body being
stuffed, because I cannot get hurt. If anyone
treads on my toes or sticks a pin into me, it
doesnt matter, for I cant feel it. But I do
not want people to call me a fool, and if my head
stays stuffed with straw instead of with brains,
how am I ever to know anything?
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Tin Man

• Dehumanized
• Factory
• Workers

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Cowardly Lion

• William
• Jennings
• Bryan?

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William Jennings Bryan? If the elephants and
the tigers and the bears had ever tried to fight
me, I should have run myself It seems they
must be more cowardly than you are if they allow
you to scare them so easily.
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(No Transcript)
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Off to See the Wizard

• Coxeys Army?

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OZ?

• Ounces?

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Emerald City
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Wicked Witch of the West?

• Mortgage Holders

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Water?

• Rain?

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Flying Monkeys

• Plains Indians
• not inherently bad
• their actions depend
• wholly upon the bidding
• of others

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The Wiz?
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The Wizard of Oz/Everything to Everyone

• Commentary on American leadership/Presidency
• Harrison, Cleveland, McKinley

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Clicking of the heels

• The People always had the Power

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Scarecrow rules the East and the Tinman Rules
the West
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Dark Side of the Rainbow?