The Land of Oz

Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Land of Oz

For some reason I struggled to come up with an answer to this blog. Dorothy does state she’s not in Kansas anymore, and I feel that the narrator (director) displayed this during the transition from colorless to color; along with other factors.

What do we really know about Kansas? It doesn’t play a huge role in the film. There’s not enough evidence to assume its poverty stricken. What if it’s an agricultural based location? What if the Land of Oz is Kansas in the future? All we really know about Kansas is that it’s not really bumpin. They don’t appear to be “hard” Aunty Em is the only character that seems in a hurry. The narrator portrayed her as a person that’s doing everything 100pmh. The other characters were kind of just hanging out. Now here comes the storm. Our house floats to the Land of Oz
Dorothy and makes the observation that she is no longer in Kansas. Maybe her vision went from black and white to 240 Hz of HD color? Maybe not. When she comes across Glinda she’s a bit startled and admits that she thought “all witched were ugly.” The only witch Kansas had was Elmira Gulch who tried stealing Toto. Now culturally speaking Dorothy was made to believe that well all witches are ugly. Again, all this is how she was programmed to think.

Now there is some contradiction to these master narrative ways of thinking and acting. Because if Dorothy say’s “trees don’t talk.” All witches are ugly ect ect. Then let’s consider who she meet’s along the way. A talking Scarecrow. A talking Tin Man. A Talking Lion. She didn’t run away from the lion and say “lions don’t talk!” I think not only Dorothy from Kansas, but anyone would realize they’re somewhere else if lions, trees, and munchkinlanders were frolicking about.

I do believe that Dorothy gained so much from traveling to The Land of Oz. I’m not sure how her master narratives affected Dorothy. When the tree’s talked she did state “trees don’t talk,” but she had her buddy Scarecrow next to her so hmmmm. There is something that Dorothy brings from Kansas to The Land of Oz. I would have to say Dorothy was raised with good family values and good morals. The perfect example of this is during the movie the Lion is trying to pick a fight. Although Dorothy sees’s a ferocious, human eating machine. Dorothy does not hesitate to scold and smack the lion for being a bully. This shows a lot about her family and culture. Clearly she cares a lot for her loved ones, and if that means picking a fight with a Lion then so be it. Dorothy is making the journey to The Land of Oz because she wants to see her family again.

Dorothy is definitely displaying an entertaining opposite viewpoint because she thinks “all witches are ugly,” and I’m sure she believes that. I’m also sure that if she would have seen a wild Lion in Kansas she would of ran for her life, and attempted to beat him up.

Posted by macaDamian at 12:00 PM
Labels: Damian Zuniga