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Essay

Oz Essay #2

A Leap of Faith

By: Stephanie Li

The dainty little city is filled with royalty, common folk, and peasants – all made from China. They live peacefully in a world they call their own, exclusive to the land of Munchkins and Winged Monkeys. Suddenly, the city is in shambles; teapot-shaped houses have become shattered pieces on the ground, the little dainty people are broken and quickly forgotten. Adaptations often take on new meanings after altering the events of the story; this is the case in L. Frank Baum’s world of Oz. when Dorothy encounters the China country. Whether it is the yellow brick road representing gold or the Winged Monkeys paralleling the circumstances of Native Americans, most characters and events are recreations of interpreted truths as morals of the real world. The China princess, introduced in L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, along with the film adaptations Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) and Dorothy of Oz (2014), conveys the notion that by not taking advantage of opportunities, someone can miss their chances of gaining something that will benefit them in the future.

Kings and queens, princesses and princes, stroll through the streets of the country made entirely out of China. They are ignorant to the commotion beyond the wall.

The China princess’s rejection to Dorothy’s invitation of joining her in Kansas reflects her timid personality and discouraged thoughts on protecting her country. With this in mind, if one were to relate the China princess’s character to history, she resembles Tzu Hsi, the Dowager Empress during the 1900s (Taylor). She opposes foreigners trespassing into the China Country and having the power to destroy all sectors of society because it threatens their power. The China princess’s reaction to Dorothy running after her reflects how fragile and defenseless she is: “‘Don’t chase me! Don’t chase me!’ She had such a frightened little voice…” (Baum 93). This scene parallels the situation of the scramble of China when intruders trespassed into the country during a time where they were disadvantaged. Similar to how the China princess is too small and weak to force Dorothy out of her home, Tzu Hsi and her country were vulnerable to the partition of their territory to stronger powers, also known as “spheres of influence” (Taylor). Initially a strong country with a strong leader, China did not take action. This relates to how the China princess could have done something about her vulnerability and exposure to outsiders.

Broken faces and bodies are shattered on the white floors, smoke from the wreckage drifts slowly into the sky with no sign of life anywhere.

The China doll in the Oz the Great and Powerful is depicted much differently from the China Princess in the original book because she willingly leaves her country to join Oscar Riggs, who eventually becomes Oz, on his journey. The China doll is a lone survivor of the China country that has been destroyed by the Wicked Witch. The China doll quickly befriends Oz and his monkey companion unlike the China Princess from the original story who feels intimidated and shy upon Dorothy’s arrival and does not want to leave the comfort of her home. Although one’s first impression of the China doll is feeble and timid, her personality reveals a feisty persistent character. The China doll projects a new perspective that diverges from the original China Princess, because the she is willing to fight for respectability and virtue after getting hurt by the Witch; whereas the China Princess remains narrow minded and only wishes to stay in the China country where “nothing can hurt her”. However, in reality, she is vulnerable to everything yet she does not act upon it.

A hectic city is filled with men waiting in lines to court the Princess. The jester sends waves of earthquakes every so often.

An even more contrasting character is the superior and dramatic China princess from Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return, who sacrifices her safety to save her delicate China country. Upon arrival, the film shows an array of teacups lined together to form a wall resembling the Great Wall of China; this variation refers to China’s objectives in protecting itself from outsiders. The China princess grants Dorothy permission to enter the China country, which diverges, from the classic China princess who seems to want nothing to do with foreigners. After an earthquake wrecks the China country, the China princess accuses Dorothy of bringing in outsiders and she regrets letting them in. She believes her kingdom is safe behind the great wall because the teacups provide a barrier between the China people and harmful outsiders. Nevertheless, the China princess decides to join Dorothy on her journey because she wants to get back at the jester for putting the China country through wreckage and disaster. Despite being a lot bolder and resourceful, the China princess shares the same struggles as the original character from Baum’s story; they both do not have enough control or power to protect their people, and they believe the wall protects them from harm. The difference that draws the line between them is that one is willing to go to extreme measures to defend her people while the other believes there is no solution but to run.

The China Princess is depicted quite differently in the two film adaptations; transforming from a powerless and frail girl who can be easily ruined, to an adventurous independent person willing to take risks and try new things by the end of the narrative arc. More experienced and insightful after traveling the entirety of the Land of Oz, whether it’s with Dorothy or Oz himself, the China girl gains new qualities as a result of leaving home and learning how to survive when danger can be found anywhere along the Yellow Brick Road. The central truth leads back to the idea that taking a step out of one’s comfort zone and being open to new opportunities can lead to character development. The China doll shows this in the two adaptations, which help her to discover another part of who she is.

 

Works Cited

Baum, L. Frank. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Lexington, KY: CreateSpace, 2013. Print.

Oz the Great and Powerful. Dir. Sam Raimi. Perf. James Franco and Mila Kunis. Walt Disney Pictures, Roth Films, 2013. DVD.

Taylor, Quentin P. “The Wizard of Oz as a Satirical Allegory of Money and Politics in 1900.” USAGOLD. USAGOLD, n.d. Web. 20 Sept. 2015.

Legends of Oz: Return of Dorothy. Dir. Will Finn and Daniel St. Pierre. Perf. Lea Michele and Kelsey Grammar. Prana Studios, 2014. DVD.

Essay, Uncategorized

Oz Essay

Don’t Break His Heart: The Tin Woodman’s Love Life in Adaptations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

By: Michelle Heilig

“As for you, my galvanized friend, you want a heart. You don’t know how lucky you are not to have one. Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable” (Wizard). Before gifting him with a beating heart, The Wizard of Oz cautions the Tin Man of his newfound emotional capacity. In the 1939 film adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Wizard foreshadows the emotional troubles the Tin Man suffers in modern adaptations of L. Frank Baum’s novel. Whether he inflicts the damage upon himself by forcing excessive emotion or by restraining his own feelings until he implodes, the Tin Man is portrayed as a character that cannot tune his mind to match his heart, allowing artists to use him as a reference for their own heartache.

In Baum’s original novel, the Tin Woodman, the man with no heart to fill his empty body, believes that without physical heart he cannot live a life with empathy: “‘I have no heart, you know, so I am careful to help all those who may need a friend, even if it happens to be only a mouse’” (Baum 53). Clearly, he can empathize, as he stops to save every mouse or bug along the way. But the Tin Man requires the physical heart to prove his loving capacity to himself. He doubts himself through the entire journey to Oz, scrambling to prove he doesn’t have the heart to feel emotion. However, only his internal struggle to not feel is getting in the way of his emotional well being. After having his heart stolen by the Wicked Witch of the West, the Tin Man hides his sadness by claiming an inability to empathize and love. Only when the Wizard gives him a physical heart—a fake heart—does the Tin Man identify his emotions for their value.  

The Tin Man’s hopelessness is captured in the Avett Brothers song “Tin Man.” The singers lament their inability to feel, comparing themselves to the Tin Man, using this Tin Man status to mask their feelings. Rather than sharing their thoughts they mask themselves in a fog of indifference, because American culture values the strong, emotionless man: “So it goes a man grows cold, some would say a man grows strong” (Avett). The singers’ voices crack despite the cheerful melody of the song. Only once in the song, during the bridge, do the Avett Brothers sound sincere in their music. An acoustic guitar is the only instrument used to accompany their singing, reflecting the genuine emotion they feel, as they say “I miss that feeling of feeling…the wind upon my face, and caring what it brings this way” (Avett). But soon after, they return to the false cheer of the melody. Just as the Tin Man regrets wallowing in his sadness to the point of desolation, the Avett Brothers want to return to “caring what if brings this way” (Avett).

Rather than taking the shell-of-a-man route that the Avett Brothers used, Marj Hahne depicts the Tin Man as melodramatic in her poem Dorothy Gale, in which Dorothy criticizes him because he “cried too damn much” (Hahne). The Tin Man got his wish and more, to the extent that his emotions hinder his quest for love rather than cement it. By convincing himself that he should have strong emotions, the Tin Man overdoes himself and over-dramatizes the emotion he assumes he should have. Hahne hints that these emotions were perhaps acted or forced by emphasizing that “his gestures were too mechanical,” iterating the Tin Man’s plagued love life (Hahne). He could gain this description because of his tin exterior, but “too mechanical” also implies that his movements were not genuine. Whether he uses stoicism as a safety net or gushes out his heart, the Tin Man cannot find love in any adaptation.

According to most critics, in Baum’s original story the Tin Man character represents the industrial worker during the Industrial Revolution in the United States. The Tin Man shows that although their happiness and emotions have been buried under a layer of hardened soul due to working in harsh conditions, whether they believe it or not, all people have the capacity to love.

Throughout time, readers, viewers, and lovesick people use the Tin Man to lament their own love lives. Some view the Tin Man, with his so-called unfeeling heart, as having a free pass on heartache, even though he spends his life longing for his lost loved one. Baum reveals that the Tin Man has had the capacity to feel emotions just as well as anyone else, but the simple fact that he doesn’t believe he can bars him from love. All of these adaptations follow the same story—protecting one’s heart by pretending it has a malfunction, a deformity, never leads to the comfortable outcome the architect hopes for. Creators use the Tin Man as a lovelorn character who can’t quite get his way because he has thought himself into being unable to love. Unfortunately, the Tin Man may travel through time, but he does not age, so his flaw follows him throughout his life.

Readers take the Tin Man and turn him into themselves, whether to represent love or passion or anguish. The Tin Man finally recognizes and claims ownership of his pain once the Wizard of Oz shows him that he is capable of loving, if only because he is loved so dearly by his companions. Fascination surrounding the Tin Man throughout time stems from a shared battle over balancing pain and hiding from it. Hearts may seem to be hardened by difficult working lives, but the search for love lives on even in the most jaded of people. Ultimately, Baum teaches his readers that accepting misery and heartache validates the heart and its hardships, more so than masking pain and pushing it out of sight. “Now I know I’ve got a heart, because it is breaking” (Wizard).

Works Cited

Avett Brothers. “Tin Man.” I and Love and You. American Recordings, 2009. MP3.

Baum, L. Frank. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Lexington, KY: Amazon, 2015. Print

Hahne, Marj. “8 Works Inspired By The Wizard of Oz.” Laurie Boris. WordPress, 30 Nov. 2010.

Web. 25 Sept. 2015.

The Wizard of Oz. Dir. Victor Fleming. Perf. Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert

Lahr. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1939. Film.