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THE WIZARD OF OZ | |||||||||||||||||
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The Scarecrow | |||||||||||||||||
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According to Henry Littlefield, the Scarecrow represents Midwestern farmers.
[1] In the character of the Scarecrow, Baum may have been responding to the attitude expressed in an 1896 editorial in the Emporia Gazette by William Allen White entitled "What's the Matter with Kansas?". In it, White claimed that Kansas had lost population and money, even though the rest of the country was growing and becoming richer. White stated sarcastically, "Oh, this is a state to be proud of! We are a people who can hold up our heads! What we need is not more money, but less capital, fewer white shirts and brains, fewer men with business judgment...."
[2] White was opposed to the Populists and the editorial he wrote was embraced by Republicans. The Scarecrow, like all of the characters in the Baum's story, possesses the virtues that he doubts. In this way Baum was refuting the notion that farmers didn't have the brains to see their own best interests. Despite the scarecrow's doubts about his own intelligence, he proves to be the most clever and resourceful of the group. In the end of Baum's book, the Scarecrow is left in charge of Oz.
Most of the analysts who have offered their own interpretations of the political symbolism of The Wizard of Oz agree with Littlefield about the symbolism of the Scarecrow. Those who see The Wizard of Oz in spiritual terms see the scarecrow as representing the tension between knowledge and wisdom. According to Joey Green, the scarecrow craves higher consciousness. [3] | |||||||||||||||||
| Notes | ||
| 1. | Henry Littlefield, "The Wizard of Oz: Parable on Populism," American Quarterly 16 (Spring, 1964), p. 52. The full text of this article is also online at www.amphigory.com/oz.htm. | |
| 2. | William Allen White, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" The Emporia Gazette, 1896. | |
| 3. | Joey Green, The Zen of Oz: Ten Spiritual Lessons from Over the Rainbow (Los Angeles: Renaissance Books, 1998). | |
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