Buddhism consists of a belief in peace, unity, respect, and self-discovery through humility and honesty. Following these ideals creates a more knowledgeable and aware individual and society. L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz reflects on these themes of Buddhism through the use of allegorical settings to create a story about a young girl trying to find her way home.
The Wizard of Oz and Wicked are both very successful and well-known broadway musicals. Both of these musicals are based off of the same story, but each give a slightly different meaning to it. While they are both based on a similar tale, these two broadway musicals have many characteristics that are similar and differ from each other. This paper will compare and contrast the characters, theme, and plot.
Similarities have always been found in adventure stories, but it was not until 1949 when Joseph Campbell published his book The Hero With A Thousand Faces, when his idea of a monomyth was proposed. All thought it may not seem like it, many stories in society today follow the idea of a similar hero’s journey. This being the basic understanding of a monomyth, that all adventures roughly follow the same guidelines. The first stage being departure, the second; initiation, and the third being return. The original 1939 production of Wizard of Oz follows Campbell’s Heroic Cycle closely, with a clear departure, initiation and return of Dorothy and her beloved dog Toto.
It’s a scene engraved into the western world’s collective memory: a pigtailed girl in red slippers, skipping along a yellow brick road with a scarecrow, a tin man, and a lion. This image, from the book “The Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum and the 1939 film of the same name, represents the epic of the modern age. Whereas in ancient times, we had Gilgamesh or King Arthur as our gallant hero, now we have a little girl from a farm in Kansas. At first glance, this simple story of a young girl lost in a magic land could not compete with the great tales of old. However, this epic shares more than a few similarities with this seemingly childish
Racial Prejudice in WICKED: How is the theme of racial prejudice explored in Act One of the musical WICKED?
Frank Baum uses colors throughout the novel the Wonderful Wizard Of Oz. . Color play s a important role in the story l. Each color symbolizes a n object of wealth or emotion . The author wrote the book in the 1900’ s during the depression era, and the lack of money was the most talked about topic in the nation. Frank Baum managed to address this issue in his book with the use of symbolic imagery.
The Wicked Witches of Oz correspond to the major corporations during the election of 1896. The Wicked Witch of the East is the ruler of the eastern land of Oz. She is the equivalent to the real worlds banks. Because of her wickedness a house was dropped on her leaving “her two feet, still sticking out from under a block of wood.” (Baum). The comparison between her and the banks was that the banks would foreclose on the houses of lower class people. As a result of their harsh banking when the house would be returned to the banks it would be similar to a house being dropped on them.
After skimming through Volume 1 of The Norton Anthology Literature by Women, I noticed the reoccurring themes of patriarchy, women subordination, and the strength to be creative despite oppression. During the times that these literary pieces were written, women were constantly battling the patriarchy in order to get basic rights. During the earlier time periods, intelligence was seen as a sign of an evil spirit in a woman, resulting in miniscule amounts of literary works written by women. Women were not provided with equal spaces to creatively express themselves, as mentioned by Virginia Woolf. Moreover, they were not given the same publishing opportunities, many women either went anonymous or by a fake male name to have their works published. The women authors of these times used their frustration and anger as fuel in order to write powerful pieces
In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy was accompanied by a hunting group of companions on her journey to the Emerald City. Her companions consisted of Tin Man, Scarecrow, and Cowardly Lion, who were loyal and willing to face hardships and ordeals in order to stay together. All wanting seemingly unattainable things, they came along to meet the Wizard of Oz.
The book opens on the Yellow Brick Road. Dorothy and her friends are being watched by the Wicked Witch, and she thinks back on her life in Oz, how she wasn’t always so wicked as others think she is. “But surely the curse was on the land of Oz, not on her. Though Oz had given her a twisted life, hadn’t it also made her capable?”(page 4). It’s not Elphaba’s fault that she’s wicked, Oz had shaped her this way. From her childhood to her death,the sweet girl is morphed into a feared, powerful witch. Elphaba and the Witch are two completely different people. Throughout Wicked, Elphaba develops through the theme-- not to judge a book by its cover-- through the representation of the color green as evil, her views on religion, and the two people who
The characters in the movie, “The Wizard of Oz” are character foils to Dorothy, as they share personalities with Dorothy. The Scarecrow requests for the wizard to give him a brain because he is not smart. In the movie, the scarecrow believes that he is not smart, giving him the
The feminist theory is based on finding and exposing negative attitudes toward women in literature. Their goal is to reveal the reality of how women get portrayed in literature due to the fact that most literature presents an inaccurate view of women and are most of the time minimized. In the Catcher in the Rye there is a few female characters such as Sunny, the girls at the club, and Sally who are put in situations that show nothing but stereotypes and puts them in a bad spot throughout the novel. J.D Salinger decides to put some of the female characters in situations that can cause those who read this novel to think bad or leave readers with a bad image of women. This bad image on women is due to the fact that he decided to portray some of
Adventure stories are always interesting because they have unexpected twists and endings. They could also go places that are magical and full of fantasy. Authors can also take a huge variety of approaches to the story. In the passages “Peter Pan” and “Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz”, the authors take different approaches to adventure.
What is the role of women and crime? A majority of criminology theories do not heavily place women’s stance of crime and, as the emphasis of lawbreaking is focused mainly on men, Feminist theory of crime on the other hand attempts to justify crime and the part of women in society. In the book Criminology Goes to the Movies: Crime Theory and Popular Culture by Nicole Rafter explains crime using multiple alternatives of feminist theory to explain how women in society consider crime based on the societal role of women. in the movie Thelma and Louise, it portrays the struggle of women, as the men in their world overwhelming show their power keeping both the main characters Thelma and Louise under control exhibiting dominance over them. The conflict
Wicked is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz based on a book by Winnie Holzman. The musical is told from the perspective of the witches of the Land of Oz. Wicked celebrated its tenth anniversary on Broadway on 30 October 2013. It is the 9th longest-Broadway show, surpassing Beauty and the Beast. A typical performance runs for approximately two hours and thirty minutes. Wicked is famous for a long history, mighty messages and admirable songs.