The Wizard of Oz (Film) Literary Elements

Victor Fleming

Judy Garland, Margaret Hamilton, Ray Bolger

Jack Haley, Billie Burke, Bert Lahr

Musical, Fantasy

English

Academy Awards for Best Original Song and Best Original Score

August 25, 1939

Mervyn LeRoy

Kansas shot in black and white, with Oz shot in vivid Technicolor as a stark contrast

The story is filtered through Dorothy's point of view so that her fantasy in Oz can become a coming of age story in which she learns to appreciate what she has at home.

The mood changes throughout film, often keyed by the mood of a song sung by the characters. "Over the Rainbow" creates a wistful mood of longing for something more exciting mixed with the sadness of believing it will never come along. The mood takes a sharp tonal left turn in the sequence where Dorothy meets the Munchkins before again turning on a dime with the horrifying arrival of the Witch of the West. These sudden shifts in mood create tonal dissonance, and reflect the often confused state of adolescence, especially when confronted with new experiences.

Protagonist: Dorothy. Antagonist: Miss Gulch/The Wicked Witch of the West

The major conflict is between Miss Gulch and Dorothy at the beginning: Miss Gulch wants to have Toto, Dorothy's dog and best friend, killed. Later, the main conflict is the fact that Dorothy finds herself in Oz with no idea how to return home.

The climax occurs when Dorothy unintentionally kills the Wicked Witch of the West with water.

The farmhand Hunk reminds Dorothy that she needs to be smarter when it comes to dealing with Miss Gulch by suggesting that her head isn't made of straw, foreshadowing his transformation into the Scarecrow. Hickory's assertion that he will one day inspire townsfolk to erect a statue of him foreshadows the Tin Man's first appearance locked by rust and disuse into the same statuesque pose. Zeke's fear of the pigs foreshadows the Cowardliness of the Lion.

One of the all-time classic examples of understatement in movie history: "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas, anymore."

There is no getting around it: the tornado in The Wizard of Oz, produced in 1939, is still the most realistic and terrifying cyclone in movie history. The switch from black-and-white to Technicolor was another innovation.

Depending upon whom you ask, The Wizard of Oz is nothing BUT an unending allusion to one thing or another. Some say the Yellow Brick Road is a reference to the Gold Standard. Some say the Scarecrow body that doesn't hold together very well makes him a personification of the Straw Man fallacy in rhetorical argument. The list goes on.

Many characters parallel one another in the film, as detailed elsewhere in this guide: Hunk and the Scarecrow, Hickory and the Tin Man, Zeke and the Lion, Miss Gulch and the Wicked Witch of the West, Professor Marvel and the Wizard of Oz.