Down the Yellow Brick Road

Well I truly enjoyed Hugh Rockoff’s article “The Wizard of Oz as a Monetary Allegory” in which he explains an apparent reference to the gold standard in the classic book.  Rockoff does acknowledge that Frank Baum, the book’s author, never indicated this allegory in any way, so it could perhaps simply be a coincidence that some modern historians give too much credit to.  However, the argument that this allegory is intentional can be quite convincing, especially considering the seemingly blatant symbolism of metals in the story as pointed out by Rockoff.  The debate over the gold standard in the late 1800s was certainly foremost on many people’s minds and the notion that this quandary would influence the creation of one of the most popular children’s tales of all time is perhaps believable. 

 

Of all the remarkable imagery pointed out by this article in Oz I find especially intriguing the reference to the end of the “Yellow Brick Road.”  While Emerald City (Washington DC, according to Rockoff) lay at the end of the road in the story, it is ironic that indeed Washington did stand at the end of our nation’s yellow brick road, the gold standard.  As argued by Ahamed in Lords of Finance the reliance on the gold standard set the stage for the Great Depression.  At the end of this road was truly found Washington’s increased activity in the economy.  The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was written several decades before the depression, yet it eerily seems to point to the end of the Yellow Brick Road.  Certainly Baum did not see this result by the time of writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, but perhaps it could be argued that he sensed increased federal involvement as the outcome of the gold standard debate.

 

Rockoff’s analysis of the characters in the tale certainly can fit their projected references, but again, whether or not this was indeed the intention of the author may never be known.  However, going along with the proposed allegory I found the Tin Man especially interesting.  The working class, becoming part of the machine, certainly was a notion of that time as the United States industrialized.  This character I find especially convincing and even if the gold standard was not the true parable of the story, I can easily understand the reference of the Tin Man to the industrial working class that was a substantial American population at the time of the writing.

 

When reading all of these works I am amazed how financial matters throughout history tie together so intricately.  When studying the characters of Oz from this sort of allegoric perspective one could argue that the work is simply an analysis of the different economic classes in America at the time.  The farmers, the industrialized working class, etc…, all point to the different slices of the American population in the late 19^th Century.  So, whether an allegory of the gold standard debate or not, The Wizard of Oz was certainly a work reflective of the times.  Oh, and it is a great child’s story as well! 

 

Here is a link to an article that analyzes The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in a slightly boarder political sense-

 

http://www.usagold.com/gildedopinion/oz.html

Comments

[Lindsey Bestebreurtje]

I had heard these analogies about the Wizard of Oz before but the one which I had leanred slightly differently was that of the Tin Man. I had heard him likined to Industry/ Big Business itself rather than the working class laborers within industry. I thought that this analogy was a little more appropriate since the Tin Man has no heart. When I think of the souless corporation I think of the business itself not its employees. What do you think?

[Salvatore DeGennaro]

The "no heart" points to the owners of industry for sure, but the Tin Man becoming part of the machine seems to refer to the workers as well. I think it makes a great allegory for either one. The Tin Man is the most intriguing character in the allegory in my opinion.