The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

What's inside (8 sections)

1. The Munchkins and the silver shoes
2. Scarecrow and the cornfield
3. The Tin Woodman and the Lion
4. The Emerald City and the man behind the curtain
5. Water, caps, and fields of flowers
6. Glinda in the South and Kansas at last
7. Key takeaways
8. FAQ

I picked up The Wonderful Wizard of Oz because I realized I knew the movie images so well that I had never actually read the book. I expected a short march down a road to a city and a quick reveal behind a curtain. What I found was stranger and kinder and odder in the details. The edition I read follows the first publication in 1900 by Geo. M. Hill Co., 259 pages, ISBN 9780689817519, book one in the Oz series. It reads fast, but it stays with you because Baum keeps adding small inventions on almost every page.

Dorothy Gale lives on a Kansas prairie with Uncle Henry and Aunt Em and her little black dog Toto. Baum opens with gray. The house is gray. The ground is gray. The sky is gray where it meets the prairie. Henry and Em are worn down by work and by wind and by sun. Dorothy is the only bright thing in that house, and Toto is the other. Toto makes her laugh and keeps her from turning gray inside, as Baum puts it in his own way. That opening is short, maybe ten pages, but it matters. When the cyclone comes, you understand why Dorothy will spend the whole book trying to get back to a place that did not sound fun at all. It was home. The people there loved her in a quiet way.

The cyclone scene still works. Henry sees it coming and runs for the storm cellar. Em calls to Dorothy from the door. Dorothy chases Toto across the floor when he gets scared and hides under the bed, and by the time she grabs him the house is already lifting. Baum does not stretch the fear. He says the house spun around and rose. Dorothy feels as if she is riding up in a balloon. Then she gets sleepy from the rocking and lies down on her bed with Toto and falls asleep. I liked that. A lot of writers would add screaming and prayers. Baum lets a child fall asleep during the impossible thing. When she wakes, the house has landed in a field of flowers and fruit trees and strange birds, and the light is soft and rich after all that gray.

The Munchkins and the silver shoes

The house lands on the Wicked Witch of the East and kills her. That is blunt, and Baum does not soften it. The Munchkins come out to look, short people dressed in blue with tall hats, and they are afraid to speak at first. Their friend Boq, who is older and kinder than the rest, explains that Dorothy must be a sorceress because only a sorceress could have dropped a house from the sky and freed them. Dorothy says she is not a witch at all. She is just a girl from Kansas who wants to go home.

Then the Good Witch of the North arrives, an old woman in white with a kind face. She tells Dorothy that there are four witches in Oz, two good and two wicked, and that Dorothy has already ended one of the wicked ones. She gives Dorothy the silver shoes that belonged to the dead witch. In the famous film they are ruby, but in the book they are silver shoes, and they have power that Dorothy does not yet understand. The Good Witch of the North kisses Dorothy on the forehead, leaving a round shining mark that will protect her, and points east toward the yellow brick road and the Emerald City. If anyone can send her home, she says, it is the Great Oz who lives there.

I love how practical this part feels. No prophecy about saving the world. No chosen one speech. Just a lost child asking for directions, and older people giving her shoes and a kiss and a road. Dorothy puts bread in a basket, changes into a checked dress, puts on the silver shoes, and starts walking with Toto trotting beside her.

The road itself is a pleasure to read about. It is made of yellow brick, smooth and well kept at first, with blue fences and blue houses for the Munchkins. Dorothy sleeps in a Munchkin house where the bed is large and soft and the people leave food for her. She walks for days. Baum tells you what she eats, where she sleeps, when her feet hurt. That steady travel rhythm becomes the shape of the whole book. Walk, meet someone, hear a story, help, keep going.

Scarecrow and the cornfield

The first friend is the Scarecrow. Dorothy finds him stuck on a pole in a cornfield, stuffed with straw, with a painted face and ears made to hear. He asks her to lift him down. She does. He wobbles when he walks at first because his straw feet catch in cracks in the bricks. He tells her he has no brains and thinks that is a terrible lack. He has only straw inside his head, and he believes that means he cannot think well.

What I enjoyed is that the Scarecrow is actually sharp from the start. He remembers the road. He suggests carrying Toto when Dorothy gets tired. He plans how to cross ditches. He keeps saying he needs brains from Oz, and Dorothy kindly agrees that Oz can probably give him some, but the reader can see he already reasons. Baum is not subtle about this, and I did not mind. It feels like a story for reading aloud, where a child can spot the joke before the character does.

Their first night together sets the tone for friendship in this book. Dorothy sleeps in a farmhouse with kind people. The Scarecrow stands in a corner and watches because he never sleeps. He tells her stories about crows who are afraid of him. It is gentle. There is no teasing about his painted smile. Dorothy treats him as a person right away, and he returns the loyalty at once.

The second day brings a ditch and a worry about getting across, and the Scarecrow proves useful by thinking of a way to leap with help. Small problems like that fill the book. Baum likes puzzles with simple tools. How do you cross a gap. How do you lift a heavy thing. The Scarecrow often has the answer, then apologizes for having only straw for brains.

The Tin Woodman and the Lion

In the forest they hear groans and find a man made of tin standing with an axe raised, rusted solid. This is Nick Chopper, the Tin Woodman, though Baum first presents him simply as a tin man. Dorothy oils his joints with an oil can from his cottage, starting at the neck and working down to the knees and ankles. When his jaw loosens, his first words are thanks. Then he tells his story, and it is sadder than I remembered.

He was once flesh, a woodcutter in love with a Munchkin girl. The Wicked Witch of the East enchanted his axe so that it cut off parts of him, piece by piece, and a tinsmith replaced each lost part with tin until nothing human was left. Worse, he says, the tinsmith forgot to give him a heart, so he cannot love his girl anymore. He wants Oz to give him a heart. Dorothy invites him along, and he joins with his axe on his shoulder, crying tin tears that Dorothy has to wipe so he does not rust again.

I found these chapters moving without being heavy. Baum writes the Woodman as polite and careful. He will not step on a beetle because he has no heart and fears being cruel. He kills a wildcat to save a field mouse, then weeps because he has taken a life. That mix of strength and sorrow makes him feel real. He is the one who sobs loudest when Dorothy is in danger later, which tells you what kind of heart he already has.

Then comes the Lion. He bounds out and scares Toto and tries to frighten Dorothy. She slaps his nose for chasing her dog, which is a bold move for a small girl facing a lion. He admits at once that he is a coward. He has a loud roar and sharp teeth, but his heart pounds whenever danger comes. He wants courage from Oz. Dorothy invites him too. Now the party is four seekers plus a small dog, each sure something is missing.

Their walk together is my favorite stretch. They cross a wide ditch on the Lion's back. They cross a river on a raft made from planks. They pass through a dark forest and a field of scarlet poppies that put Dorothy and Toto and the Lion to sleep with their scent. The Scarecrow and the Woodman, who do not breathe, carry the sleepers out. The field mouse queen, saved earlier from the wildcat, sends her people to help pull the Lion out on a cart made of wood. It is all very literal and visual, like a camping trip with magic supplies. Baum never hurries these scenes. He lets you feel the weight of the Lion and the scratch of straw.

One fair criticism belongs here. Dorothy herself does little solving in these chapters. She walks, she eats, she sleeps, she comforts. The men around her do the lifting and planning. Some modern readers will feel she is too passive for a main character. I felt that too at times. What saved her for me was her steadiness. She never mocks her friends. She never gives up on getting home. She shares food. She keeps walking. Passive is not quite right. She holds the group together by care more than by cleverness.

The Emerald City and the man behind the curtain

The Emerald City is beautiful in the book in a way the films only partly capture. Everything is green, from marble to fences to the skins of corn. The Guardian of the Gates puts green spectacles on each traveler and locks them on, saying the brightness of the city would blind them otherwise. Whether the city is truly that green or only looks green through locked glasses is left for the reader to wonder about. I liked that touch. It makes you question Oz long before Dorothy does.

Oz receives them one by one, in different forms. To Dorothy he is a huge Head with no body. To the Scarecrow he is a lovely Lady. To the Woodman he is a terrible Beast. To the Lion he is a Ball of Fire. Each form speaks in a strong voice and promises help only if they kill the Wicked Witch of the West. Dorothy cries at this. She did not come to kill anyone. She only wants to go home. But her friends have set their hopes on Oz, so she agrees to try.

This middle bargain annoyed me a little on this reread. Oz asks children and straw men to do what he has not done himself. He rules a city and claims great power, yet he sends others west. It is easy to see why some readers find him selfish here. On the other hand, the story needs a quest, and Baum is honest about fear. The Lion trembles. The Woodman weeps. Even the Scarecrow feels shaky in his straw. They go anyway because they promised Dorothy.

The way to the West is darker. No yellow bricks. Rough roads. No houses to welcome them. Baum writes the Winkie country as yellow in color, just as Munchkin land was blue and the Emerald City is green. The Wicked Witch of the West sees them coming with her single sharp eye and sends wolves, then crows, then bees. The Woodman chops the wolves. The Scarecrow breaks the necks of the crows and hangs them on his own straw until he looks like a tree with black fruit. The bees die on the Woodman's tin because they cannot sting metal, though they break their stings trying. Those fights are quick and a bit grim, but Baum does not linger on pain.

Then the Witch uses the Golden Cap to call the Winged Monkeys. They come with whirring wings and clever hands. They tear the Scarecrow apart and throw his clothes into a tree. They dent and drop the Woodman on rocks. They tie the Lion with rope and carry him to the castle. They spare Dorothy because of the kiss mark on her forehead and because of the silver shoes. That sparing feels important. Protection in this book comes from kindness given earlier, not from strength.

Water, caps, and fields of flowers

Dorothy becomes a servant in the castle of the West. She scrubs and cooks and carries, while the Witch watches her shoes. The Witch wants the silver shoes because she knows they hold power. She tricks Dorothy into tripping and grabs one shoe. Dorothy, angry and tired, throws a bucket of water at her. The Witch melts. Baum writes it plainly. She was made of something that cannot stand water, and she dissolves into a brown mass that Dorothy mops up. No long duel. No spell words. Just water on a wicked thing.

I remember finding this abrupt as a child. I still find it abrupt, but now I see the point. Dorothy does not win by learning magic. She wins by doing housework in anger. It fits a book where bread and oil cans matter more than wands. After the melting, the Winkies are glad to be free. They repair the Woodman with gold and mend his joints. They restuff the Scarecrow with fresh straw. They feed the Lion. They give Dorothy the Golden Cap, which commands the Winged Monkeys three times for whoever owns it.

The return should be happy, and partly it is. The Monkeys carry Dorothy and her friends over the rocky hills to the Emerald City. But Oz stalls. He puts them off day after day. Toto finally chases a cat in the throne room and knocks over a screen, and behind it stands a little old man from Kansas with a bald head and a wrinkled face. He admits he is not a wizard at all. He came to Oz in a balloon long ago and stayed because people believed his tricks. The forms were masks. The voice was his own made loud. The fire was paper soaked in oil.

Some readers feel cheated here, and I understand that. The great hope turns out to be an ordinary man. What redeems the scene for me is what he does next. He cannot give real brains or a real heart or real courage, but he gives symbols that work because the three friends already have those traits. He puts bran mixed with pins and needles inside the Scarecrow's head and calls it brains. He puts a silk heart stuffed with sawdust inside the Woodman's chest and calls it a heart. He gives the Lion a green drink and calls it courage, and the Lion drinks and feels bold. It is humbug, yet the friends walk taller. Baum seems to say that belief and practice can finish what nature started. I found that sweet rather than cynical, though I wished Dorothy called him out more sharply for the delay.

Dorothy asks how she will get home. Oz says he will go with her in a new balloon. On the day of departure, Toto runs after a kitten, Dorothy runs after Toto, and the balloon lifts without her. That missed flight hurt to read. Baum lets luck go wrong in a very human way. A small dog chasing a small cat costs Dorothy her ride. Oz floats away, and the people choose the Scarecrow to rule the city in his place, which feels right. He has been thinking for others the whole trip.

Glinda in the South and Kansas at last

With Oz gone, the party calls the Winged Monkeys again. They learn the Monkeys cannot cross the desert around Oz, so Dorothy must walk south to Glinda, the Good Witch of the South. This last march is the part many summaries rush, but I liked its patience. The travelers climb a hill of china people who fear being broken. They pass through a forest where the Lion kills a spider that has been tormenting animals, and the animals make him king. The Woodman rules over the Winkies by request. The Scarecrow rules the Emerald City. Each friend finds a home by helping, which answers their wishes in a roundabout way.

Glinda's palace is red and set among flowers. She is young and beautiful with red hair and blue eyes, and she welcomes Dorothy with warmth. Dorothy explains about the silver shoes and the Golden Cap. Glinda tells her the shoes could have taken her home at any time if she had known how to use them. Three steps and a heel click, and the shoes carry the wearer where she wishes. Dorothy gives the Golden Cap to Glinda so the Monkeys will not be bothered again, which is a kind closing gesture. Then she says goodbye to her friends with many tears. The Woodman sobs loudest. The Lion rubs his head against her hand. The Scarecrow holds her close with soft straw arms.

The ending in Kansas is quiet. Dorothy clicks her heels, whirls through the air, and lands on the prairie. The silver shoes fall off on the way and are lost in the desert, so she cannot use them again. She runs to the farmhouse. Aunt Em hugs her. Uncle Henry smiles. Toto barks. The house is still small and gray, but Dorothy is home. Baum ends with Em asking where she came from, and Dorothy answering from the Land of Oz and saying she is so glad to be home again.

What stays with me is how gentle the morals are. The Scarecrow thinks he is foolish and proves wise. The Woodman thinks he is hollow and proves tender. The Lion thinks he is fearful and proves brave when his friends need him. Dorothy thinks she needs a wizard and learns she had the means in her shoes once she knew how to ask. None of this is pushed hard. Baum lets the road teach it.

Fair criticism matters here too. The book is episodic to a fault. Each region brings a new danger that is solved and left behind. The china hill, the fighting trees, the poppies, all pass quickly. Characters met on the road rarely return. The prose is plain and sometimes repeats. Dorothy is described as sweet and brave many times without much change in her. The Witch of the West gets little backstory. Oz himself is thin as a person until the reveal. Readers who want deep motives or a tight plot may feel the book drifts.

I did not mind the drift much because the images are strong and the kindness is steady. The oil can, the green glasses, the Golden Cap, the kiss on the forehead, the shoes lost in sand, all feel like things a child would remember. The book trusts that home is worth a long walk and that friends are worth helping even when you are tired. That trust carries the thin parts.

Facts held steady for this post: first published in 1900 by Geo. M. Hill Co. in Chicago, 259 pages in the cited edition, ISBN 9780689817519, author L. Frank Baum, series Oz book one. The summary above follows that text and keeps its names and order aligned with the silver shoes and the Golden Cap as in the original.

FAQ

When was The Wonderful Wizard of Oz published?

It was first published in 1900 by Geo. M. Hill Co., 259 pages in the cited edition, first in the Oz series.

Who are the main figures?

Dorothy Gale and Toto travel with the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion to meet Oz, then Glinda in the South.

How is the book different from the film?

Dorothy wears silver shoes in the book rather than ruby, and the Golden Cap and the long walk south carry more weight.