Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz is a movie adapted from a childrens book written by Lyman Frank Baum. The movie is a colorful, musical telling a wonderful story. The story is about Dorothy a young girl living on the farm who gets brought to the land of Oz because of a tornado in her home state Kansas. While in Oz she finds herself in a world of trouble when a evil witch is after her and her ruby slippers! (which are actually silver-representing the silver standard). Dorothy meets some interesting characters whom she befriends, they all help her in her search to get home. The first person to help Dorothy is Glinda the good witch of the north. In the book and the movie Glinda represents liberalism, like the good ideas of the north such as freedom, equality, and democracy. Then the munchkins (who represent immigrant labor)praise Dorothy for freeing them of the evil Wicked witch of the East, (who represents industrialization,and corporations.) The unions of the Lullaby league and The Lollipop guild even sing an appreciation song to her. Then the munchkins all tell her to follow the yellow brick road,(which symbolizes the gold standard.) so that she can get to the wizard of oz and be sent home.
While following the yellow brick road, she meets a scarecrow, a Tin man, and a cowardly lion. She tells them each about her mission to get the wizard to send her home, they decide to come along hoping that the wizard can help them as well. The scarecrow is the average farmer, others think he is naive and dumb but in reality he always has the answers when Dorothy needs them. He is going to the wizard for a brain. The Tin man is like a factory worker who does the same thing everyday, he feels heartless because of mechanization. He is going to the wizard for a heart. The Lion wants courage, he represents William Jennings Bryan. Who talks a lot of stuff but can not deliver. He is your 6th grade presidential nominee, promising your class a water park, no homework, and school only on Mondays and Wednesdays.
They finally get to where the Wizard of Oz lives, the Emerald City. The Emerald City represents greenbacks (cash system of money). In the book you must wear glasses when you get to the city and are told to never take them off, but like any curious person Dorothy takes a peak and see's that the city is really silver. This represents the myth that the green backing system is the way, when really it should be on the silver standard.
In the end the Wizard ends up to be nothing more than a fake, from an area just like Kansas. He represents the president, he means something different to each person, like i mentioned with William Jennings Bryan, he makes promises but has no real power to make them. After Dorothy defeats the wicked witch of the west (she represents all that is bad about the west, such as the weather.) by throwing water on her. So after all of her obstacles, she is finally able to go home with her slippers. Turns out she held the power within her the entire time.