Content Category
Literary Criticism
Abstract/Description
L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" demonstrates the deeper motivations behind his editorials on the treatment of Native Americans in the 19th century. Specifically, the principal kingdoms and rulers of the novel mistreat and endanger their constituents in the same way that 19th-century governments marginalized and oppressed the scarcest and weakest of their country's denizens. The Winged Monkeys of Oz exhibit the characteristics of a society of "noble savages," words Baum used to lament and encourage the extermination of the Native Americans, amid heated cultural concerns about the safety of white settlers after the Wounded Knee Massacre. The legislation of Indian Removal, disturbing a society with certain undeniable Utopian characteristics, informed and inspired several nuances in Baum's novel.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Location
4116 JFSB
Start Date
19-3-2015 11:30 AM
End Date
19-3-2015 1:00 PM
Pay No Attention to That Man: Government Crimes in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
4116 JFSB
L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" demonstrates the deeper motivations behind his editorials on the treatment of Native Americans in the 19th century. Specifically, the principal kingdoms and rulers of the novel mistreat and endanger their constituents in the same way that 19th-century governments marginalized and oppressed the scarcest and weakest of their country's denizens. The Winged Monkeys of Oz exhibit the characteristics of a society of "noble savages," words Baum used to lament and encourage the extermination of the Native Americans, amid heated cultural concerns about the safety of white settlers after the Wounded Knee Massacre. The legislation of Indian Removal, disturbing a society with certain undeniable Utopian characteristics, informed and inspired several nuances in Baum's novel.
