The Wizard of Oz - Book Report/Review Example

Narrative Report on the Wizard of Oz (1939) Story and Plot. The two terms “story” and “plot” can both be used to describe the way that a book or a film, or any kind of narrative text, moves along through a sequence from the beginning, through the middle and finally to the end. The story, is used to talk about the thrust of the whole work, in its entirety, and what it means to the characters within it, as well as how it is received in the world outside the book or film. In The Wizard of Oz, for example, the story is about what happens after a tornado arrives and catches a little girl unawares. All that happens to her after this moment is the story, that is to say a great adventure that she moves through while following the yellow brick road. It has significance as a unit, and a thread can be traced all the way along. Plot, on the other hand, is an item that occurs within that story. So for example, there are twists and turns in the story caused by these episodes, or plots, that crop up. They are each of lesser importance in themselves, but they all contribute to the work as a whole, creating interest and sometimes also contrast. The plot element of the balloon scene is an example of a little excursus from the main story and some of the places that Dorothy visits are also branches of sub plot . The scene where the wizard tells Dorothy to find the broom is an example of a new plot being inserted into the story and this, too, diverts her from her main goal of returning to Kansas for a while. It motivates her to take a certain course of action and increases an element of danger because she has to encounter the wicked witch. Opening and Closing Scenes. The film begins with Dorothy out walking with her dog when suddenly a tornado arrives and all the Kansas characters are depicted rushing to find shelter. This dramatic start creates suspense, because Dorothy runs here and there, flinging her arms out and wrestling with items in her desperation to find a safe spot. The whole scene is filmed in black and white, and it shows a rather plain and drab country atmosphere with chickens and horses. There is some cartoon-like camera work when Dorothy gets hit on the head and lies down in bed watching figure pass by through the window, as if being whirled up in the tornado. Finally the camera pulls right away and there is an image of the house spiralling up and away. Suspense is created at this point because the viewer wants to know what happens to Dorothy and Toto. In the final scene there is a repetition of the spiralling house but this time it spins downwards, in reversal of the opening sequence. Dorothy is back in the same bed, and her family and friends appear again. The camera homes in on Dorothy who has a cloth on her head, and this along with the return to black and white signifies the colorful part of the film has all been a dream. The opening and closing scenes work like bookends containing the fantastical story of the visit to the land of Oz. When Dorothy looks at the fortune teller, it is clear that she is thinking of the Wizard, and similarly her three friends in Kansas recall the scarecrow, the tin man and the lion. These characters now have an entirely different meaning for Dorothy than they had at the start. She attaches new emotions to them, and feels a closer bond with them. One tactic that is used to show how Dorothy is the same girl, and yet somehow transformed by her experiences in Oz, is the way the actress Judy Garland is made to look very young and girlish at the start when she is on the road walking, then at the point when she is about to return to Kansas, her hairstyle and makeup are made to look very grownup and similar to the face of the white witch. The camera zooms in to the two faces, the blond witch and the dark haired Dorothy as they say “There is no place like home”. When the film then turns to black and white, Dorothy is depicted as a dependent child again, and her protestations that she has been to a real place appear to be childish fantasies. This switching from one aspect to another aspect of her character at the end of the film is perhaps a way of emphasizing one of its main messages, namely that adolescents turn into adults through an erratic process, and often revert back into childish ways. They are neither fully child nor fully adult, but something magical in between the two. Range and Depth of Information The film The Wizard of Oz is very interesting in terms of the range and depth of information that it provides at different points. At the very beginning it seems that it is going to be a straightforward narrative about Dorothy, presenting things through her eyes, and to a large extent this remains true. There are moments, however, when the viewer sees things that Dorothy does not see, or cannot understand. So, for example, when the Kansas local characters are spinning round the house in the opening scene, Dorothy waves to them, and Toto barks, but the viewer knows that this is not really a very likely or realistic occurrence. This impression is strengthened when Miss Gulch rides by on her cycle, and suddenly turns into a witch on a broomstick. Dorothy does not see this, however, because she is lying on the bed, face down, with her eyes hidden by her arm. What this means is that the director is making a link in the viewer’s mind between the characters in Oz and the characters in Kansas, suggesting that Oz is a kind of parallel universe, in which Dorothy will encounter her familiar friends in another guise. The viewer has the key to another layer of meaning that Dorothy, in the beginning at least, does not have access to. Causality. The most obvious example of causality in the film is the arrival of the twister at the start which causes Dorothy to be injured and takes her to the magical land of Oz. On another level, however, it could be said that the tornado is only a device to introduce exciting and colourful events to a very ordinary girl. It is classic fairy tale material, where an everyday situation is transformed into something from another, non-realistic dimension. Bordwell and Thompson define narrative as “a chain of events in cause-effect relationship occurring in time and space” (p. 69). By introducing an entirely new time and place, quite separate from the post-depression drudgery of Kansas, the film opens up a whole set of new opportunities for the girl to discover more about life and herself. By setting off on a journey down the impossibly yellow brick road, Dorothy sets off a chain reaction of events. The scarecrow raises a thematic point about the importance of thinking and education in life, and he sets up a journey for himself that is attached to the Dorothy’s mission. His innocent unknowingness matches Dorothy’s at this point, and he provides motivation for her to join him in seeking enlightenment. When the tin man comes along next, and it emerges that he is also lacking in some fundamental human quality, this causes the story to adopt another dimension, that of a search for emotional maturity rather than intellectual maturity. Finally, when the lion confesses that he lacks courage, this sets up a plot requirement to provide a test of courage so that he, and Dorothy too, can demonstrate that they have acquired this quality as well. The three compansions can be seen as personifications of the goals that Dorothy really seeks. They all set up an expectation that their needs should be fulfilled and their friendship provides the means to do this. If it was not for them, Dorothy would not do what she does, nor understand what it means. They drive the story along to its conclusion. One little scene-stealer in the film is the dog Toto, who most often is depicted barking madly at the antics of the munchkins or the dancers and singers in the musical interludes, or alternatively clutched to Dorothy’s bosom in scenes of high drama. As a character he does not develop, and he represents a childish cuteness and ignorance, which is in contrast to Dorothy’s ability to make decisions and follow the cues she is given to reach the end of the road and find herself back in Kansas. References Bordwell, David and Thompson, Kristin. Film Art: An Introduction. 7th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004. Fleming, Victor (director) The Wizard of Oz with Judy Garland. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1939. Read More