The Men Behind the Curtain

       Please... Pay Attention to the Men Behind the Curtain!

Look past the four main characters in the 1939 cinema classic, The Wizard of Oz, and you'll uncover a whole lot of subtext. Take this little exchange from an early scene in the film, between Uncle Henry and miss Gulch.

Miss Gulch :  Mr. Gale, I want to see you and your wife right away about Dorothy!

Uncle Henry :  Dorothy? Well, what has Dorothy done?

Gulch :  What she's done? I'm all but lame from the bite on my leg!

Henry :  Oh! You mean she bit you?

Gulch :  No, her dog!

Henry :  Oh, she bit her dog, eh?

I'm not quite sure if Uncle Henry was messing with Miss Gulch, or just plain clueless.

It's one of my favorite scenes of the film. Here's this poor, hard working farmer, struggling to keep his farm afloat and trying to avoid conflict with a wealthy, busybody property owner.

I've always wanted to write a book that follows the story of what was going on in Oz while Dorothy was having her adventure. -- Think  Tom Stoppard's - "Rosencantz and Giuildenstern Are Dead"

I am convinced that Glinda is not as "Good" as she pretends to be.  I believe she and the Wizard had been conspiring to rid Oz of both of the "Wicked" witches long before Dorothy's unfortunate crash landing. In my warped mind, Glinda has had a dislike for the two “Wicked” sisters for longer than even she can remember. All she needed was an ally. The perfect ally came in the form of Professor Marvel, whom she undoubtedly mistook for a witch. -- Not far-fetched when you consider that, even after Dorothy explained that neither she nor her dog Toto was a witch, when asked for the direct root to the Emerald City, Glinda asked Dorothy if she remembered to bring her broom.

Clearly, Glinda was not paying attention.

I think Glina's mind was preoccupied.  I believe, when she saw the Wicked Witch of the East lying under a house, Glinda thought to herself, "One down, one to go!" -- Why else would she send Dorothy to Oz by way of the more scenic Yellow Brick Road instead of the more direct,  Red Brick Road? -- Everyone in Oz knows the Yellow Brick Road leads through The Haunted Forest and right along the property of the Wicked Witch of the West. It's one of the premier tourist attractions in Oz.

The other thing that makes me believe that Glinda isn't so nice: Giving Dorothy those shoes.

Glinda is a trouble maker. She interrupts a distraught Wicked Witch, who is trying to find out what the hell has happened to her sister with the antagonistic, "Aren't you forgetting the Ruby Slippers?"

Huh?

The Ruby Slippers magically appear on Dorothy's feet.
The Wicked Witch pleads for the tokens of her sister's memory.
The very defiant Glinda says, "There they are. And there they'll stay!"

Meanwhile, you can see Dorothy's terror. Clearly, she does not want to get involved.

Glinda further stirs the pot when she commands the Wicked Witch, "Be gone! Before somebody drops a house on you." Somewhat unsettled by this, the Wicked Witch takes her leave. But, not before threatening Dorothy and her dog Toto with bodily harm. Formulating a plan, Glinda says to Dorothy, "I'm afraid you've made a rather bad enemy of the Wicked Witch Of The West."

 You just know Dorothy is thinking,  "Wait.  What?  NO! I do not want to be part of this!"

This is where I think Glinda, upon sending Dorothy off on a wild goose chase, sets her plan in motion. In my warped mind, Glinda sets off in her bubble to the Emerald City in order to convince the Wizard to use Dorothy as a means to finally rid themselves of Wicked Witches. My reasoning comes from one single moment at the end of the film. A moment when you realize that Dorothy has been played. Glinda, with a big smile on her face, says to Dorothy, "You've always had the power to go back to Kansas."

Are you kidding me?!

I just wanted Dorothy to look Glinda straight in the eye and say, "I think I killed the wrong Witch!"
I wanted Dorothy to beat the living daylights out of Glinda. Or maybe look around for another bucket of water. If it worked for one witch, maybe it would work on another.

Now, during the course of the story, Dorothy is given several clues to Glinda's true nature. And, at each of these moments, Dorothy chose to ignore those hints. -- Perhaps she was just overwhelmed by all the colorful characters to notice what was really going on. Who can blame her. We Americans ignore what's truly important each and every day.

We Americans are so easily distracted by sound bites and clever phrases, that we allow a small group of extremists to hold our government hostage. We allow obscene amounts of money to influence the political process. Meanwhile, the average American family, like that fictional Kansas farmer trying to keep his farm, must struggle to make ends meet. The disconnect between our elected officials and the average American is shocking! Our law makers do as they please, and tell us, “Pay no attention to the men behind the curtain!”
 

I do know one thing. We must pay attention to the “Men Behind the Curtain” before it's too late. As a nation, we Americans must look past all the colorful characters vying for our attention, and see the real issues. If not, we're going to wind up missing our ride home, with some smart-ass pundit standing behind us saying, "You had the power to fix this all along."

But unlike Dorothy, there are no magic shoes. 

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    -- Just sayin'.


Updated from the original, which was posted on tumblr as "What Happens in Oz" June 10, 2011
Find it here -> http://adignorantium.tumblr.com/post/7461237956/what-happens-in-oz