Over the decades, The Wizard of Oz has been seen by many Christians (and used often in sermons - see here for one example) as an allegory of faith. This theory, first put forth in the sixties by a high-school teacher named Henry Littlefield (whose original essay you can read here), has since been debunked, yet still maintains a hold over many. The green of the Emerald City represents the dollar.) The Wicked Witch of the East represents bankers, and the Wicked Witch of the West - who, remember, gets killed by water - is drought. (“Oz” itself is the abbreviation for ounce, which is the standard for measuring gold. They travel along the Yellow Brick Road (the gold standard) to see the Wizard, who could represent President Grover Cleveland or William McKinley. In this scenario, Dorothy represents the common citizen, the Tin Man is the industrial worker, the Scarecrow is a stand-in for farmers, and the Cowardly Lion is politician William Jennings Bryan (seen by many at the time as being all talk and no action). This popular and well-documented reading sees The Wizard of Oz as being about the collapse of the Populist Movement in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century.

Here are seven of the most notable ones:Ī Parable on Populism (and American Monetary Policy) Some of these have been overtly political, some have been spiritual, some, um, monetary. (Here’s a guess: No.) But one thing’s for sure: Over the years, both book and movie have fueled a number of elaborate theories as to the story’s deeper meanings.

We’ll have to wait and see if Sam Raimi’s Oz the Great and Powerful manages to become as iconic and enduring a part of our collective pop-cultural subconscious as the original 1939 Wizard of Oz movie and L.

Wizard of oz stage play script