Yellow brick road
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The road of yellow brick is an element in the novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, with additional such roads appearing in The Marvelous Land of Oz and The Patchwork Girl of Oz. The 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz based on the novel gave it the name by which it is better known, the yellow-brick road. In both novel and movie, it is the path which Dorothy is instructed to follow from Munchkin Country to the Emerald City in order to seek the aid of the Wizard of Oz.
In the second book, The Marvelous Land of Oz, Tip and Jack Pumpkinhead likewise follow a yellow-brick road to reach the Emerald City.[1]
In the book The Patchwork Girl of Oz it is revealed that there are two yellow brick roads from Munchkin Country to the Emerald City: according to the Shaggy Man, Dorothy Gale took the harder one in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.[2]
It is often a misconception that the yellow brick road leads to "Oz". In actuality the yellow brick road was already in Oz and led to the Emerald City. The movie adds to the confusion when the Scarecrow and Dorothy say, "To Oz?" "To Oz!" However, considering that the Wizard of Oz is located at the Emerald City (and refers to himself as "Oz, the great and powerful" in the movie), the misconception is understandable.
In the 1939 film, a red brick road is seen to originate at the same point as the yellow brick road in the center of Munchkinland, heading off in a different direction. Also, at the cornfield where Dorothy meets the Scarecrow, there is an intersection of yellow brick roads. Dorothy and Scarecrow decide which of the three branches to take, and eventually find themselves at the Emerald City.
In the 1985 semi-sequel Return to Oz, Dorothy finds the yellow brick road in ruins at the hands of the evil Gnome King.
[edit] Other uses
As "Oz" is also a nickname for Australia, phrases like "down the yellow brick road" are sometimes used to mean "in Australia".
There are also real yellow brick roads, such as the one in Hoboken, New Jersey (Castle Point Terrace) and Bellingham, Washington. Yellow brick was a relatively common building material for special projects in the nineteenth century, such as the original Metropolitan Opera House.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ L. Frank Baum, Michael Patrick Hearn, The Annotated Wizard of Oz, p 107, ISBN 0-517-500868
- ^ L. Frank Baum, Michael Patrick Hearn, The Annotated Wizard of Oz, p 107, ISBN 0-517-500868
- Dighe, Ranjit S. ed. The Historian's Wizard of Oz: Reading L. Frank Baum's Classic as a Political and Monetary Allegory (2002)
- Hearn, Michael Patrick (ed). (2000, 1973) The Annotated Wizard of Oz. W. W. Norton & Co. ISBN 0-393-04992-2
- Ritter, Gretchen. "Silver slippers and a golden cap: L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and historical memory in American politics." Journal of American Studies (August 1997) vol. 31, no. 2, 171-203. online at JSTOR
- Rockoff, Hugh. "The 'Wizard of Oz' as a Monetary Allegory," Journal of Political Economy 98 (1990): 739-60 online at JSTOR
