《绿野仙踪》人物性格的自我矛盾性分析

《绿野仙踪》人物性格的自我矛盾性分析

Acknowledgements

I gratefully acknowledge all those people who have assisted me in the process of completing my graduation thesis. Without their help, this thesis would be impossible.

First and foremost, I am extremely grateful for my respected supervisor: Xu Lei, who has followed my toils with invariable kindness and patience, reading as well as correcting this dissertation at different stages of its conception, giving me advice instructive and constructive in addition to valuable encouragement.

I would also like to express my appreciation to other teachers in school of foreign studies, for their encouragements and suggestions in the opening defense of this paper which have given me much benefit in writing it.

Finally, my thanks go to my beloved classmates and my dearest parents, who in one way or another have given me help and encouragement during my work on this thesis.

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ANALYSIS OF SELF-CONTRADICTIONARY CHARACTERS IN THE WIZARD OF OZ

Abstract

The Wizard of Oz is a wonderful fairy tale which is also suitable for adults to

read. It tells a story about a girl named Dorothy Gale after being swept away from her Kansas farm home in a tornado to the country of Oz finds the way to return home. She encounters and befriends the Scarecrow who wants a brain, the Tin Woodman who wants a heart,and the Cowardly Lion who wants some courage,to find the wizard of Oz together. The story discusses the theme of self-contradiction. These three characters embody the classical human virtues of intelligence, caring, and courage, but their self-doubts keep them from being reduced to mere symbols of these qualities. They don’t lack them at all, and what they really need is actually sufficent self-confidence and right self-recognition. Those characters stand for different kinds of us, so it deserves our serious study to know us better, encourage us to trust ourselves firmly, recognise us rightly and depend on our own power to get what we want for better life and more cheerful struggle.

Key Words: self-confidence; self-recognition; self-contradiction

《绿野仙踪》人物性格的自我矛盾性分析

摘要

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《绿野仙踪》是适合成人阅读的童话，它主要讲述了一个女孩多萝西在被龙卷风带到神奇的奥兹国后，努力寻找回家之路的故事。一路上她遇到了稻草人、铁皮伐木工和胆小的狮子。它们分别想要获得大脑、心和勇气，并和想要回家的多萝西一起踏上了寻找奥兹国的巫师的奇妙旅程。但是事实上，他们所要寻找的东西他们都已经拥有了，只是自己没有意识到而已。这部童话告诉我们，我们每个人身上都有自我矛盾性，我们已经拥有我们想要的品性，而真正缺少的，其实是自信和正确的自我认知。生活中，我们每个人身上都有他们的影子，通过对这些人物性格的分析，可以让我们更好地了解自己，并鼓励我们做一个自信的人，真正去了解自己，相信自己，通过自己的力量获得我们想要的一切，更好地生活与奋斗。

关键词： 自信 自我认知 自我矛盾

Thesis Statement:

There are many good qualities in us which we may even never know at all, and no one except yourself can give you what you want.

Outline

《绿野仙踪》人物性格的自我矛盾性分析 ............................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................................................................... i Abstract ....................................................................................................................................................................................... ii The Wizard of Oz is a wonderful fairy tale which is also suitable for adults to read. It tells a story about a girl named Dorothy Gale after being swept away from her Kansas farm home in a tornado to the country of Oz finds the way to return home. She encounters and befriends the Scarecrow who wants a brain, the Tin Woodman who wants a heart,and the Cowardly Lion who wants some courage,to find the wizard of Oz together. The story discusses the theme of self-contradiction. These three characters embody the classical human virtues of intelligence, caring, and courage, but their self-doubts keep them from being reduced to mere symbols of these qualities. They don’t lack them at all, and what they really need is actually sufficent self-confidence and right self-recognition. ................................................................................................................................. ii Key Words ................................................................................................................................................................................... ii 摘要 ............................................................................................................................................................................................ ii 关键词 ....................................................................................................................................................................................... iii Outline........................................................................................................................................................................................ iii

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1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................................... 1

1.1 The Plot ......................................................................................................................... 2 1.2 The Author .................................................................................................................... 4

2.1 Dorothy: kind and strong-minded .................................................................................................................................... 6

2.2 The Scarecrow: resourced and calm ............................................................................ 10 2.3 The Cowardly Lion: brave and strong ......................................................................... 12 2.4 The Tin Woodman: sentimental and kind-hearted ....................................................... 14 2.5 The Wizard of Oz : tricky and ordinary ...................................................................... 16

3. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................................. 18 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................................................................. 19

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ANALYSIS OF SELF-CONTRADICTIONARY CHARACTERS IN THE WIZARD OF OZ1

1. Introduction

The Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by L.Frank Baum and illustrated

by W. W. Denslow. The story chronicles the adventures of a young girl named Dorothy Gale in the Land of Oz, after being swept away from her Kansas farm home in a tornado. She encounters and befriends the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion to find the wizard of Oz for different purposes together.The novel is one of the best-known stories in American popular culture and has been widely translated.

Baum explores the theme of self-contradiction in The Wizard of Oz. The Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion all lack self-confidence. The Scarecrow believes that he has no brains, though he comes up with clever solutions to several problems that they encounter on their journey. The Tin Woodman believes that he lacks a heart, but is moved to tears when misfortune befalls the various creatures they meet. The Cowardly Lion believes that he has no courage even though he is consistently brave through their journey. Carl L. Bankston III of Salem Press noted that \"These three characters embody the classical human virtues of intelligence, caring, and courage, but their self-doubts keep them from being reduced to mere symbols of these qualities.\"

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From those characters in it, we can learn that there are many good qualities in us which we may even never know at all, and no one except yourself can give you what you want.

1.1 The Plot

Dorothy is an orphan raised by her aunt and uncle in the bleak landscape of a Kansas farm and has a little black dog named Toto . One day the farmhouse, with Dorothy and Toto inside, is caught up in a cyclone and deposited in a field in Munchkin Country, and the falling house kills the evil ruler of the Munchkins, the Wicked Witch of the East.

The Good Witch of the North who comes with the Munchkins to greet Dorothy gives Dorothy the silver shoes (believed to have magical properties) that the Wicked Witch had been wearing when she was killed. In order to return to Kansas, the Good Witch of the North tells Dorothy that she will have to go to the \"Emerald City\"and ask the Wizard of Oz to help her.

On her way she meets a Scarecrow who needs a brain, a Tin Man who wants a heart, and a Cowardly Lion who desperately needs courage. They all hope the Wizard of Oz will help them. The party finds many adventures on their journey together, including overcoming obstacles such as narrow pieces of the yellow brick road, vicious Kalidahs, a river, and the Deadly Poppies.

Then travelers arrive at the Emerald City.When each traveler meets with the

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Wizard, he appears each time as someone or something different. To Dorothy, the Wizard is a giant head; the Scarecrow sees a beautiful woman; the Tin Woodman sees a terrible beast; the Cowardly Lion sees a ball of fire. The Wizard agrees to help each of them—but only if one of them kills the Wicked Witch of the West who rules over the western Winkie Country.

As the friends travel across the Winkie Country, the Wicked Witch sees them coming and attempts various ways of killing them, she used 40 great wolves, 40 crows, a swarm of bees and her Winkie soldiers to attack them, but all failed. At last, she summons the Winged Monkeys to capture Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion and Toto to her castle to do hard work.and to destroy the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman.

At the castle, when the Wicked Witch gains one of Dorothy's silver shoes by trickery, Dorothy in anger grabs a bucket of water and throws it on the Wicked Witch. To her shock, this causes the Witch to melt away. Dorothy, after finding and learning how to use the Golden Cap, summons the Winged Monkeys to carry her and her companions back to the Emerald City.

When Dorothy and her friends meet the Wizard of Oz again, he tries to put them off. Toto accidentally tips over a screen in a corner of the throne room, revealing the Wizard to be an ordinary old man who had journeyed to Oz from Omba long ago in a hot air balloon. The Wizard has been longing to return to his home and be in a circus again ever since.

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To convince the characters they have the qualities they desire, the Wizard places an amalgamation of bran, pins, and needles in the Scarecrow's head to inspire intellect; gives a silk heart to the Tin Woodman to inspire love; and a drink to the Cowardly Lion to inspire bravery.

Oz makes a hot balloon to take him and Dorothy home, but Dorothy chases Toto after he runs after a kitten in the crowd and misses the rising balloon. So she have to Glinda’s palace in the Quadling Country with her friends to ask for help. On the road, they escape the Fighting Trees, tread carefully through the China Country and The Cowardly Lion kills a giant spider who is terrorizing the animals in a forest .

At Glinda's palace, it is revealed by Glinda that Dorothy had the power to go home all along. The Silver Shoes she wears can take her anywhere she wishes to go. She tearfully embraces her friends, all of whom will be returned, through Glinda's use of the Golden Cap, to their respective kingdoms: the Scarecrow to the Emerald City, the Tin Woodman to the Winkie Country, and the Cowardly Lion to the forest. Then Dorothy knocks her heels together three times, and wishes to return home. When she opens her eyes, Dorothy and Toto have returned to Kansas to a joyful family reunion.

1.2 The Author

Lyman \"L.\" Frank Baum (May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919) was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He wrote

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thirteen novel sequels, nine other fantasy novels, and a host of other works (55 novels in total, plus four \"lost\" novels, 83 short stories, over 200 poems, an unknown number of scripts, and many miscellaneous writings), and made numerous attempts to bring his works to the stage and screen. His works anticipated such century-later commonplaces as television, augmented reality, laptop computers (The Master Key), wireless telephones (Tik-Tok of Oz), women in high risk, action-heavy occupations (Mary Louise in the Country), and the ubiquity of advertising on clothing (Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work).

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2. Character Analysis

2.1 Dorothy: kind and strong-minded

In the Oz books, Dorothy is an orphan raised by her aunt and uncle in the bleak landscape of a Kansas farm and has a little black dog named Toto. One day, Dorothy and Toto are swept away by a tornado to the Land of Oz and, much like Alice of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, they enter an alternative world filled with talking creatures. In the adevnture of returning home, we can find that she is a very kind and strong-mind girl.

Firstly, She is very kind, and willing to help those in trouble.

Even though whom her house falling down from the sky killed is the Wicked Witch of East, she also felt sad and cried,clasping her hands together in dismay:” Oh dear,! Oh dear! The house must have fallen on her,Whatever shall we do?” And

when Oz asked her to kill the Wicked Witch of the West ,she resisted it sadly.\"I never killed anything, willingly,\" she sobbed; \"and even if I wanted to, how could I kill the Wicked Witch? If you, who are Great and Terrible, cannot kill her yourself, how do you expect me to do it?\" Dorothy is undoubtedly responsible for killing both the Wicked Witch of the East and the Wicked Witch of the West. The former is killed by the cyclone dropping the farmhouse on her and the latter is killed by a bucket of water that melts her. Dorothy is dismayed that she is held responsible, even though she rid

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Oz of two evil sorceresses. True, she did not mean to kill either of them - both deaths were accidental. And the witches are unambiguously evil and have no redeeming qualities, and their deaths free the Munchkins and the Winkies from slavery, so within the world of Oz the deaths were victories. But Dorothy still felt sorry for their deaths, she is just a kind girl unwilling to kill anyone, even though the killing is a victory.

Besides, on her way to find the Wizard of Oz, she helped the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman get out of troubles. She lifed the Scarecrow off the pole stuck up his back to make him free and oiled the Tin Woodman’s rusty joints to release him. She shared their sorrows and worries, including the latter Crowdly Lion, telling them to ask Oz for help with her. Because of her kindness, they became friends and get on journey together. When others have difficulties in the later adventure, she always did her best to help them. For example, when the Crowdly Lion and her were imprisoned in the Wicked Witch’s castle, the Witch took no food to the lion to make him willing to be harnessed like a horse, Dorthoy carried hin food from the cupboard while the Witch was asleep every night. After the Lion had eaten he would lie down on his bed of straw and Dorothy would lie beside him and put her head on his soft,shaggy mane, while they talked of their troubles and tried to plan some way to escape.

Another example is when they were in the dainty china country, Dorothy asked the china princess she loved very much if she could carry her back to Kansas and stand her on Aunt Em’s manel, the china refused and said it would make her unhappy, then Dorothy exclaimed “ I would not make you unhappy for the world! - 7 -

So I will just say goodbye!” She is always so kind to care about any others’

feelings.

Secondly, Dorothy is also brave.

When the house was swept away by the cyclone and whirled around in the sky terribly, she behaved very calmly and bravely. It was described like this:

“Hour after hour passed away, and slowly Dorothy got over her fright; but she felt quite lonely, and the wind shrieked so loudly all about her that she nearly became deaf. At first she had wondered if she would be dashed to pieces when the house fell again,but as the hours passed and nothing terrible happened, she stopped worring and resolved to wait calmly and see what the future would bring. At last she crawled over the swaying floor to her bed,and lay down upon it; and Toto followed and lay down beside her. In spite of the swaying of the house and the wailing of the wind, Dorothy soon closed her eyes and fell fast asleep.” As a

little girl encounting such sudden misery, Dorothy is brave enough!

It is worth mentioning that Dorothy is not only brave for herslef in difficulties,when her friends encounter danger, she always stands out and protect them. For example,When they firstly meet the Crowly Lion in the forest, the Lion attacked them. She is so brave that when the Lion opened his mouth to bite Toto,

she rushed forward and slapped the Lion upon his nose as hard as she could, while she cried out: - 8 -

“ Don’t you dare to bite Toto! You ought to be ashamed of yourself, a big beast like you, to bite a little dog!” we all konow that she loves Toto very much, and the deep love gives her courage to fight against any great beast without fear. Above all, Dorothy loves her hometown and families very much, and is strong-minded to return home.

For example, when the Scarecrow asked her to talk about her hometown, she told him all about Kansas, and how gray everything was there. The scarecrow listened carefully and said, “I can’t understand why you should wish to leave this beautiful country and go back to the dry, gray place you call Kansas.” “That is because you have no brains” answered the girl, “ No matter how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country , be it ever so beautiful. There is no place like home.”

This words, which contains the phrase \"There is no place like home\exemplifies Dorothy's state of mind, a major theme of the text, and the simple, rural values that Baum espoused. It might seem strange that Dorothy wants to return to the bleak and lifeless Kansas prairie - especially in light of the wonders of Oz - but she does indeed understand that this fairyland is not her home and she has obligations to her aunt and uncle. She is not swayed by the land of Oz to the extent that she wants to reside there; she understands her roots and her identity lie back in Kansas. The quote also represents a major theme, which is that people have an allegiance to their homeland and should strive to do right by it. This is one of Baum's personal values. As an American, and one who so profited by his country

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through the opportunities it provided for him, Baum reinforces the understanding that being true to where you came from is a virtue. It is the deep love for home that gives her the courage and strong mind to overcome all the difficulties in the adventure. So when she asked Boq how far it is to the Emerald City and Boq told her gravely that it was better for people to keep away from Oz unless they have business with him ,it was a long way to the Emerald City which would take her many days ,and she must pass through rough and dangerours places before reaching the end of her journey, the little girl worried a little but barvely resolved not to turn back! 2.2 The Scarecrow: resourced and calm

The Scarecrow encounters Dorothy in a field in the Munchkin Country while she is on her way to the Emerald City. He tells her about his creation (he is only two days old)and of how he at first scared away the crows, before an older one realised he was a straw man, causing the other crows to start eating the corn. The old crow then told the Scarecrow of the importance of brains. The \"mindless\" Scarecrow joins Dorothy in the hope that The Wizard will give him a brain. \"Brains are the only thing worth having in this world, no matter whether one is a crow or a man.\"he said.They are later joined by the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion. When the group goes to the West, he frequently finds the solution to particularly vexing situations and helps himself and his friends get out of danger. After Dorothy and her friends have completed their mission to kill the Wicked Witch of the West, the Wizard gives the Scarecrow brains ,which is just made out of bran, pins and needles – in reality a placebo, as he has been the most intelligent of the travelers

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all along, only then does the Scarecrow believe himself smart.Before he leaves Oz in a balloon, the Wizard appoints the Scarecrow to rule the Emerald City in his stead.

In fact,we can easily find that the Scrarecrow is the most resouced and cleverest in the party. He always came up with good ideas when they were facing danger and didn't know what to do. There are many examples:

When the Kalidahs, a kind of monstrous beasts, catched them, the party fled to a gulf across the road which was so broad and deep that they could not leap across it. So they sat down to consider what they shold do,and sfter serious thought the Scarecrow said: “Here is a great tree, standing close to the ditch. If the Tin Woodman can chop it down, so that it will fall to the other side,we can walk across it easily.””That is a first-rate idea,”said the Lion,” One would almost suspect you had brains in your head,instead of straw.” They did like he said. But when they started too cross this queer bridge, the Kalidahs were running toward them. They quickly crossed over and were prepared to fight them. At this time, our resouced guy thought out a good idea again.”Wait a minute!”called the Scarecrow,and asked the Woodman to chop away the end of the tree that rested on their side of the ditch. Just as the Kalidahs were nearly across, the tree fell wiyh a crash into the gulf,carrying the ugly,snarling brutes with it, and both were dashed to pieces on the sharp rocks at the bottom. The Scarecrow's quick thinking continues all the way to the end of the novel.

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No matter what happens, he is always calmly ponder and get out a proper solution.When Dorothy and the Lion sleeped in the deadly poppy field, he asked the Tin Woodman to make a chair with their hands and carry Dorothy out of the field and suggested the Queen of the Field-Mice calling her thousands of mice to pull the Lion out.

Just like what Oz said, the Scarecrow didn’t need brains, he was learnig something everyday. A baby has brains, but it didn’t know much. Experience is the only thing that brings knowledge, and the longer he was on earth the more experience he was sure to get. What he needed was just confidence and

self-recognition, and it is the same with the Cowardly Lion as well as the Tin Woodman .

2.3 The Cowardly Lion: brave and strong

The Cowardly Lion is the last of the companions Dorothy befriends on her way to the Emerald City. When he tries to bite Toto, Dorothy calls him a coward, and he admits that he is. The Cowardly Lion joins her so that he can ask The Wizard for courage, being ashamed that, in his cultural role as the King of the Beasts, he is not indeed brave. Despite outward evidence that he is unreasonably fearful, The Cowardly Lion displays great bravery along the way. During the journey, he leaps across a chasm on the road of yellow brick multiple times, each time with a companion on his back, and the leap back to get the next one. When they come into another, wider chasm, the Cowardly Lion holds off two Kalidahs while the Tin Woodman cuts a tall tree to cross it. In spite of his fears, he still goes off to hunt for

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his food, and he even offers to kill a deer for Dorothy to eat, but the idea makes her uncomfortable.

When he and Dorothy were imprisoned by the Wicked Witch of the West and the Witch starved him to threaten him to be harnessed like a horse, the Lion never gave in and answered:” No.If you come in this yard, I will bite you!”

However, finally the Wizard gives him a dish of unknown liquid, telling him it is \"courage\" to drink. He accompanies Dorothy on her journey to see Glinda, and allows his friends to stand on his back in order to escape the Dainty China Country.

In the Forest of Wild Beasts in the Quadling Country, all of the lions and many of the other animals have been eaten by a giant Spider. The Lion finds the Spider asleep and decapitates it. The Tiger and the other animals bow to him and ask him to be their king, and he promises to do so upon his return from accompanying Dorothy to Glinda. Glinda orders the Winged Monkeys to carry him back to the Forest once Dorothy has returned home.

Just like the Scarecrow Woodman, the Crowdly Lion is not crowdly at all, intead he is so brave and strong that he can protect everyone in the party, he is just lack of confidence. We can find this from a lot of examples,especially this interesting one:

When they must come across a great ditch,he said: \"I am terribly afraid of falling,myself, but I suppose there is nothing to do but try it. So get on my back - 13 -

and we will make the attempt.”scrarecrow sat upon the Lion’s back, and the big beast walked to the edge of the gulf and crouched down. “ Why don’t you run and jump?”asked the Scarecrow. “Because that isn’t the way we Lions do these things,”he replied. Then giving a great spring, he shot through the air and landed safely on the other side. They were all greatly pleased to see how easily he did it, and after the Scarecrow had got down from his back the Lion sprang across the ditch again. It is natural for him to behave like a truly intrepid and powerful lion to fight against every and protect the small and weak. But he didn’t know how brave he is at all and often feel sad for his cowardice. Actually he is just too kind and heartful, often weeping for other’s misery and easily to be moved to tears, not like those cold and cruel monsters without any emotion, and is short of self-confidence like the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman.

2.4 The Tin Woodman: sentimental and kind-hearted

The Tin Woodman had a sad story. He used to make his living chopping down trees in the forests of Oz. The Wicked Witch of the East enchanted his axe to prevent him from marrying the girl that he loved, after being bribed by the lazy old woman who kept the girl as a servant, and did not wish to lose her. The enchanted axe chopped off his limbs, one by one. Each time he lost a limb, he replaced it with a prosthetic limb made of tin. Finally, nothing was left of him but tin. However,

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Ku-Klip, the tinsmith who helped him, neglected to replace his heart. Once he was made entirely of tin, he was no longer able to love the girl he had fallen for.

Then Dorothy Gale befriends the Tin Woodman after they find him rusted in the forest, as he was caught in rain, and use his oil can to release him. He follows her to the Emerald City to get a heart from The Wizard of Oz. And then On the way to kill the Wicked Witch of the West,the Tin Woodman's axe proves useful in this journey, both for chopping wood to create a bridge or raft as needed, and for chopping the heads off animals that threaten the party. When the Winged Monkeys are sent by the Witch of the West against the group, they throw the Tin Woodman from a great height, damaging him badly. However Winkie Tinsmiths are able to repair him after the death of the Witch.

However, The Wizard turns out to be a \"humbug\" and can only provide a placebo heart made of velvet and filled with sawdust. But this is enough to please the Tin Woodman, who, with or without a heart, was all along the most tender and emotional of Dorothy's companions. When Dorothy returns home to her farm in Kansas, the Tin Woodman returns to the Winkie Country to rule as emperor.

It is evidential that he is very sentimental and kind-hearted, although he is made of tin and without heart. For example,When he accidentally crushes a bettle, he is grief-stricken,crying to rust his jaw, and, ironically, claims that he must be careful about such things , while those with hearts do not need such care. “This will serve me a lesson,” said he, “to look where I step. For if I should kill another bug or beetle I should surely cry again, and crying rusts my jaws so that I cannot - 15 -

speak.” Therefore he walked very carefully, with his eyes on the road, and when he saw a tiny ant toiling by he would step over it, so as to not harm it. There is another funny example to prove that he is sentimental. The wizard of Oz ,who is a humbug,leaved them to home in a balloon. The Tin Woodman still felt sad at losing Oz and said,” Truly I should be ungrateful if I failed to mourn for the man who gave me my lovely heart. I should like to cry a little because Oz is gone, if you will kindly wipe away my tears, so that I shall not rust.” It is clear that the

emotion is sincere, which ought to be owned by human.

2.5 The Wizard of Oz : tricky and ordinary

The Wizard is the ruler of the Land of Oz and highly venerated by his subjects. Believing he is the only man capable of solving their problems, Dorothy Gale and her friends travel to the Emerald City to meet him. Oz is very reluctant to meet them, but eventually each is granted an audience, one by one. On each of these occasions, the Wizard appears in a different form, once as a giant head, once as a beautiful fairy, once as a ball of fire, and once as a horrible monster. When, at last, he grants an audience to all of them at once, he seems to be invisible—nothing but a disembodied voice.

Eventually, it is revealed that Oz is actually none of these things, but rather a kind, ordinary man from Omaha, Nebraska, who has been using a lot of elaborate magic tricks and props to make himself seem \"great and powerful.\" Working as a magician for a circus, he wrote OZ (the initials of his first and middle name) on the

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side of his balloon for promotional purposes. One day his balloon sailed into the Land of Oz, and he found himself worshipped as a great sorcerer. As Oz had no leadership at the time, he became Supreme Ruler of the kingdom, and did his best to sustain the myth.He leaves Oz at the end of the novel, again in a hot air balloon. After the Wizard's departure, the Scarecrow is briefly enthroned.

From the book, we can find Oz is very tricky. He often called himself as “the great and terrible Oz”, but he is actually a little old man which used his queer devices to humbug everybody in the town and the travellers. He ordered everyone in the town to wear a pair of green glasses in the name of protecting them from being blind by the glare of the Emerald City, so that what they saw in the city is all green and regarded it as really made of emerald. He also used many thicknesses of paper with a carefully painted face to act as the great Head, used the dress and the mask to act as the Lovely Lady, sewed a lot of skins together with slats to keep their sides out to feign the terrible Beast and oiled a ball of cotton and hung it from the ceiling to feign the Ball of Fire.

The wizard of Oz is a liar to the backbone. But he is not bad and even very kind as a ordinary man. He explains why he instructed Dorothy and her friends to kill the Wicked Witch of the West - he was full of fear and knew he could not do it himself since he lacked real power. This prompts Dorothy to tell him that he is a bad man, to which he replies that he is only a bad Wizard. \"Oh no, my dear; I'm really a very good man; but I'm a very bad Wizard, I must admit.\" He have a

virtuous heart and a desire to help, and he, using a little bit more trickery, helps the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Lion embrace the things they always desired -

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brains, a heart, and courage, respectively. He tricks them again but that because he knows well that they all have what they want and he only does this to satisfy them and make them self- confidence. On the other hand, he proves unable to help Dorothy ,but provides her with the opportunity to help herself. We must admit that he has done all he can to help them.

3. Conclusion

In the story, the Scarecrow does not think he possesses brains, the Tin Woodman laments his lack of a heart, and the Lion believes himself bereft of courage. Of course, the reader will see right away that none of these characters are correct: the Scarecrow is the most intelligent of the bunch, the Tin Woodman is filled with compassion, and the Lion is full of courage and nobility. All of them already possess what it is they think they lack, but they are unable to see this for themselves. They believe that they must ask the Wizard to help them.

The Wizard and his benevolent trickery \"reveal\" these traits at the end of the novel. The Scarecrow revels in his intellect and becomes the wise ruler of the Emerald City, the Tin Woodman becomes the kind ruler of the Winkies, and the Lion uses his power to take his rightful place as King of Beasts.

They did not need anyone else to fix them or solve their problems; they already had within them what they needed the whole time. The same suffices for Dorothy, who was already wearing the silver shoes that could have taken her home without help from the Witch. They are strong enough to get what they want by

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themselves, and they merely need confidence and right self-recognition.

That is just like what we are in our life, isn’t right?

Bibliography

[1] L. Frank Baum ：The Wizard of Oz，the George M. Hill Company,1900 [2] Snow,Jack : Who's Who in Oz.Chicago, Reilly & Britton Company ,19

[3] Michael O. Riley Lawrence ：Oz and Beyond: The Fantasy World of L. Frank Baum..University Press of Kansas:, 1997

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