The movie officially turns 80 on August 25 although the celebrating began at the beginning of the year. The book is older. It was published in 1900. This blog is only nine years old. But in those nine years I have attempted to blend the book and the movie in a way that shines a light on the mythical meaning and message of the “story.” I put the word story in quotes because story is an essential ingredient in life. Without story we just exist. With story we flourish.
To join the Oz celebration bandwagon I want to spend the next few blogs talking about how L. Frank Baum’s little story has a bigger meaning when we look at is as a myth. But in order to do that we have to stop thinking that a myth is a lie. Myths are, according to the esteemed comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell, “clues to the spiritual potentialities of the human life.”
Fellow mythologist, Rollo May, had this to say: Myths are permanent. “They deal with the greatest of all problems, the problems which do not change because men and women do not change. They deal with love; with war; with sin; with tyranny; with courage; with fate; and all in some way or other deal with the relation of man to those divine powers which are sometimes to be cruel, and sometimes, alas to be just. A myth is a way of making sense in a senseless world. Myths are narrative patterns that give significance to our existence…myths are our way of finding meaning and significance. Myths are like the beams in a house; not exposed to outside view, they are the structure which holds the house together so people can live in it.”
There is no denying that even today we are all trying to make sense in a senseless world. We not only want to find a comforting meaning of life, we long for the return of the hero.
Think about the number of contemporary movies that are all about heroes. From the Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter, Spider Man, Wonder Woman, Black Panther franchises. It is not by accident that film makers have turned to making films about heroes. But not your normal hero, the mega hits are about super heroes with super powers.
We like our everyday heroes, but we love our super heroes, primarily because we have lost faith in down-to-earth heroes. We’ve stopped believing in our own heroic potentiality. And that’s a shame because we only live one life…our life…and if we don’t believe we are the hero in our life story, we’ve given up all the power we have to make a difference.
We often don’t think of Dorothy Gale as a heroic figure, but she was. And she did what every hero has to do. She had to take the heroic journey.
So, join me as we unravel the mythical journey of Dorothy in Oz.
Along The Yellow Brick Road 