If a wizard asked me, “Which fictional character you would like to be?” I would reply in an instant, “Dorothy from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.”
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was written by L Frank Baum in 1900. It is a fairy tale that follows the adventure of Dorothy and her dog Toto, who were swept away from their home to the magical land of Oz. They meet a variety of characters including the scarecrow, Tin-woodman, and Cowardly Lion. Together they embark on a challenge-filled journey to meet the Wizard of Oz and have their wish granted.
When I first read the story, I was fascinated by Dorothy’s adventure, her courage and kindness and bewitched by the colourful and magical elements in the story, peppered with moral lessons. Needless to say, it shocked me when I discovered that this novel faced repeated bans in many places for the very reasons I loved it.
In 1928, the book was banned from the Chicago Public Library. They found the book ‘ungodly’ because the fairy tale was ‘untrue to life’. Dorothy being the female hero in her own story continued to worry ministers and educators. In 1950, Florida state librarian, Dorothy Dodd sought to have the ‘unwholesome for children’ book removed from all of the state libraries.
The most notable censorship against the book was a lawsuit filed by six fundamentalists in 1968. They believed the portrayal of good witches and flying monkeys was an attack on Christian values. Parents accused the book of seducing children to be self-reliant rather than dependent on God to see them through difficult times. Dorothy even made it to real-life politics for being socialistic because there was no mention of the Almighty in her story.
However, ‘The Godless Wizard of Oz and Misandrist Dorothy’ continues to be a favourite among children, as well as myself. After all, we are all children at heart.
Vasundhara Bagri
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