The Wizard of Oz Themes

Self-Doubt vs. Self-Confidence

After Dorothy is swept away from Kansas and stranded in the bizarre Land of Oz, she meets three characters who wish to follow her and see the Wizard of Oz with her. But while Dorothy wants to ask the Wizard to send her back home, her new friends are more interested in changing something about themselves. Each of Dorothy’s new companions doubts that they have everything it takes to be a complete person. However, it…

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Self-Doubt vs. Self-Confidence Theme Icon

Home and Belonging

Almost from the moment that a cyclone sends her to the strange Land of Oz, Dorothy is determined to find a way back home to Kansas and her Aunt Em. This highlights one of the novel’s main points: that everyone has somewhere they truly belong. It’s notable that Dorothy immediately wants to go home and even sheds tears at the thought of staying in Oz forever. Despite how magical and dazzling Oz seems to…

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Good vs. Evil

When a cyclone uproots Dorothy from her simple home in Kansas and carries her to the magical Land of Oz, she’s dazzled by how different everything seems. Where the Kansas prairie is depicted as a gray and uniformly ordinary place, Oz is an exaggerated fairy tale world of opposites and extremes. One of the first things Dorothy learns about Oz is that its balance of good and evil is perfectly symmetrical; for instance, there are…

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Friendship

Although she finds herself in the unfamiliar and often dangerous Land of Oz after being taken there by a cyclone, Dorothy soon finds comfort in the form of three new friends. As Dorothy travels towards the Emerald City in the hopes that the Wizard of Oz can send her back home to Kansas, she meets the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion along the way. They join together as a group…

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