L. Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz

Week 15: Children's Literature - Assignments - Reading - Resources - Images

Introduction

Reading time: 1 minute. Word count: 200 words.
When Baum composed the Wizard of Oz he was looking back and reflecting on the kinds of stories that you have been reading recently in this class, such as the fairy tales in the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen. Baum provides a very brief and very clear statement here about his goals and purposes when telling the story of the Wizard of Oz - so before you read what he has to say, take a minute to think back to your impressions of the Brothers Grimm and Andersen, and what you think about those stories as children's literature.
Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal. The winged fairies of Grimm and Andersen have brought more happiness to childish hearts than all other human creations.

Yet the old time fairy tale, having served for generations, may now be classed as "historical" in the children's library; for the time has come for a series of newer "wonder tales" in which the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated, together with all the horrible and blood-curdling incidents devised by their authors to point a fearsome moral to each tale. Modern education includes morality; therefore the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wonder tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident.

Having this thought in mind, the story of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was written solely to please children of today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out.

L. Frank Baum

Chicago, April, 1900

Questions. Make sure you can answer these questions about what you just read:

  • according to Baum, what kind of stories do children like?
  • what is different about modern children?
  • what were Baum's goals in writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz?

Source: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (1900). Weblink

Modern Languages / Anthropology 3043: Folklore & Mythology. Laura Gibbs, Ph.D. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. You must give the original author credit. You may not use this work for commercial purposes. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one.
Page last updated: October 9, 2004 12:52 PM