The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

“The sun had baked the ploughed land into a grey mass, with little cracks running through it. Even the grass was not green, for the sun had burned the tops of the long blades until they were the same grey colour to be seen everywhere.”

The family’s Kansas farm is characterized as barren and inhospitable. The sun is depicted as adversarial; its harsh rays sap the land of moisture, leaving it baked and desolate. The Kansas prairies are contrasted with Oz’s verdant greenness.

“When Aunt Em came there to live she was a young, pretty wife. The sun and wind had changed her, too. They had taken the sparkle from her eyes and left them a sober grey; they had taken the red from her cheeks and lips, and they were grey also.”

Life on the farm is depicted as exhausting and fruitless. The people living on the harsh and barren land mirror the state of the land they toil so hard on; they are similarly sapped, grey, and desolate. Baum is sympathetic to the plight of farmers; his sympathy was informed by the time he spent living in South Dakota during three years of drought.

“There were lovely patches of greensward all about, with stately trees bearing rich and luscious fruits. Banks of gorgeous flowers were on every hand, and birds with rare and brilliant plumage sang and fluttered in the trees and bushes. A little way off was a small brook.”

The barrenness of Kansas is contrasted directly with the vitality and greenness of Oz. The land of the Munchkins is depicted as verdant and lush. This contrast serves as the backdrop for Dorothy’s determination to get back to Kansas. As beautiful as Oz is, it is not her home, and she is never tempted to stay there.