In eight pages this essay considers the self exploration theme and the presence of magic in these two coming of age tales. There are no other sources listed.
Name of Research Paper File: D0_khoztsg.rtf
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Baums The Wizard of Oz (1900) and Burnetts The Secret Garden (1909) each created a fanciful story that dramatizes the journey of self exploration that is necessary for a child
to mature. In each case, the female protagonist "journeys" from the person that she is at the beginning of the novel towards the more mature individual that she becomes over
the course of the story. As the student researching this novel undoubtedly knows, Dorothy, Baums protagonist is a little girl living with her aunt and uncle on the
Kansas prairie with her little dog Toto. Baum emphasizes that everything about her Kansas life is gray. The sun "had baked the plowed land into a gray mass," the grass
is gray, even the house, which was once painted, has turned gray (2002). Dorothys Aunt Em was once "young and pretty" but has also turned "gray" in the prairie sun
and the drudgery of her life. However, Dorothy is a fun-loving, normal child because of her love for her dog. Dorothy fails to make it to the cellar in
time when a cyclone is approaching, and is blown, house and all, out of Kansas, and into Oz, a fantastical land. The "grayness" of Kansas is a sharp contrast
with the color of Oz, which is lush and green. In Oz, Dorothy has many adventures, but keeps working to find a way to get back home to Kansas.
With the friends that Dorothy accumulates on her journey, she is forced to contemplate some of lifes deepest problems. For example, which is best to have a brain or
a heart. The Scarecrow argues in favor of brains because "a food would not know what to do with a heart if he had one," but the Tin Woodman disagrees