Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz

             The journey in Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz is a reversal of the katabasis of the adventure of Princess Truella in the Ninth Surprise of The Magical Monarch of Mo, which now focuses on the redemption of the Wizard and mixes in elements of Duchess Breadenbutta’s adventures in Turvyland in the Tenth Surprise. But the Wizard still needs the aid of Princess Dorothy to escape (Ozma is a Princess, but she is primarily a Sorceress in this book).

            In the Ninth Surprise, the Wicked Wizard lives deep underground and can only depart via the summit of a mountain. He steals Princess Truella’s big toe using transformation magic. Princess Truella must seek the help of the sorceress Maetta and use her magic items to descend into the Wizard’s domain. The challenges Truella faces in her descent are similar to the challenges the Wizard and his party face while trying to travel to the surface.

            In Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, the Wizard is the character who undergoes character development, what is called these days a “redemption arc”.  In the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Wizard presents himself as a fraud who was merely taking advantage of a chaotic situation, but in the Marvelous Land of Oz, the Wizard conspired to hide the Rightful Heir after overthrowing Pastoria. This makes him a Wicked Wizard, like the Wicked Wizard of the mountains east of Mo. His redemption arc, therefore, fittingly starts deep underground and ascends – but this time the Princess is his ally and the Wizard is the principal. Since Dorothy and the Wizard have been to Oz, some other human must be the newcomer. This is Zeb’s role. This time around, each human receives an animal companion – Eureka for Dorothy, the Nine Tiny Piglets for the Wizard, and Jim for Zeb. Eureka may be an animal version of Princess Pattycake made sufficiently cute to be tolerable; she also serves as a contrast to the invisible people of the Valley of Voe (yet another valley, with one sound away from Mo). Since Dorothy and the Wizard are eager to get to Oz, Zeb and Jim must be ambivalent about Oz. And the end of Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz makes it clear that boys’ adventure stereotypes don’t belong in Oz if they can’t accept female leadership. This may also be a metajoke about Baum’s extant boys’ adventure series.