The Wonderful Wizard of Oz children’s’ narrative has been around for many years. Initially, the Wizard of Oz was published as a children’s book but with increased technological advancement, the narrative was developed into a movie. Despite the similarity of the plot covered by both the book and the movie, there are sharp distinctions that are evident within the two versions. The existing contrasts between the two versions are that the book versions seem to capitalize to the idea of creating imagery to the reader which is not evident in the movie version. The book version also tends to contain stories within the story that give a detailed background of where the plot takes place while the film starts off without giving a detailed background. The movie versions tend to combine the role of some minor characters while the book version gives each role to a specific individual. The main character of the story in the movie is older than the character described in the book. Finally the book version of the story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz ends in suspense leaving the reader wanting to know more while the movie version has a plain ending that creates a joyous mood.
Looking at the development of imagery within the two versions, the book version takes into consideration that its audience is composed of children who need this technique in helping them think and reason critically, as well as develop their creativity. A good example where this technique is employed in the book is whereby the author of the book, Frank Baum, tries to describe in detail how witches really look like. He explains that witches have one eye on their forehead while their hair has some deficiency that causes it to be lightly-colored. In addition he explains that witches have three tail-like features on their backs that assume the shape of pig tails because they coil on the top( Baum 11). This detailed description is very essential in stealing the attention of children. The movie version does not concentrate on any imagery. For example, it only paints witches as dark-colored individuals who fly on brooms(Fleming).This is in fact very risky in that it may open room for criticism in that some people might mistake the choice of the skin tone of the witches for racial prejudices.
Shifting gears to the detailed background and information of the plot, the book version tends to have a lot of information in that it creates some stories that help the readers to account for certain incidences that take place within the story. For example the author of the book version, Frank Baum, explains about the causes of immigration of various communities to give locations and the challenges that they faced during their settling process. The author tends to link thing like development and inventions to given inhabitants in given regions giving credit to their economic activities (Baum 6). Such a detailed background is very helpful to the children readers in that it helps them keep track of various events and occurrences within the whole story. The information is also informative in that children are able to expand their knowledge of geography and history through reading this background. On the contrary, Victor Fleming, the director of the film version of the story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz starts off the movie immediately without a background for the audience to draw from. This can be very confusing to children viewers in that they really don't know what they are expecting from the movie.
Looking at the assignment of roles to given characters, the movie version of tends to cut off some minor characters from the plot of the story and in turn assign their roles to other characters. For example the film eliminates the Good Witch of the North and grants her role to Glinda, the Good Witch of the South. Instead of Dorothy meeting the Good Witch of the North as explained in the book version, she meets the Good Witch of the South who explains to her that she understands how to use the silver shoes but she would not reveal it to Dorothy. She would rather prefer that Dorothy discovers on her own how to use the shoes.
Bearing in mind that the book was published first in 1900 while the film was produced in 1939, it is clear that the writers and the directors have altered the original plot of the story in order to suit their own interests. For example, the original plot has two witches that assume different roles. These two witches are the Good Witch of the North and the Good Witch of the South. The movie version eliminates the Good Witch of the North and granting all her roles to the Good witch of the South named Glinda (Jackson 49). The book version on the other hand maintains the original plot of the story. The two witches have different roles. For example, the book explains that Dorothy, the main character, goes to see the Good Witch of the North at first. Since this witch did not have the knowledge about how use the silver shoes, she sends Dorothy to the Good Witch of the South.
Finally, the book version of the story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz ends in suspense that leaves its readers wanting to know what happened thereafter. Suspense is very important for any narrative. This is a good technique in wanting to make the book more memorable to kids. This is also an important strategy in the book market in that its readers would be tempted to buy successive series of a given book in order to come to an end of the story. Coming to an end provides more contention than ending a book with hanging unknown information. On the contrary the movie version of the story tends to have a plain ending. Victor Fleming, the director of the movie tends to focus more on creating a happy mood and tone at the end of the movie. He accomplishes this by concluding at a point of re-union between Dorothy and her parents.
In conclusion, though the movie and book version of the story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz all draw their information from the same plot, it is evident that there are differences that exist between them. The differences are that the book version tends to concentrate on creating more imagery for it readers while the movie version tends to be very plain on this. The book version also tends to offer a detailed background of the plot which makes it easy to fro the readers to understand what is happening throughout the story while the movie jumps into the scenes immediately which might be very confusing to its viewers. The movie version of the story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz tends to cut some of the minor characters from the plot granting their roles to other characters while the book version maintains the original plot of the story. Finally the book version of the story ends in suspense which causes it to be more memorable compared to the movie version that tends to have a plain unmemorable ending.
Works Cited
Baum, Frank, and L. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Chicago: Geo. M. Hill. Co, 1900.
Print.
Fleming, Victor, and, dirs. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Noel Langley. IMDbTV,
1939. Film.
Jackson, E. R. (1986). Wizard of Oz. Schulenburg, TX: I.E Clark Publications.
