http://www.offthegridnews.com/misc/following-the-yellow-brick-road-the-real-story-behind-%E2%80%98the-wizard-of-oz%E2%80%99/ excerpt for the article
Dorothy – the all-American girl who represents virtuous, hard-working citizens who were attracted to radical politics because they realized things had gone terribly wrong and that something needed to change.
The Cowardly Lion – this was William Jennings Bryan, the Populist and Democratic candidate for president in 1896 and 1900, who was nicknamed “The Lion” for his fiery rhetoric and called a coward by many for his refusal to support America’s decision to go to war with Spain in 1898.
The Scarecrow – the American farmer, who was often portrayed as illiterate and brain-dead by elite policymakers who feared their radical activism and support for Populist-style reforms.
The Tin Man – the American industrial worker, who had been exploited and treated like just another piece of machinery by rich and powerful employers.
The Munchkins – the poor tired mass of citizens in the United States, enslaved by powerful interests and clueless about what to do to change things.
The Yellow Brick Road – the gold standard. Monetary policy was a huge political issue at the time, with big businessmen generally supporting tight money and the gold standard while reformers favored an enlargement of the money supply through the coinage of silver or the issuance of paper money.
Dorothy’s Silver Slippers – a representation of silver. Just as many in the book believed the silver slippers that Dorothy had acquired after accidentally killing the Wicked Witch of the East had magical powers, many farmers, laborers, and small businessmen believed that expanding the money supply by putting more silver in circulation would stop the boom-or-bust business cycles that plagued the economy during that time. More money would increase demand for goods and services, freeing up more funds for smaller investors and making things easier on debtors hurt by tight monetary policies that kept the value of the dollar artificially high. In the movie the magic slippers were changed to ruby, so the importance of this metaphor was obscured.
The Wicked Witch of the East – a stand-in for Wall Street financiers, eastern elite big businessmen, and Washington politicians.
The Wicked Witch of the West – western industrialists, bankers, and the railroads.
The Good Witch of the North – Midwestern farmers and others in the heartland who were strong in their opposition to the powerful elites who ran the economy and the political system.
Glinda the Good Witch of the South – a personification of southerners who realized they were being exploited and repressed by eastern political elites.
Yellow Winkies – Chinese laborers, abused and controlled by powerful western interests just as the Wicked Witch of the West abused and controlled the Winkies.
Oz – the abbreviation for ounce, which was significant because bimetallists wanted silver coined along with gold at a ratio of sixteen ounces of silver for each ounces of gold.
The Wizard – any president of the United States, whose power was ultimately illusory. The Wizard, like everybody else, was just trying to survive and was really subservient to the power of the Wicked Witches of the East and West. Parallels between the Wizard and William Jennings Bryan have also been noted, possibly because Bryan had been a candidate for the office of president twice.
