Chapter 1 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Masterwork Analysis

Hello and welcome to the StoryGrid Masterwork Podcast. We're part of a growing StoryGrid community that includes thousands of writers and editors from all over the world. We're dedicated to helping writers improve their craft through books, podcasts, courses and online forums. In this StoryGrid Masterwork podcast, we'll be reading and analyzing great books to learn what makes them work so well. I'm your host, Bib Bailey. This season, we're reading the Wonderful wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum's classic novel about a young girl's heroic journey. In each episode, I'll read you one of the book's 24 scenes and then we'll analyze the scene using storygrid tools and methods in order to understand how and why this story endures and still captivates readers more than a century after it was written. Editor and publisher Sean Coyne developed StoryGrid during 30 years in the storytelling business. He's applied his knowledge to dozens of best selling fiction and nonfiction stories and now shares what he's learned in the StoryGrid community. You'll find a full introduction to StoryGrid's method of analyzing scenes in the first episode of this series. Now let's review how we'll analyze today's scene. If you're already familiar with StoryGrid, you can skip ahead 1 minute 40 seconds to start listening to the scene. We use five first principles to analyze any story. First, we look at a story both as a whole and in smaller parts. In this podcast, we'll dissect the Wonderful wizard of Oz in parts, scene by scene. Second, we look for a change inside the world of the story, because all stories are about change. Third, we figure out how the change is linked to a universal human value such as safety, love, or justice. Fourth, we sum up the change in that human value in a single sentence called a story event. To find the story event, we ask four Socratic questions. These questions help us see what's actually happening in the scene, what the character's essential tactics are, and how they connect to the universal human value at stake. Fifth, when we know our story event, we look at how the scene is constructed by using what we call the five commandments of storytelling. The five commandments we'll find in each scene of the Wonderful wizard of Oz are the inciting incident, which kicks off the action the turning point, progressive complication, an unexpected event that turns the human value at stake in the scene and gives rise to the crisis, which is a dilemma about how to confront the unexpected event. The climax, which is the decision and action a character takes in response to the crisis, the resolution which is the outcome of the action of the climax. Now let's step onto the yellow brick road with Dorothy and listen to this week's scene and analysis.

The Wonderful wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum Scene 1 the Cyclone Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer's wife. Their house was small. For the lumber to build it had to be carried by wagon many miles. There were four walls, a floor, and a roof which made one room, and this room contained a rusty looking cook stove, a cupboard for the dishes, a table, three or four chairs, and the beds. Uncle Henry and Aunt Em had a big bed in one corner and Dorothy a little bed in another corner. There was no garret at all and no cellar except a small hole dug in the ground called a cyclone cellar where the family could go in case one of those great whirlwinds arose, mighty enough to crush any building in its path. It was reached by a trapdoor in the middle of the floor, from which a ladder led down into the small dark hole. When Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around, she could see nothing but the great gray prairie on every side. Not a tree nor a house broke the broad sweep of flat country that reached to the edge of the sky in all directions. The sun had baked the plowed land into a gray 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 gray color to be seen everywhere. Once the house had been painted, but the sun blistered the paint and the rains washed it away, and now the house was as dull and gray as everything else. 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 gray. They had taken the red from her cheeks and lips, and they were gray also. She was thin and gaunt and never smiled. Now, when Dorothy, who was an orphan, first came to her, Aunt Em had been so startled by the child's laughter that she would scream and press her hand upon her heart whenever Dorothy's merry voice reached her ears, and she still looked at the little girl with wonder that she could find anything to laugh at. Uncle Henry never laughed. He worked hard from morning till night and did not know what joy was. He was gray also, from his long beard to his rough boots, and he looked Stern and solemn and rarely spoke. It was Toto that made Dorothy laugh and saved her from growing as gray as her other surroundings. Toto was not gray. He was a little black dog with long silky hair and small black eyes that twinkled merrily on either side of his funny wee nose. Toto played all day long, and Dorothy played with him and loved him dearly. Today, however, they were not playing. Uncle Henry sat upon the doorstep and looked anxiously at the sky, which was even grayer than usual. Dorothy stood in the door with Toto in her arms and looked at the sky, too. Aunt Em was washing the dishes. From the far north they heard a low wail of the wind and and Uncle Henry and Dorothy could see where the long grass bowed in waves before the coming storm. There now came a sharp whistling in the air from the south, and as they turned their eyes that way, they saw ripples in the grass coming from that direction also. Suddenly, Uncle Henry stood up. There's a cyclone coming, Em. He called to his wife. I'll go look after the stock. Then he ran towards the shed where the cows and horses were kept. Aunt Em dropped her work and came to the door. One glance told her of the danger close at hand. Quick, Dorothy. She screamed. Run for the cellar. Toto jumped out of Dorothy's arms and hid under the bed, and the girl started to get him. Aunt Em, badly frightened, threw open the trapdoor on the floor and climbed down the ladder into the small dark hole. Dorothy caught Toto at last and started to follow her aunt. When she was halfway across the room, there came a great shriek from the wind, and the house shook so hard that she lost her footing and sat down suddenly upon the floor. Then a strange thing happened. The house whirled around two or three times and rose slowly through the air. Dorothy felt as if she were going up in a balloon. The north and south winds met where the house stood and made it the exact center of the cyclone. In the middle of a cyclone, the air is generally still, but the great pressure of the wind on every side of the house raised it up higher and higher until it was at the very top of the cyclone. And there it remained and was carried for miles and miles away as easily as you could carry a feather. It was very dark, and the wind howled horribly around her, but Dorothy found she was riding quite easily. After the first few whirls around and one other time when the house tipped badly, she felt as if she were being rocked gently like a baby in a cradle. Toto did not like it. He ran about the room now here, now there, barking loudly. But Dorothy sat quite still on the floor and waited to see what would happen.

Once Toto got too near the open trapdoor and fell in, and at first the little girl thought she had lost him, but soon she saw one of his ears sticking up through the hole, for the strong pressure of the air was keeping him up so that he could not fall. She crept to the hole, caught Toto by the ear, and dragged him into the room again, afterward closing the trapdoor so that no more accidents could happen. Hour after hour passed away, and slowly Dorothy got over her fright, but she felt quite lonely, and the wind shrieked so loudly all about her that she nearly became deaf. At first she had wondered if she would be dashed to pieces when the house fell again, but as the hours passed and nothing terrible happened, she stopped worrying and resolved to wait calmly and see what the future would bring. At last she crawled over the swaying floor to her bed and lay down upon it, and Toto followed and lay down beside her. In spite of the swaying of the house and the wailing of the wind, Dorothy soon closed her eyes and fell fast asleep.

Now let's use StoryGrid first principles to analyze the scene. A story event is an active change of a universal human value for one or more characters. As a result of conflict, one character's desires clash with another's or an environmental shift changes the value positively or negatively. A working scene contains at least one story event. To determine a scene's story event, answer these four Socratic questions.

What are the characters literally doing? That is, what are their micro on the ground actions? Uncle Henry, Dorothy and Auntie Em see an impending cyclone and prepare for its arrival. Question 2 what is the essential tactic of the characters? That is, what macro behaviors are they employing that are linked to a universal human value? Uncle Henry safeguards the livestock, Dorothy safeguards Toto, and Auntie Em safeguards herself. Question number three what universal human values have changed for one or more characters in the scene? Which one of those value changes is most important and should be included in the story grid spreadsheet?

All the characters lives are threatened. The value changes from life to possible death for all of them. Identifying the most important value change in a scene is sometimes difficult. This scene begins on the ground and ends quite literally in the air which threatens the life of the protagonist. So the choice is clear. We'll track life to death in the value shift column on the spreadsheet. When in doubt, the story grid rule of thumb is to highlight the value that best aligns with the progress of the global human value at stake in the story. The wizard of Oz is an action story which has a global value at stake of life death. Throughout the story grid spreadsheet, we'll track the ways life is threatened or enhanced scene by scene. Question number four what story event sums up the scene's on the ground actions as as well essential tactics and value changes? We will enter that event in the story grid spreadsheet.

A cyclone lifts a one room Kansas farmhouse off of the ground with a little orphan girl and her dog still inside. Now let's examine how the scene abides the five commandments of storytelling. What's the inciting incident?

A cyclone approaches a one room farmhouse on the wide open Kansas plains. What's the turning point? Progressive complication.

Toto the dog leaps from Dorothy's arms as she moves toward the cellar door. Toto's unexpected disobedience is the active turn in the story that changes the universal human value from safe and alive to in danger and close to death. What's the crisis?

It's a best bad choice. If Dorothy turns back to fetch Toto, she will likely endanger herself. If she doesn't, Toto is certain to die. What's the climax?

Dorothy rescues Toto. What's the resolution?

The farmhouse is lifted off the ground by the cyclone with Dorothy and Toto still inside. Thanks for listening and please join Dorothy, Toto and me on the next leg of our fantastic journey. If you're writing or thinking about writing a story about a heroic journey, you'll be interested in Sean Coyne's upcoming online seminar devoted to helping writers understand and use the heroic journey in their own work. It's a macro and micro examination of why these stories speak to us so compellingly and how to use the heroic journey to level up Your writing using StoryGrid specific tools. It includes a trip to the Shire to do a macro analysis of J.R.R. tolkien's the Hobbit, with a few detours to Oz and Emerald City along the way. Go to www.storygrid.comhero to find out more. We'd love to see you there. This has been Bib Bailey for the Story Grid Masterwork podcast. I'll see you next time, my pretties.