Chapter 23 - 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 23 Glinda the Good Witch grants Dorothy's wish. Before they went to see Glinda, however, they were taken to a room of the castle, where Dorothy washed her face and combed her hair, and the lion shook the dust out of his mane and the scarecrow patted himself into his best shape and the woodman polished his tin and oiled his joints. When they were all quite presentable, they.

Followed the soldier girl into a big.

Room where the witch Glinda sat upon a throne of rubies. She was both beautiful and young to their eyes. Her hair was a rich red in color and fell in flowing ringlets over her shoulders. Her dress was pure white, but her eyes were blue, and they looked kindly upon the girl.

What can I do for you, my child?

She asked. Dorothy told the Witch all her story, how the cyclone had brought her to the land of Oz, how she had found her companions, and of the wonderful adventures they had met with. My greatest wish now, she added, is to get back to Kansas, for Aunt.

Em will surely think something dreadful has.

Happened to me, and that will make her put on mourning, and unless the crops are better this year than they were last, I am sure Uncle Henry cannot afford it. Glinda leaned forward and kissed the sweet upturned face of the loving little girl.

Bless your dear heart, she said. I am sure I can tell you.

Of a way to get back to Kansas. Then she added, but if I do.

You must give me the golden cap. Willingly.

Exclaimed Dorothy.

Indeed, it is of no use to me now.

And when you have it, you can command the winged monkeys three times.

And.

I think I shall need their service.

Just those three times, answered Glinda, smiling. Dorothy then gave her the golden cap, and the Witch said to the scarecrow.

What will you do when Dorothy has left us?

I will return to the Emerald City.

He replied, for Oz has made me.

Its ruler, and the people like me. The only thing that worries me is how to cross the Hill of the Hammerheads.

By means of the golden cap. I shall command the winged monkeys to carry you to the gates of the.

Emerald City, said Glinda, for it would.

Be a shame to deprive the people of so wonderful a ruler.

Am I really wonderful?

Asked the scarecrow. You are unusual, replied Glinda. Turning to the tin woodman, she asked.

What will become of you when Dorothy leaves this country?

He leaned on his axe and thought a moment. Then he said, the Winkies were very kind to me and wanted me to rule over them after the Wicked Witch died. I am fond of the Winkies, and.

If I could get back again to.

The country of the West, I should like nothing better than to rule over them forever.

My second command to the winged monkeys, said Glinda, will be that they carry you safely to the land of the Winkies. Your brain may not be so large to look at as those of the Scarecrow, but you are really brighter than he is when you are well polished. And I am sure you will rule the Winkies wisely and well.

Then the Witch looked at the big shaggy lion and asked, when Dorothy has.

Returned to her own home, what will become of you?

Over the hill of the hammerheads, he answered, lies a grand old forest, and all the beasts that live there have made me their king. If I could only get back to this forest, I. I would pass my life very happily there.

My third command to the winged monkeys, said Glinda, shall be to carry you to your forest. Then, having used up the powers of the golden cap, I shall give it to the king of the monkeys that he and his band may thereafter be free forevermore.

The scarecrow and the tin woodman and the lion now thanked the good Witch earnestly for her kindness, and. And Dorothy exclaimed, you are certainly as.

Good as you are beautiful, but you have not yet told me how to.

Get back to Kansas.

Your silver shoes will carry you over.

The desert, replied Glinda.

If you had known their power, you should have gone back to your Aunt Em the very first day you came to this country.

But then I should not have had.

My wonderful brains, cried the Scarecrow.

I might have passed my whole life.

In the farmer's corn field, and I.

Should not have had my lovely heart.

Said the tin Woodman. I might have stood and rested in.

The forest till the end of the.

World, and I should have lived a.

Coward forever, declared the lion.

And no beast in all the forest would have had a good word to say to me.

That is all true, said Dorothy, and I am glad I was of use to these good friends. But now that each of them has had what he most desired, and each is happy in having a kingdom to rule, besides, I think I should like to go back to Kansas.

The silver shoes, said the good Witch, have wonderful powers. And one of the most curious things about them is that they can carry you to any place in the world in three steps, and each step will be made in the wink of an eye. All you have to do is to knock the heels together three times and command the shoes to carry you wherever.

You wish to go. If that is so, said the child.

Joyfully, I will ask them to carry me back to Kansas at once.

She threw her arms around the lion's neck and kissed him, patting his big head tenderly. Then she kissed the tin woodman, who was weeping in a way most dangerous to his joints. But she hugged the soft stuffed body of the scarecrow in her arms instead of kissing his painted face, and found she was crying herself at this sorrowful parting from her loving comrades. Glinda the Good stepped down from her ruby throne to give the little girl a goodbye kiss, and Dorothy thanked her for all the kindness she had shown to her friends and herself.

Dorothy now took Toto up solemnly in her arms, and having said one last goodbye, she clapped the heels of her shoes together three times, saying, take me.

Home to Aunt Em.

Instantly she was whirling through the air so swiftly that all she could see or feel was the wind whistling past her ears. The silver shoes took but three steps, and then she stopped so suddenly that she rolled over upon the grass several.

Times before she knew where she was.

At length, however, she sat up and looked about her.

Good gracious.

She cried, for she was sitting on the broad Kansas prairie, and just before her was the new farmhouse Uncle Henry built after the cyclone had carried away the old one. Uncle Henry was milking the cows in the barnyard, and Toto had jumped out of her arms and was running toward the barn, barking furiously. Dorothy stood up and found she was in her stocking feet, for the silver shoes had fallen off in her flight through the air and were lost forever in the desert.

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 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. Question number one what are the characters literally doing? That is, what are their micro on the ground actions? The group meets with Glinda, the Good Witch from the south, and she settles their troubles. 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 the group puts their trust in the wisdom of a benevolent authority figure.

What universal human values have changed for one or more characters in the scene? Which one of those value changes is most important and and should be included in the storygrid spreadsheet?

When in doubt, the storygrid 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 Wonderful 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. The value shift is clear uncertainty to stability and unknown to known. Question number 4 what story event sums up the scenes on the ground, actions, essential tactics, and value change? We will enter that event in the story grid spreadsheet.

Dorothy trades the golden cap to get back to Kansas, and Glinda uses the wishes locked within to send the lion, the Scarecrow, and and the tin Woodman home. Glinda tells Dorothy to command her silver shoes to take her back to Kansas. Now let's examine how the scene abides the five Commandments of storytelling. What's the inciting incident?

The team enters Glinda's throne room. What's the turning point? Progressive complication.

Glinda won't tell Dorothy how to get home without her handing over the Golden Captain. What's the crisis? It's an irreconcilable goods choice. If Glinda grants Dorothy's wish, her friends will be stranded. If she doesn't, Dorothy will be stranded. What's the climax?

Dorothy willingly gives Glinda the golden cap. What's the resolution?

All four find home.

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 Storygrid Masterwork podcast. I'll see you next time, my prettiest.