The reader is immediately confronted with a mixture of fantasy and semi-reality, the credibility of a talking Scarecrow and rusted tin Woodsman without a heart each asserting that having the missing part of their being is essential to living happily. Does a child not immediately wonder how a scarecrow can talk without a brain? Can any creature live without a heart? Each character seems to be doing all right without these parts to an observer, but their need is internal.

The scarecrow will ask the Wizard for brains because “a fool does not know what to do with a heart” and the Woodman will ask for a heart because “brains do not make one happy and happiness is the best thing in the world” (61). The Scarecrow seeks a life of the mind, indicating the essential element of humanness is reason. The Woodman asserts happiness to be the goal of life and to attain it requires emotion, feeling, compassion, and love, which reside in the heart. These two could easily be Immanuel Kant and David Hume discussing what the purpose of life is and where the core of morality resides. Kant would say the way to a good life is through reason, whereas, Hume would counter, emotion, feeling, empathy, learned in experience is the path to happiness.

The third companion in this trinity is the cowardly lion. He is a coward by the inner awareness of his fear, despite the observation that when he roars all run from him. He is a coward by his own declaration (belief). The tin Woodman who wants a heart cries after stepping on a beetle, but is able to kill an attacking wildcat to save some field mice. Not having a heart, he takes great care not to be unkind to anything. He declares “you people with hearts have something to guide you, and need never do wrong; but I have no heart so I must be very careful” (72). Encountering a ditch too large to jump across by any except the “cowardly” lion, he confidently leaps across repeatedly to carry each of the pilgrims over this obstacle. Placing a tree across a second ravine and building a raft to cross a river, they continue their journey. Both solutions are cleaver products of the “mindless” scarecrow. The collaboration among the group is remarkable but I wonder if the young reader sees this element for the wild imagination required keeping up with the adventures.

Reaching the Emerald City, they are interviewed by the Wizard individually. He appears as a talking head to Dorothy, a lovely lady to the Scarecrow, a strange beast to the Woodman, and fire to the lion. I wonder what a child thinks each of these images represents. Each is told to go kill the Wicked Witch of the West in order to receive their desire/request. Does killing any being result in good?

The Winkies help them even though they are enslaved to the wicked Witch of the West. Can good come from slavery? Does a child know what it means to be a slave? What is the child thinking in this imaginary scene? Encountering the winged monkeys, they observe the mark on Dorothy’s head put there by the Good Witch of the North and comment: “we dare not harm this girl for she is protected by the Power of Good and that is greater than the Power of Evil” (148-9). What does a child think is Good or Evil?

Dorothy has the silver shoes that have power that the wicked Witch attempts to take away. In the encounter, Dorothy baptizes the witch with water, and being evil, she melts. The band of four is now free to return to the Wizard and get their wishes. On second meeting, the Wizard is exposed as a little old man who has been pretending to be a great Wizard. Nevertheless, he is able to give the Woodman a heart, the Scarecrow brains, and courage to the lion, because they had them all along and they believed/imagined it was possible. The Wizard knew it would take more than imagination to return Dorothy to Kansas. Does the child feel disappointment that the Wizard is a little old man? Is he/she deceived? Why are the fictional characters able to believe when the human child is hindered? Do children relate to these imaginary characters as possibilities, or does the Dorothy’s trusting them, invite their trust also?

Arriving at the palace of the Good Queen Glinda, Dorothy and her companions declare their intended purpose. The Queen takes the golden cap to apply the three wishes to return the three companions to their appointed destiny: the lion to the forest, Scarecrow to the Emerald City, and the Woodman to rule the Winkies. The parting scene is sad but each member attests to the good that happened along the way. If the adventure had not happened, each of them would have been less than they were. Experience and reflection turn what seemed bad into good. On return to Kansas, Aunt Em and Uncle Henry and surroundings are no longer gray and dull but transformed into the wonderful warmth, color, and love of family. Does the child learn that family, companionship, and relationship is one key to happiness and a full life?

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