History Literature / TheWonderfulWizardofOz

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The Wicked Witch of the East was killed and turned to dust, the Tin Woodsman kills several animals, and the Wicked Witch of the West turned into a puddle and was swept out the door. The third book establishes that no one can die in Oz. Even if you have [[CompleteImmortality your head cut off]], you'll [[AndIMustScream still be alive and aware]] (albeit in no pain).

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: W. W. Denslow's illustrations depict Dorothy as a very little girl with brown GirlishPigtails. Starting with the third book, John R. Neill codified her as a 9-12 year old with a blonde TwentiesBobHaircut. Most books follow suit.

* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Blue is the colour of the Munchkins and Green is the colour of the Emerald City. Witches all wear white so when the Munchkins see Dorothy wearing her white and blue checked dress they assume she is a witch as well as a friend to them because of those colours. Furthermore, yellow is the favorite color of the Winkies in the West (they're even called Yellow Winkies), and red for the Quadlings of the South. Kansas praire is described as gray due to the sun and the wind: Gray are the houses, the fields and even the grass, [ColourCodedEmotions Uncle Henry and aunt Emma, who never laughed, were gray too]], Toto was a little black dog that made Dorothy laugh, and saved her from growing as gray as her other surroundings.

-->''"From the Land of Oz,"'' said Dorothy gravely. ''"And here is Toto, too. [[TheresNoPlaceLikeHome And oh, Aunt Em! I'm so glad to be at home again!"'']]

* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Blue is the colour of the Munchkins and Green is the colour of the Emerald City. Witches all wear white so when the Munchkins see Dorothy wearing her white and blue checked dress they assume she is a witch as well as a friend to them because of those colours. Furthermore, yellow is the favorite color of the Winkies in the West (they're even called Yellow Winkies), and red for the Quadlings of the South.

-->''"From the Land of Oz,"'' said Dorothy gravely. ''"And here is Toto, too. And oh, Aunt Em! I'm so glad to be at home again!"''

-->Aunt Em had just come out of the house to water the cabbages when she looked up and saw Dorothy running toward her.//
''"My darling child!"'' she cried, folding the little girl in her arms and covering her face with kisses. ''"Where in the world did you come from?"''//
''"From the Land of Oz,"'' said Dorothy gravely. ''"And here is Toto, too. And oh, Aunt Em! I'm so glad to be at home again!"''//

* AWorldHalfFull: In the first five paragraphs of the novel, the great Kansas prairies is established as a place where the sun had baked the plowed land into a gray mass, with little cracks running through it. The house, Uncle Henry and aunt Em had been made as gray as the praire by the unforgiving sun, they never laughed, and they lived in a house with only a room, in PerpetualPoverty. However, '''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.'''. It’s those words that’s transform Kansas from a CrapsackWorld into AWorldHalfFull, and that establish the true reason Dorothy needs to return to Kansas: She is the only thing between two persons and despair. This idea, that the only thing human beings truly need is each other (or a dog) is the CentralTheme of the book.

* HomeSweetHome: Dorothy's only thought is to get home to her aunt and uncle.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: The Tin Woodman. Sweetest, nicest, most loyal guy you'd ever encounter. Cried himself rusted over accidentally killing a harmless bug. ''Threaten'' an innocent life, and his axe will be used to make the offender a head shorter.

* ItWasWithYouAllAlong: Dorothy is an example.

* SinglePaletteTown: The Emerald City and each of the four quadrants of Oz: blue for the Munchkins to the east, yellow for the Winkies to the west, and red for the Quadlings to the south. Though this book does not mention it, the Gilikins in the north have purple.

* {{Treants}}: The Fighting Trees are a take on this [[UrExample that predates most well-known uses]]: they precede Tokien's Ents by five and a half decades or so, and resemble trees with human-like faces and arm-like branches that attack intruders by grabbing them or throwing their own fruit at them. While they don't have the ambulatory nature of later treants, they still share their dislike for interlopers in their woods -- their purpose seems to be to keep intruders from entering the enchanted forest behind them, as Dorothy and her group find out when they try to enter it and the trees attack them.

* TheseusShipParadox: The Tin Woodman pissed off a witch who enchanted his ax so that it would cut off pieces of him, and he went to a tinsmith to replace the missing parts. Eventually he was made entirely out of tin - but since it was a gradual process, he's still human Nick Chopper and not a new person.

* AWizardDidIt: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in the overall Oz chronicles, many of the witches [[{{mythopoeia}} fulfill the same niche]] as [[TheMaker creator gods and godlings]] in most other fantasy universes and many real world religions, particularly the [[FantasyPantheon Good Witches of the North and South]].

* LogicalWeakness: The Scarecrow, being cloth and straw, is afraid of fire. The Tin Woodman will rust at the joints and become unable to move if he is in prolonged contact with water.

* BondVillainStupidity: The Wicked Witch of the West is too concerned about self-preservation to even try to steal Dorothy's silver slippers (due to her fear of the dark and her weakness against water). Of course, she later wises up and steals one slipper using a cheap shot (read: invisible brick). Unfortunately for her, when Dorothy's slippers are messed with, it's a BerserkButton; Dorothy swiftly retaliates by weaponizing the Witch's weakness and mopping up the remains.
** Justified - In the novel, the Good Witch of the North put a protection spell on Dorothy in addition to granting her the shoes. This is why both the Winged Monkeys and the Witch are afraid to harm her. Of course, that didn't prevent the Witch in either version from torturing Dorothy's ''friends'' to get her compliance. [[note]] In [[Literature/TalesOfTheMagicLand Volkov's version]], the silver shoes themselves protect Ellie (Dorothy) from harm, and she never removes them, even when sleeping.[[/note]]

* DungeonMaster: The Wizard

* FairyTale: ''Wizard of Oz'' was Baum's attempt to write an "American" fairy tale. A supposedly less violent and frightening version, he said. Speaking of which…

* MagicalAccessory

* ParentalBonus

* ShadowDictator: The Wizard
* ShiningCity: The Emerald City.
* ShroudedInMyth: The Wizard

* TalkingAnimal: The Lion.

* [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes Why Did It Have To Be Fire?:]] The Scarecrow mentions to Dorothy that the only thing he's afraid of is a lighted match. Given his situation, his fear is entirely justified (see KillItWithFire above).
* WitchSpecies

* AWizardDidIt: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in the overall Oz chronicles, many of the witches [[{mythopoeia}} fulfill the same niche]] as [[TheMaker creator gods and godlings]] in most other fantasy universes and many real world religions, particularly the [[FantasyPantheon Good Witches of the North and South]].

* AWizardDidIt: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in the overall Oz chronicles, many of the witches [[{mythopoeia fulfill the same niche]] as [[TheMaker creator gods and godlings]] in most other fantasy universes and many real world religions, particularly the [[FantasyPantheon Good Witches of the North and South]].