Salman Rushdie's "The Wizard of Oz"

In his detailed analysis of The Wizard of Oz Salman Rushdie discusses how the film's explicit message, "There's no place like home," is actually contradictory to the actual message of the film. Rushdie points out how Oz is a much more magnificent place than Kansas, how Dorothy is never treated like a child in Oz, but instead like a heroine, and how it was in Oz, under her own supervision, and not in Kansas that Dorothy asserts herself as a young woman and grows into an adult and hero. Dorothy's character in the Wizard of Oz is dynamic, and certainly matures over the course of the movie; Dorothy becomes a mother figure for the Tin Man, Scarecrow, and Cowardly Lion, and finds the courage to confront the Wicked Witch of the West instead of running away. However, despite all the wonders of Oz and the growing experiences it provides Dorothy with, throughout the movie all Dorothy wants to do is go home. I believe that Rushdie is mistaken in his interpretation of the film's central theme. Despite all the glitz, glamour, and magic of Oz, it is not where Dorothy wants to be. Despite being surrounded by wonder and beauty throughout her time "over the rainbow," she sobs and cries about how she misses her Auntie Em. Dorothy believed that everything would be perfect "over the rainbow," that her troubles would "melt like lemon drops;" however, upon finding herself in Oz she is supremely unsatisfied, and longs to return to Kansas. Therefore I believe the true message of the theme is that truth and happiness are not be found in perfect, colorful lands (which can be translated into perfect, colorful material goods, or perfectly beautiful spouses, or anything else that looks wonderful on the outside but may leave you hollow on the inside), but instead in the people you love. It hurt Dorothy most to leave her new friends, not the glittering Emerald City, but it hurt even more to be away from the people she loved most, her family. Finally, unlike Rushdie I truly believe there is "no place like home," only the home The Wizard of Oz asks us to appreciate is not a place, but instead the group of people whom we love.