Salmon Rushdie-The Wizard of Oz

After reading Salmon Rushdie’s The Wizard of Oz, I gained much more insight and knowledge about the film than I expected. Growing up I wasn’t too fond on watching The Wizard of Oz, when we watched the film in class that was the very first time I had watched the movie in its entirety. I knew basic background about the movie and that was all I knew. I wasn’t until reading the first few lines in Rushdie’s book, that I knew what the actual theme of the book was. I was quite surprised in some of the “hidden” elements that were displayed in the movie that I missed. I was blown away at some of the point Rushdie noted in his book, which helped me to understand the movie better. The comparison Rushdie made to his Over the Rainbow story and The Wizard of Oz itself were so similar it was bizarre. Each account gave almost the same depiction on a everyday issue that happens in life. You have a young kid who is unhappy with their life and thinks “the grass is greener on the other side.” They wish and hope for something “magical experience” to lift them from the “bad life” and enter them into a world of magical things. Something that struck me was Rushdie’s contrasting of going through a “rite of passage” and The Wizard of Oz. Without reading his book I would have never looked at the movie in that way. Then he goes on to talk about Dorothy having a epiphany and later realizing that won’t always be able to escape things in life and that her family will always be there for her. After reading Rushdie’s book and watching the film, not only did I gave knowledge and understanding, I added a new movie to my favorites.