Turn Me On, Dead Man

In L. Frank Baum's original story, Dorothy's slippers are silver—not ruby as they are in the 1939 MGM film. In Henry Littlefield's interpretation of The Wizard of Oz as a Populist allegory, the silver slippers play a key role in the political-economic imagery of the story. Where the yellow brick road represents the gold standard, the silver slippers represent the silver standard. [1]The Populists wanted "bimetallism", or the use of both silver and gold as the monetary standard. Farmers who joined the Populist movement embraced the idea of "free silver" as a way of easing the money supply and giving them greater access to credit. The issue took on a deeper meaning as a sort of salvation for farmers in the 1896 election. William Jennings Bryan seized upon this and used that imagery to great effect in his famous "Cross of Gold" speech in the 1896 presidential campaign. Bryan infused his speech with religious imagery, declaring that farmers were being crucified on a cross of gold. These images resonated with farmers but did not sway industrial laborers, who did not have the same interests.

And wouldn't you know that some have interpreted Dorothy's shoes as a sexual symbol? According to J.E. Cirlot in A Dictionary of Symbols, shoes are often symbolic of the vagina. [2]Cirlot points to Cinderella as a story that uses shoes to symbolize female sexuality, but others have interpreted The Wizard of Oz in this manner. In changing the color of Dorothy's shoes, the ruby slippers of the movie are more open to interpretation as a sexual symbol because, as Paul Nathanson points out, the color red is associated with "fire, blood and sexuality," which also hints at danger. Red in fairy tales symbolizes blood, so when the story is about a girl, this imagery suggests menstruation. Dorothy doesn't look for the shoes, she's not even aware of them. Glinda places the shoes on Dorothy's feet and says "There they are and there they'll stay." At first the ruby slippers seem like a curse as she tries to escape the Wicked Witch of the West, but eventually Dorothy comes to understand their magical power, just as a girl comes to understand the mysteries of reproduction. [3]Another reason that the movie lends itself more to sexual interpretation than the book is Judy Garland's age. W.W. Denslow's illustrations in the original edition of Baum's book show a much younger Dorothy than the adolescent Judy Garland. It's ironic that Henry Littlefield felt that in changing the color of Dorothy's shoes for from silver to ruby, the movie lost their symbolism. But I guess he wasn't thinking about the shoes in a Freudian sense!

Accord to Joey Green's Buddhist interpretation of The Wizard of Oz, the ruby slippers represent the "inner spark" within all of us. When Glinda instructs Dorothy never to take off the ruby slippers, she is telling Dorothy never to lose her inner spark. [4]In his New Age interpretation of The Wizard of Oz, Darren John Main suggests that the ruby slippers represent a person's principles. "Keeping tight inside your shoes" means never losing sight of those principles and falling prey to worshipping false gods. [5]

Several pairs of ruby slippers were made for the film, one of which is on display at the National Museum of American History Behring Center of the Smithsonian Institution. The ruby slippers were given to the Smithsonian by an anonymous donor in 1979, and have been one of the most popular artifacts on display since then. Rhys Thomas has written an entire book on the history of the famous shoes entitled The Ruby Slippers of Oz [6]and the ruby slippers even have their own fan club. A number of websites have interesting information about the ruby slippers. Be sure to take a look at The Century in Shoes special feature on the Ruby Slippers and Jim's Ruby Slippers Page.