Lions, tigers, and Williams Jennings Bryan. Oh my!

You may be asking yourself: what does the innocent childhood tale of Dorothy in the wonderful Land of Oz have to do with the military occupation of the Philippine islands? Well, dear Shmoopers, did you know that L. Frank Baum's tale of twisters, wicked witches, and magical slippers was full of buried messages of political innuendo and infighting?

According to historians, Baum's story contains all sorts of commentary on the social, political, and economic state of America in 1900.

Baum was active in the political scene at that time and even support William McKinley's run for the presidency. He did this mostly because he couldn't stand William Jennings Bryan. And what better way for a writer to express his hatred of a politician than to write him into one of your books?

Baum thought that Bryan was acting like a complete coward by being so anti-imperialism, so he made the character the Cowardly Lion to criticize Bryan and his ideas. It's even been argued that the Yellow Brick Road of the book acts as an allegory for Bryan's views on the whole "Cross of Gold" debate.

With all the political imagery written into the book, we can't help but wonder who the Wicked Witch of the West and her hordes of flying monkeys represented. (Maybe we don't want to know.)