The Wizard of Oz: Therapeutic rhetoric in a contemporary media ritual

Abstract

The Wizard of Oz is a yearly media ritual for American television viewers. The film performs the psychological and socializing functions of traditional fairy tales, yet also contains contemporary political orientations and social values. The rhetoric of this text and related artifacts can be understood as therapeutic insofar as the rationale of the story describes psychological problems and offers prescriptive remedies that viewers may adopt. The Wizard of Oz is a story of adolescent development wherein a female child performs a heroic quest. This narrative theme conveys prescriptive rhetoric about female roles and twentieth‐century situations, and reflects a cultural preoccupation with individual identity and its formation.