Chapter 2
The silver shoes on the yellow brick road--the foundational image cited by allegorists.
Read in Books4Free →The Populist / Political Allegory Debate
From The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Henry Littlefield's 1964 essay launched the famous debate that Oz encodes 1890s Populist politics: yellow brick road (gold), silver shoes (free silver), Scarecrow (farmers), Tin Woodman (industrial labor), Lion (William Jennings Bryan). Baum left no evidence confirming this, and scholars remain divided.
Chapter 23
Silver shoes lost over the desert when Dorothy returns home--read by Populist critics as the failure of bimetallism.
Read in Books4Free →Read or Listen to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz on Books4Free
Every chapter free to read. Free audio narration on the opening chapter. Plus an AI study assistant that knows the book.
Open in Books4Free →