What a crazy weekend! On Friday, my fiancé and I witnessed the building next door burning. Fortunately, any fire was contained to one apartment, but no lack of smoke damage was sustained in the other apartments. Please pray for those people who are currently living out of a motel.
On Saturday, we went to see Oz: The Great and Powerful, with another couple after dinner. It is an excellent movie, I highly recommend you see it. Although, I told my fiancé that any child of mine will have to suffer through The Wizard of Oz before seeing the "prequel." The mysticism of it all is gone when you see this movie first. But watching the movie caused me to reflect on the symbolism of the Wicked Witch of the West being green. I will try to talk about this without going into great detail. The last thing I want to be is a spoiler.
The Wicked Witch of the West has been portrayed as green in the original movie, as well as this new prequel. But what can this mean. Green is often associated with envy, as well as jealousy. If we think about the original movie, the Wicked Witch is envious of the ruby red slippers, as well as jealous of Dorothy getting them. Water causes her to melt, disintegrate into the ground as though she never existed before. Water often symbolizes cleanliness, perhaps starting of a new life. This is especially true when you consider Christian themes within the movie. Water is typically a symbol of baptism, baptize meaning, "2a: to purify or cleanse spiritually especially by a purging experience or ordeal."
Typically, baptism is seen as a cleansing from Original Sin, the term most commonly used in the Christian faith to refer to the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. This is also the reason that the name is given here. It is similar to giving the child a "new identity" so to speak. In the Catholic faith, later in the child's life they will undergo the Rite of Confirmation. This is a sacrament in which the adult affirms their faith in the Catholic church. They also choose a new name, typically based on a saint. I went through this process. My chosen name is Catherine. This name is marked in the books as a part of the new identity.
But why would the Wicked Witch have this reaction to water? I read today that this was L. Frank Baum's nod to history, when accused witches would be thrown into water to see if they would drown. If the accused sank, they would be innocent. If they floated, they were guilty. I can also imagine this analogy being used as witches are typically deemed evil and can only be expunged with holy water.
I did a Google search for "L Frank Baum Christian themes" and a lot of different sites came up, explaining the potential congruities between The Wizard of Oz and the Bible. I think there are also a lot of similarities between the movie as well as history. The "prequel" draws a lot of allusion to the original movie, which is nice to see. Still....no child of mine will see the newer one without seeing the older one first.
Well I recommend you have a date night with your significant other and go see a movie, go out to dinner, or how about a quiet picnic on your living room floor. What you do doesn't have to cost money...it just has to mean something. In the meantime, enjoy a thing called, "La Vie."
No comments:
Post a Comment