In the
movie, The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy is
taken to the magical Land of Oz, where she has to fight a witch and flying
monkeys and team up with a scarecrow, tin man, and cowardly lion. The movie
takes place in two completely separate realities. The first is Dorothy’s home
in Kansas, which is depicted in black and white, and the second is the Land of
Oz, which is depicted in Technicolor. The color change signifies the change of
worlds. At the end of the movie, Dorothy wakes up in bed in Kansas and her
family members attempt to convince her that she dreamed the entire experience,
while Dorothy swears it actually occurred. At the end of the movie, the
question remains, “was Dorothy’s experience really a dream?”
I think The Wizard of Oz symbolizes self-discovery and self-growth. It
blurs the line between what is real and what is imaginary but uses this mix to
overcome real life problems. The people
Dorothy meets in the Land of Oz all resemble individuals she already knew in
Kansas in different forms. The scarecrow, tin man, and lion are her brothers
and the witch is her awful neighbor. While the Land of Oz is obviously a
fictional realm in Dorothy’s mind, the personalities of the characters who
surround her, while a bit over the top, portray the real life characteristics
of her family, friends, and enemies.
Rene Descartes claims that the mind
is all that can be used to understand oneself and reality. He disregards imagination,
assuming that it cannot be used to understand reality at all, as the
imagination could be used to make assumptions that are not true. He also
disregards the senses, as what you perceive may not actually be what is true.
He uses the example of melted wax, as melted wax is still wax, though it is not
perceived that way through the senses. I think The Wizard of Oz highlights Descartes’s point that knowledge is the
primary factor in perceiving reality. However, I think it displays how both the
imagination and the senses aid human knowledge in deciphering reality.
What Dorothy perceives through her
senses while dreaming is not real but the problems the characters deal with
are. The scarecrow wishes to be smarter, the tin man wants to find love, and the
lion deals with the very human issue of fear. Dorothy herself wants to go home,
which makes sense, as she has just run away from home and, upon returning,
locks herself in a storm shelter where her dream occurs. Dorothy also discovers
the importance of her family and friends, as she asserts, “there’s no place
like home” at the end of the movie. While the Land of Oz is completely made up
by Dorothy’s imagination, what she imagines and perceives there allows her to
use her knowledge to learn lessons of love, confidence, and the importance of
those closest to her. Her dream helps her to discover what is important to her
in life.
While Descartes disregards
imagination and the senses, I think The
Wizard of Oz displays how they can all be used to understand reality. While
Dorothy perceived and imagined fiction, she uses her knowledge of what occurred
in her dream to better her life. I think The
Wizard of Oz also displays how far humans can take imagination. The movie
made me think of times when I’ve had a dream so vivid it is hard to convince
myself it was “just a dream” when I wake up. I think this is where human
knowledge truly plays a role in deciphering reality. While dreaming, I imagine
what happens and while I am technically asleep in bed, it appears as if I
perceive reality around me. It is my human knowledge of what is real and
imaginary when I wake up that allows me to convince myself “it was just a
dream.” While imagination and the senses play a large role in perceiving
reality, I do agree with Descartes that knowledge is what allows us to reason
out the different between what is real and what is not.
So, I have to say, Descartes reading was a bit blurred for me when I originally read it. After further clarification from your post (which I'm extremely thankful for, honestly), it's safe to say that I have a better grip on the readings. In the last paragraph, where you differentiate between reality and dreams, I think that is exactly the difference. However, can't help but go back to our class discussion, can we really trust our perceived reality? For example, we mentioned schizophrenic patients and their distorted reality. They don't have that filter that says, "oh my god, I really CAN'T fly, can I?" They have the same reality as all of us - even with the senses. What do you think Descartes would say about that? I mean, we can definitely say it's their imagination, but they don't realize that and I'm not entirely sure how to interpret those cases in terms of Descartes. The perceived senses thing and reality is absolutely what I would say connects us to reality. I think further proof of this is how sometimes sense deprivation can really be the death of a person's mind, you know? That is proof enough that senses and reality go hand-in-hand.
ReplyDeleteI never in all of my life thought I could ever draw a philosophical thought out of one of my childhood movies, but I was wrong. There can be a strong argument made that not only does our intellect define who we are and how we experience things but also our senses and imagination. It is all of those things together that make us humans, and one can argue they play an equal role in the way we perceive the world. I mean what is life if we do not use our senses to experience the world, imagination to want to change it, and our knowledge to actually do it.
ReplyDeleteAs soon as I began to read your post, I knew exactly where it was going. However, I'm with Ben, I never would have thought I'd be in the situation where I have to decide what's real and what's fake from a childhood movie that, up until now, I was terrified to watch (I was an easily scared child obviously). We all know that Dorothy experienced so may things while in the land of Oz, but were they actually a reality? What you said makes sense, they may not have been real to her friends or family, but they were very real to her. Who cares if her friends and family don't believe her? Her experiences in her "dream" have the potential to make her an even better and more compassionate person.
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