discussion of Rushdie’s book or of the film itself around it:

Order Description

select one of the following quotations from Salman Rushdie’s book, The Wizard of Oz, and build a discussion of Rushdie’s book or of the film itself around it:

• “‘Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore,’ she says, and that camp classic of a line has detached itself from the movie to become a great American catchphrase, endlessly recycled…” (33).

• “What she sees through the window is a sort of movie—the window acting as a cinema-screen, a frame within the frame—which prepares her for the new sort of movie she is about to step into” (Rushdie 30).

• “‘Over the Rainbow’ is, or ought to be, the anthem of all the world’s migrants…It is a celebration of Escape, a grand paean to the Uprooted Self, a hymn—the hymn—to Elsewhere” (Rushdie 23).

• “To look at this photograph is to look into a mirror; in it we see ourselves. The world of The Wizard of Oz has possessed us. We are the stand-ins now” (Rushdie 46).

• “The Wizard, however, was right there in Bombay…It took me half a lifetime to discover that the Great Oz’s apologia pro vita sua fitted my father equally well—that he, too, was a good man, but a very bad Wizard” (Rushdie 9-10).

• “Home again in black and white, with Auntie Em and Uncle Henry and the rude mechanicals clustered round her bed, Dorothy begins her second revolt, fighting not only against the patronizing dismissals of her own folk but also against the scriptwriters, and the sentimental moralizing of the entire Hollywood studio system. It wasn’t a dream, it was a place, she cries piteously. A real, truly live place! Doesn’t anyone believe me? Many, many people did believe her” (Rushdie 56-57).

Feel free to take your essay in any meaningful direction you wish. The essay should, however, be a unified whole and should support your points with specific examples from Rushdie’s book and/or from the film.

Somewhere in the first paragraph, your essay should clearly state your thesis in a sentence or two.

Somewhere in the concluding paragraph, your essay should explicitly or implicitly provide a reason why this thesis might be of interest to a reader of Rushdie’s book or a viewer of The Wizard of Oz.

Cite page numbers in parentheses in your text like this: (Rushdie 45), and cite shots or scenes from the film like this: …in the “Lions and Tigers and Bears” scene (37:05 – 42:30). Be sure to include a Works Cited page, too. The entries will look like this (depending on which “texts” you use):

Rushdie, Salman. The Wizard of Oz. London: BFI, 1992.

The Wizard of Oz. Dir. Victor Fleming. MGM, 1939.

Your paper should be ~2 pages in length, double-spaced. Please use a 12-point font, with 1” standard margins all around.

discussion of Rushdie’s book or of the film itself around it:

Order Description

select one of the following quotations from Salman Rushdie’s book, The Wizard of Oz, and build a discussion of Rushdie’s book or of the film itself around it:

• “‘Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore,’ she says, and that camp classic of a line has detached itself from the movie to become a great American catchphrase, endlessly recycled…” (33).

• “What she sees through the window is a sort of movie—the window acting as a cinema-screen, a frame within the frame—which prepares her for the new sort of movie she is about to step into” (Rushdie 30).

• “‘Over the Rainbow’ is, or ought to be, the anthem of all the world’s migrants…It is a celebration of Escape, a grand paean to the Uprooted Self, a hymn—the hymn—to Elsewhere” (Rushdie 23).

• “To look at this photograph is to look into a mirror; in it we see ourselves. The world of The Wizard of Oz has possessed us. We are the stand-ins now” (Rushdie 46).

• “The Wizard, however, was right there in Bombay…It took me half a lifetime to discover that the Great Oz’s apologia pro vita sua fitted my father equally well—that he, too, was a good man, but a very bad Wizard” (Rushdie 9-10).

• “Home again in black and white, with Auntie Em and Uncle Henry and the rude mechanicals clustered round her bed, Dorothy begins her second revolt, fighting not only against the patronizing dismissals of her own folk but also against the scriptwriters, and the sentimental moralizing of the entire Hollywood studio system. It wasn’t a dream, it was a place, she cries piteously. A real, truly live place! Doesn’t anyone believe me? Many, many people did believe her” (Rushdie 56-57).

Feel free to take your essay in any meaningful direction you wish. The essay should, however, be a unified whole and should support your points with specific examples from Rushdie’s book and/or from the film.

Somewhere in the first paragraph, your essay should clearly state your thesis in a sentence or two.

Somewhere in the concluding paragraph, your essay should explicitly or implicitly provide a reason why this thesis might be of interest to a reader of Rushdie’s book or a viewer of The Wizard of Oz.

Cite page numbers in parentheses in your text like this: (Rushdie 45), and cite shots or scenes from the film like this: …in the “Lions and Tigers and Bears” scene (37:05 – 42:30). Be sure to include a Works Cited page, too. The entries will look like this (depending on which “texts” you use):

Rushdie, Salman. The Wizard of Oz. London: BFI, 1992.

The Wizard of Oz. Dir. Victor Fleming. MGM, 1939.

Your paper should be ~2 pages in length, double-spaced. Please use a 12-point font, with 1” standard margins all around.