The Wizard of Oz: The Book

SPOILER ALERT!!!

Not a lot of people have actually read the book. It's a good book, but a far sight more disturbing than the movie. Throughout the entire course of the book there are 128 deaths. That's an unequaled death toll for any other novel I've read. All of the deaths are caused by Dorothy and her friends. Not a single other character in the book kills anyone.

There are many differences between the book and the movie.

1. The shoes are silver in the book. MGM made them ruby in order to show off their new color technology.

2. The Good Witch of the North and Glinda aren't the same person. At the beginning the Good Witch of the North is an old lady. She gives Dorothy the shoes without really knowing what they do and she gives Dorothy a protective kiss on the forehead that keeps her from being killed by flying monkeys. Glinda's the good witch of the south. She doesn't do anything, but tell Dorothy that she has shoes that can take her home.

3. The Wicked Witch of the West isn't the sister of the Wicked Witch of the East (or if she is they aren't very close). In fact, she could care less that the other wicked witch is dead. The only thing that slightly interests her is when she has the chance to get the shoes from Dorothy.

4. The Emerald City is a cheep trick. The Emeral City is in fact just a city. The Wizard made it emerald by telling everyone that they would go blind from the sight of it if they didn't wear special glasses. These glasses are green tinted and just make everything look green.

5. Oz wasn't just a dream. In fact Dorothy return was later after Aunt Em and Uncle Henry had built another farm house.

6. The Wizard actually gives them what they want without the heartfelt speach. He fills the Scarecrows head with pins, needles, and bran. That is the new brain. He gives the Tinman a silk heart filled with sawdust. He gives the Lion a liquid to drink and says it's courage.

7. Dorothy gets to control the flying monkeys. (Who doesn't want to do that?) There's a magic cap with an enchantment (specifically made to make you look like and idiot if you perform it) that summons the monkeys.

That's enough of the differences I could go on, but those are the main ones.

Now to discuss the death toll. With 128 creatures killed by Dorothy and Company it's bit insane. They basically go on a murdering rampage only it's written off as insignificant which is scary since all creatures in the book are fully concious and equals to the others.

The Tinman
The Tinman kills the most. He is responsible for the deaths of 85 creatures. That's more than half. He kills 40 wolves, 40 bees, 2 kalidahs, 1 wildcat, 1 concious tree, and 1 beatle. The beatle was accidently stepped on and all the others were attacking them except the wildcat. I can see the reason for everyone of these deaths except the wildcat. The book explains how the Tinman does his best to look out for every creature because he doesn't have a heart. The a wildcat runs by chasing a field mouse and he decides it's wrong for the cat the hunt the mouse. So what does he do? He chops the head off the wildcat.

The Scarecrow
The Scarecrow kills 40 creatures all of which are crows. The Wicked Witch send them after Dorothy and Friends so he twists off all their heads.

Dorothy
Dorothy kills two witches. One inadvertantly with a house. The other she throws a bucket of water on when the Witch makes her angry. You'd think that someone as allergic to water as that would make sure not to leave a bucket of water laying around.

The Lion
The Lion kills one giant spider who was terrorizing a forest of animals.

While most of the killings can be justified, there is an insane amount of them. No other children's story has that many deaths. Heck most horror movies don't. The only book I can think of with more is the bible.