The Scarecrow And The Tin Woodman Summary

The Scarecrow’s not that bright, let’s face it. In The Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, author L. Frank Baum develops his conflict around this major point. He creates this conflict using a simple diction, sparse imagery, a mocking, humorous tone, and more or less direct characterization of the Scarecrow as a foolish child. Finally, he uses this conflict to argue against the growing upper class, which in the early 1900s when The Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman was written was growing rapidly and contributing to a falling standard of living for the middle and lower classes.
From the outset of the story, Baum uses simplistic diction, making the story less wordy and more informal. His succinct descriptions of “black crows,” “the breeze swaying
them gently,” and the “poor straw man” serve to place focus on the actions taken by the characters, especially the Scarecrow, rather than their surroundings. As the events in the story unfold, Baum’s imagery becomes more and more flat, revealing less and less about the appearance or atmosphere where the story takes place. Instead, the reader is left to think only about the foolish actions the Scarecrow takes, which over and over again prove unfortunate for the tin woodman and for the Scarecrow himself.
Baum is clearly conscious of these unfortunate decisions, and his feelings show during the story. He takes a humorous but clearly critical view of the Scarecrow, whom he seems to believe is a complete fool. While he presents the Scarecrow as innocent and good-natured, he is clearly also mocking the Scarecrow, making comments such as “just as the tin man had said, the light Scarecrow flew into the air.” His tone here almost tired, Baum seems almost to be shaking his head at the Scarecrow’s antics.
Baum’s diction and tone together contribute to the characterization of the Scarecrow as a genuinely nice person, but one who has a small brain. He is shown to be good-natured and truly concerned for his friend’s wellbeing, but nonetheless unable to keep from stumbling into mistake after mistake, and dragging the Tin Woodman along with him. As a result of these character traits, the Scarecrow is the leading cause of the conflict in the story, namely, that he and the Tin Woodman are duped by a flock of crows and trapped in a tree before falling from the tree and being trapped in a bramble patch. It is not until the Wizard of Oz arrives and rescues them both that they are able to return home to the Scarecrow’s palace.
So what could this conflict stand for? What could be the purpose of the Scarecrow’s ridiculous antics, of his life in a palace despite his complete ineptitude? Baum wrote The Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman in the early 1900s, a time when the wealthy upper class, through techniques such as vertical integration and predatory pricing, were creating an ever-increasing gap between the upper and lower classes. It seems that the Scarecrow could symbolically represent what Baum saw in the upper class – the naïve fools who meant no harm but did much, and who despite causing much damage to the lives of others without even realizing it ended up living grand lives (represented by the Scarecrow’s palace) at the end of the day.
Baum’s efforts to create a conflict go to good use in this piece. He skillfully weaves simplistic diction, weak imagery, a humorous tone, and clear characterization of the Scarecrow into a lovable moron to produce a whimsical conflict. With an almost fable-like atmosphere, this story seems to be more than a simple children’s story, one which questioned the political sphere of its day.