Dorothy Gale

Dorothy Gale is a fictional character created by American author L. Frank Baum as the protagonist in many of his ''Oz'' novels. She first appears in Baum's classic 1900 children's novel ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' and reappears in most of its sequels. In addition, she is the main character in various adaptations, notably the classic 1939 film adaptation of the novel, '' The Wizard of Oz''.

In later novels, the Land of Oz steadily becomes more familiar to her than her homeland of Kansas. Dorothy eventually goes to live in an apartment in the Emerald City's palace but only after her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry have settled in a farmhouse on its outskirts, unable to pay the mortgage on their house in Kansas. Dorothy's best friend Princess Ozma, ruler of Oz, officially makes her a princess of Oz later in the novels.

Appearances

In literature

In the Oz books, Dorothy is raised by her aunt and uncle in the bleak landscape of a Kansan farm. Whether Aunt Em or Uncle Henry is Dorothy's blood relative remains unclear. Uncle Henry makes reference to Dorothy's mother in ''The Emerald City of Oz'', possibly an indication that Henry is Dorothy's blood relative. (It is also possible that "Aunt" and "Uncle" are affectionate terms of a foster family and that Dorothy is not related to either of them, although Zeb in ''Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz'' claims to be Dorothy's second cousin, related through Aunt Em. Little mention is made of what happened to Dorothy's birth parents, other than a passing reference to her mother being dead.) Along with her small black dog, Toto, Dorothy is swept away by a tornado to the Land of Oz and, much like Alice from ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'', they enter an alternative world filled with talking creatures. In many of the Oz books, Dorothy is the heroine of the story. She is often seen with her best friend and the ruler of Oz, Princess Ozma. Her trademark blue and white gingham dress is admired by the Munchkins because blue is their favorite color and white is worn only by good witches and sorceresses, which indicates to them that Dorothy is a good witch.

Dorothy has a forthright and take-charge character, exhibiting no fear when she slaps the Cowardly Lion, and organizing the Winkies' rescue mission of her friends who have been dismembered by the winged monkeys. She is not afraid of angering the Wicked Witch of the West, as shown when the Witch stole one of Dorothy's slippers, and in retaliation, Dorothy hurled a bucket of water over her, not knowing water was fatal to the witch. She brazenly rebuffs Princess Langwidere's threat to take her head for her collection — "Well, I b'lieve you won't." (Following Anna Laughlin's portrayal of the character in the popular 1903 Broadway version of ''The Wizard of Oz,'' Baum scripts Dorothy to speak in childlike contractions with ''Ozma of Oz'', which she continues to do throughout the series). This aspect of her character was somewhat lessened by her companionship of Ozma, in whom Baum placed the greater level of wisdom and dignity. Yet even this is complicated by her associations with her cousin, Zeb of Hugson's Ranch, a rugged, manly boy who does not take well to Oz and cannot think of anything much more interesting than defeating the Munchkins' wrestling champion, which he proves unable to do.

Dorothy has several other pets, including her white/pink/purple kitten Eureka, and Billina, a feisty talking hen. Popular in crossword puzzles is Dorothy's cow, Imogene, from the 1902 stage version, and is implied, though unnamed, in the 1910 film. Eric Shanower's novel, '' The Giant Garden of Oz'', features a cow named Imogene.

In the sixth Oz book by Baum, ''The Emerald City of Oz'' (1910), when Uncle Henry and Aunt Em are unable to pay the mortgage on the new farmhouse built at the end of ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'', Dorothy brings them to live in Oz; the plot features a tour of Oz as a marvelous, Utopian land in which they have escaped the troubles of Kansas. She becomes princess of Oz.

Dorothy is a standard character, having at least a cameo role in thirteen of the fourteen Oz books written by L. Frank Baum (while she did not appear at all in ''The Marvelous Land of Oz'', she is mentioned several times in that story, as it was her actions in ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' that led to the events in the former) and is at least a frequent figure in the nineteen that followed by author Ruth Plumly Thompson, getting at least a cameo in all her books except '' Captain Salt in Oz'' (in which neither Oz nor any of its inhabitants appear, though they are mentioned). Major subsequent appearances by Dorothy in the "Famous Forty" are in ''The Lost Princess of Oz'', ''Glinda of Oz'', ''The Royal Book of Oz'', ''Grampa in Oz'', ''The Lost King of Oz'', ''The Wishing Horse of Oz'', '' Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz'', and ''The Magical Mimics in Oz''. Most of the other books focus on different child protagonists, some Ozite, some from other Nonestican realms, and some from the United States, and as such, her appearances in the main series become more and more limited. In Jack Snow's ''The Magical Mimics in Oz'' (1946), Ozma places Dorothy on the throne of Oz while she is away visiting Queen Lurline's fairy band.

The magic of Oz keeps Dorothy young. In ''The Lost King of Oz'' (1925), a Wish Way carries Dorothy to a film set in Hollywood, California. She begins to age very rapidly to her late 20s, making up for at least some of the years that have already passed. The Wish Way carries her back to Oz and restores her to her younger self, but she learns then that it would be unwise for her ever to return to the outside world. Baum never states Dorothy's age, but he does state in ''The Lost Princess of Oz'' that she is a year younger than Betsy Bobbin and a year older than Trot, whose age was specified as 10 in Ruth Plumly Thompson's ''The Giant Horse of Oz,'' putting her at age 11 by the time she comes to live in Oz.

Thompson's Oz books show a certain intolerance in Dorothy. In ''The Cowardly Lion of Oz'', circus clown Notta Bit More arrives in the Emerald City "disguised" as a traditional witch, and Dorothy immediately starts dumping buckets of water on him without provocation (although she reacted this way on the assumption that the "witch" Notta was an evil witch like her old enemy, the Wicked Witch of the West). In ''The Wishing Horse of Oz'', she makes unsavory comments about the dark coloration Gloma and her subjects take on as a disguise, making them somewhat resemble black people. This behavior is not characteristic of Dorothy in Baum's Oz books. In ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz'', she pushes and slaps through crowds of black Tottenhots to rescue the Scarecrow, whom they are tossing around, but this is more an example of her gumption than any sort of prejudice, as she is otherwise kind and polite to the Tottenhots, and accepts that their ways are different from those who dwell in the Emerald City.

The authorized sequels of Sherwood Smith, '' The Emerald Wand of Oz'' and '' Trouble Under Oz'', center on the child characters Dori and Em, who live with their Aunt Susan. All three are indirect descendants of Dorothy, though their specific relationship to her is unclear.

Philip José Farmer's 1982 science-fiction novel ''A Barnstormer in Oz'' tells the story of aviator Henry "Hank" Stover — who is not surprised one beautiful spring day in 1923 when he flies his Curtiss Jenny biplane through a strange green cloud and finds himself in Oz. Hank knows that he is in Oz because his mother, Dorothy Gale-Stover, had been there back in 1890 and later told him of her experiences. Farmer's premise is that Dorothy only visited Oz once and told her story to a journalist named Frank Baum. This journalist would later create a series of books from Dorothy's only adventure in Oz. Farmer's Oz is on the brink of both a civil war and an invasion by the United States Army.

Dorothy's last name is never mentioned in ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' or ''The Marvelous Land of Oz'', the first two Oz books. It is disclosed in the third book ''Ozma of Oz'' (1907). The last name of Gale

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