12. The Wizard of Oz has been interpreted as both a religious and atheistic allegory at the same time
In the decades since original publication, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” has been recurrently used by Christians as a religious allegory similar to that of C.S. Lewis’s “The Chronicles of Narnia” series. Citing the yellow brick road as a symbolic representation as the path to spiritual enlightenment, the characters encountering various forms of sin and temptation along their journey to the Emerald City – itself interpreted as a wondrous paradise for the righteous – or the Wicked Witch being destroyed by water in reference to the Christian rite of baptism, several instances of religious iconography and depiction have been drawn from Baum’s novel.
Ironically, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” has concurrently been interpreted by some as an early example of atheism in children’s literature. The omnipotent and supposedly God-like ruler of Oz, the Wizard, is revealed to be nothing more than mortal playing tricks for his own benefit, whilst the Emerald City is only green because everybody chooses to wear glasses to perceive it in such light as part of a mass delusion. Advocates of an atheistic reading of the novel contrarily assert the Land of Oz is a world characterized by illusion and duplicity rather than truth and morality, an argument reinforced perhaps by the fact Christian groups in the United States sought to ban the book at the time of publication on the grounds of blasphemy for allegedly denigrating the divine.