Response to Critical Article

When I thought of The Wizard of Oz, I never thought about how patriarchal it actually was.  This isn't such a big surprise though, seeing as I was very young when I first saw it and all the times after that.  It's only when I watch it now and read certain things about it like Rohrer's article.  I can see how the whole thing fits together; the shoes, the witches, The Wizard.  They all have an effect on Dorothy that sends her skipping down the yellow brick road to get right back to where she started, even though she'd been so unhappy when she'd left.  She was loved by her family, sure, but she wasn't respected, just like most women weren't at that time period.  Rohrer points out that even lovable Auntie Em was silenced by her beliefs and knowing that nothing she said could help in the scene where Gulch comes to take Toto away so he could be destroyed after what he'd done (3).
       I can see how the shoes fit in to all of this, as well.  They are red, which usually is tied together with danger, warnings, and "spilled blood" (Rohrer 3).  Rohrer also brings up many instances in which the red shoes were referenced to be something bad, often each female who wears them to be sentenced to death or sent to something worse (Rohrer 2).  The red shoes are a symbol for patriarchy, as I can tell, because of how they doom whoever wears them.  They may have been a gift, but they were a curse in disguise.
       All in all, from a child's perspective, I loved the movie.  It's a great tale about an adventure to a land of imagination and hope, with wacky characters and a very vivid landscape.  It has humor, friendship, and hope.  It's inspiring for those who don't believe they can do something because anything's possible when you put your first foot forward.  If you take that first step on that yellow brick road to get to your destination, you can find that the power and will to achieve your goal was inside you all along.