48 pages • 1 hour read
Elizabeth LettsFinding Dorothy
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Power of Stories and Storytelling
At the heart of Finding Dorothy is the importance of storytelling. Not only is the plot focused on the creation of The Wizard of Oz—both the book and the movie—but the core of Frank’s and Maud’s journeys. Elizabeth Letts shows how stories take people away from their ordinary lives to somewhere extraordinary. In the last moments of the book “Maud folded her hands in her lap and sat, utterly still, as the curtains parted, the veil lifting between this world and another” (339). For the Baums, books and the theater were about more than making money or becoming famous. Part of why Maud initially sets out to protect Oz and her husband’s books is that “[to] many people, Oz is a real place […] And not just a real place—a better place. One that is distant from the cares of this world” (13). Where the executive producers are looking to make a hit movie, Maud wants to protect the escapism that storytelling offers.
She learns about the power of storytelling from her husband during their first meeting, when he explains his views of theater and magic—“[isn’t] that what theater is? You conjure up something out of nothing—you build a world from the ground up from nothing but the images that dance around in your mind” (72). Frank and Maud’s relationship is challenged when Frank’s ambitions and creativity do not generate money for the family. Maud wishes she could regret the choices she made, but she remembers “the first time she’d seen Frank on the stage, in the theater, how she had fallen in love with his magical world” (217). Frank’s ability to create worlds out of nothing put them through hardships, but also created moments of happiness and joy. Many of his ventures failed, but he never lost his optimism and his love of telling stories.
Storytelling becomes an act of trusting someone else—to believe in the world they create, one must be willing to suspend disbelief and trust the person telling the story. Maud almost forgets this when Frank finishes the first draft of his book. His many failed creative endeavors make her protective of him, and she wants to ease his pain by reading his book and letting him down gently. It is only when she remembers his words, asking for her to believe in him, that she faces her turning point. Does she trust the storyteller, or is she incapable of suspending disbelief due to the constraints of reality? When she chooses to put the book back on the shelf unread, she not only chooses to trust Frank, but she also chooses to believe his story and believe in Oz. Faith pays off, quite literally, in an advance paycheck worth more money than they have ever seen in their lives.
The joy that reunites the family is even more important than money. The Baums navigate their love, losses, guilt, and struggles through Frank’s stories. On the lot of the movie, Maud accepts that “to make a truly great story, you’ve got to put an entire life into it—all the heartbreak, all the glory” (320). True storytelling not only takes an audience away from the real world for its duration—the best stories, the ones that stay with people, address the realities of the world and give hope that an ordinary person can come through them. This, above all, becomes the Emerald City at the heart of Oz.
The Position of Women in Hollywood
Women’s position in society improved in many ways between the 1800s—the early timeline of the novel—and the 1930s—the later timeline. However, women still face many challenges surrounding being in the limelight in the later timeline. The novel explores how women are mistreated in Hollywood and how they can respond. Specifically, Letts uses Maud’s interactions with Judy Garland, and Judy’s interactions with the producers, to explore how men attempt to keep women down and how women can fight back.
One of Maud’s first observations after talking with Judy Garland and being on set for a while is that Garland could “find a different life […] somewhere where predatory agents and fat men with cigars weren’t all looking to take advantage of her gifts” (168). Maud recognizes that women are regularly taken advantage of because men of the time see them as inferior. Maud cannot deny the reality that progress is slow.
The novel portrays how executives believe that it is acceptable to mistreat women and girls to get the results they want. When Judy struggles to deliver her lines the way the director wants her to, he “streaked across the stage toward her. With a loud smack, he slapped her across the face” (177). Though Judy’s mother suggests he do this, the director listens, demonstrating a disregard for Judy and her age. He believes that he can do whatever he wants to complete the movie, even when it causes harm.
Maud believes that women shouldn’t accept this abuse—especially unwanted romantic or sexual advances. When Maud finds out that one of the executives tried to force Judy to kiss him, she becomes outraged on Judy’s behalf. She insists that the behavior is inappropriate. Though Judy’s elders tell her to be nice to the studio men, Maud tells her:
Being nice means saying ‘Good morning’ and ‘How do you do?’ But if a man tries to touch you and you don’t want him to, you say no, and if that doesn’t work, you step on his foot as hard as you can, and if that doesn’t work, you poke him with the pin. He’ll squeal—and that will give away his bad intentions (186).
The daughter of a women’s suffrage leader, Maud fights the patriarchal power that dominates Hollywood. Through Maud, the narrative shows that women don’t have to accept the negative attention and power others attempt to hold over them. Though progress happens every day, there are still battles to fight. Maud works to encourage and inspire young women to stand up for themselves rather than accept the “norm.”
The Value of Education Versus Experience
Matilda Gage holds the education of women as one of her highest priorities. She believes that education opens opportunities to “right this wrong and many others” (31). She says she is referring to their neighbor harming a crow, but her meaning extends into righting the wrongs done to women in general. She refuses Maud’s initial requests for Frank to visit their home, saying that his “flighty and unstable profession” makes him a bad match (84). She emphasizes the value of education to Maud: “First, for you, a diploma, and second, a learned man. You deserve no less” (84). Matilda means well; she fights daily for women to have the right to attend college, acquire the education previously reserved for men, and better themselves in the world.
Maud sees the world differently than her mother. Where Matilda sees a diploma and education as freedom for women, Maud believes experiences are more important. During an argument with her mother, she uses the women of the past as an example to prove that a college education is not the sole determiner of intelligence, telling her mother that, “[by] that logic, every woman who has been deprived of an education, through no fault of her own, is no better than a man of straw” (110). She ends her education early to marry Frank, acknowledging that education is not what she wants.
Through Maud and her mother, the novel explores the idea of whether education or experience is more valuable. Letts works to demonstrate that both are valuable in their ways. Maud does not negate the importance of the education she receives but recognizes that “[perhaps] a person could learn more from being out in the world and seeing new things every day than from being shut up in a library” (109). While she values the books she reads for her college courses, she could “be reading these poems anywhere” (109). Maud receives the best of both formal education and life experiences. She uses her learning to help manage the household and finances while Frank chases his dreams. She sometimes wishes that Frank grounded himself more, but she lets him chase experiences, because their experiences make them who they are.
