Burn This City (Narnia/Oz)

Narnia:
The Chronicles of Narnia was written around the time of WWII so Lewis incorporates the idea of dictatorship. The people of Narnia are in fear of the White Witch who rules them with an iron fist. The children come and talk of a different time and place and eventually usher in a time of peace alongside Aslan.

Oz:
The Wizard of Oz has Dorothy go to a land of people who are under the fear of wicked Witches to the point that the Munchkins do not leave their houses. Dorothy comes and talks about a different time and place and in the end helps rid them of evil.


Both demonstrate a Marxist view of oppression. Both have the protagonist usher in a time of peace after overthrow the disruptive powers. The realities of both are that there is a real and fake world. Both fake worlds are made in the minds of the people in it. Dorothy falls into a coma, and as a result dreams up Oz while putting people she knows into her dream as characters. The kids in go into Narnia on accident but do not incorporate real people into it. Oz and the real world are connected through the mind of Dorothy which is postmodern. Narnia is created by the minds of the kids and show an innocence of child fantasizing and imagination. In Oz, Dorothy is important and people listen to her which they didn’t in Kansas. In Narnia the kids are important while they’re not in England. So in both alternative worlds, people take up an importance that they don’t have in reality.

So all in all, there is reality, and then there is what our imagination can create. The kids acted like Narnia existed. Dorothy acted like Oz existed. It was all real to them, but they knew the whole time in both stories that it wasn’t reality.