The Personality Characteristics of the Scarecrow in "The Marvelous Wizard of Oz"
The reader is likely to be fascinated by the way the author explains the personality characteristics of some of the characters in the text when reviewing a piece of literature. The same feeling is expressed when reading L. Frank Baum's children's book "The Marvelous Wizard of Oz."
The Scarecrow: A Dependable and Trustworthy Character
The Scarecrow, a special creature, sticks out and seems to be the best representation of a person whom one would like while going on a tour. The Scarecrow is a dependable and trustworthy character whose ability to sacrifice anything for a friend shows that he is an apt companion for a dangerous trip. The Scarecrow is the first friend that Dorothy makes while traveling on the Yellow Brick road but he was protective despite dealing with a stranger. The Scarecrow is exactly what the reader expected him to be because he cannot get hurt because he is not human (Davis et al. 119). He states, “I don't mind my legs and arms and body being stuffed, because I cannot get hurt. If anyone treads on my toes or sticks a pin into me, it doesn't matter, for I can't feel it. But I do not want people to call me a fool” (Baum 35). Despite the fact that he clarifies that he cannot get hurt, he is nevertheless sensitive on how the squad looked at him as his self-esteem was dependent on it (Dahlbäck, Jönsson, and Ahrenberg).
A Loyal Friend
The character in The Scarecrow where he is perceived as a loyal friend is exactly what one would need when going on a terrifying journey. He is loyal to his friends and is thus ready to do whatever it took to ensure that they were safe. For example, in "The Search for the Wicked Witch" he ended up taking out his stuffing just to protect his friends and thus shield his pals from a fight. The Scarecrow states that “Many crows and other birds flew into the cornfield, but as soon as they saw me they flew away again, thinking I was a Munchkin; and this pleased me and made me feel I was quite an important person” (Baum 21). In fact, the other good thing about the Scarecrow is that he does not tire and enjoys the fact that he is in a position to provide a protective role to the rest of the travelers (Hansen 254).
Not Wasteful on Resources
Finally, it is also worth outlining that the Scarecrow is selected as the perfect mate in a journey because he is not wasteful on resources. The realization that he is not human and not animal means that there are not risks such as running out of food supplies in the journey. It will infer that like Dorothy, one would only have to worry about resources such as food and drink that will cater for themselves as the scarecrow is self-sustaining. It is outlined that all the Scarecrow did was to move and it is not stated that he got his energy from anywhere. The author writes “As for the Scarecrow, having no brains, he walked straight ahead, and so stepped into the holes and fell at full length on the hard bricks” (Baum 66). The statement underscores the fact the Scarecrow was reliable because he was moving, even though with some difficulty but one would count that he would not get thistly along the way (Steinfeld 101).
In summary, it is important to emphasize that the Scarecrow’s inhuman, loyal, and reliable nature is what makes him the best companion one would select for a journey. Overall, despite walking with strangers, he ensured that he remained useful all along, and is thus an inspirational character.
Works Cited
Baum, L. Frank. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. United States: George M. Hill Company, 1990. Print.
Dahlbäck, N., A. Jönsson, and L. Ahrenberg. “Wizard of Oz Studies – Why and How.” Knowledge-Based Systems 6.4 (1993): 258–266. Web.
Davis, R C et al. “SketchWizard: Wizard of Oz Prototyping of Pen-Based User Interfaces.” Proceedings of the 20th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. N.p., 2007. 119–128. Web.
Hansen, Bradley A. “The Fable of the Allegory: The Wizard of Oz in Economics.” Journal of Economic Education 33.3 (2002): 254–264. Web.
Steinfeld, Aaron. “The Oz of Wizard: Simulating the Human for Interaction Research.” Human-Robot Interaction ( … (2009): 101–107. Web.
