What did Dorothy mean?

[Sculpt]

Dorothy tells us what she learned, but what does it mean?

Should be pretty simple, right? What do you think it means?

Just before Dorothy's clicks her slippers and returns to Kansas, Dorothy says what she's learned. I'm not too sure I know what the heck she meant. Can you help me out and tell me what you think?

Here's the actual script. I've edited it down to just include the context, and 'what Dorothy learned' is in bold type -- and the bold type is what I'm asking about.


DOROTHY
Oh, will you help me? Can you help me?

GLINDA
You don't need to be helped any longer.
You've always had the power to go back to
Kansas.

DOROTHY
I have?

SCARECROW
Then why didn't you tell her before?

GLINDA
Because she wouldn't have believed me. She
had to learn it for herself.

TIN MAN
What have you learned, Dorothy?


DOROTHY
Well, I -- I think that it -- that it
wasn't enough just to want to see Uncle
Henry and Auntie Em -- and it's that -- if
I ever go looking for my heart's desire
again, I won't look any further than my own
backyard. Because if it isn't there, I
never really lost it to begin with! Is
that right?

GLINDA
That's all it is!

SCARECROW
But that's so easy! I should have thought
of it for you.

TIN MAN
I should have felt it in my heart.

GLINDA
No. She had to find it out for herself.
Now, those magic slippers will take you
home in two seconds!

.....................
GLINDA
Then close your eyes, and tap your heels
together three times.

GLINDA
And think to yourself -- "There's no place
like home; there's no place like home;
there's no place like home."

DOROTHY
There's no place like home. There's no
place like home. There's no place like
home. There's no place like home.

[Bloof]

Never really thought that one out. If her hearts desire isn't in her own backyard, then she never lost it in the first place? How the heck do you work "There's no place like home" out of that. Horcrux would be good at this.

[Sculpt]

Never really thought that one out. If her hearts desire isn't in her own backyard, then she never lost it in the first place? How the heck do you work "There's no place like home" out of that. Horcrux would be good at this.
I know, right? What is her hearts desire? joining a traveling show, being with her aunt and uncle, going home, constantly changing? Why is it in the backyard? If it's not in the backyard, why does that mean she never lost it? ::roll eyes::

[Roiffalo]

if
I ever go looking for my heart's desire
again, I won't look any further than my own
backyard. Because if it isn't there, I
never really lost it to begin with!

Wait what? I always thought our moral was learned from the scarecrow, lion, and tinman... You know... The thing Winnie the Pooh taught us better:

http://68.media.tumblr.com/ba10a6e0b25a75a6dba0d07832522084/tumblr_mffsjr8l2f1rkame2o1_400.gif

[Sculpt]

Wait what? I always thought our moral was learned from the scarecrow, lion, and tinman... You know... The thing Winnie the Pooh taught us better:

http://68.media.tumblr.com/ba10a6e0b25a75a6dba0d07832522084/tumblr_mffsjr8l2f1rkame2o1_400.gif
Then after Dorothy tripped up that landing, why didn't they all laugh and say, "Oh, Dorothy.... We just need to get you home and let you take a stab at it next time." ??? ::big grin::

[Bloof]

"The fact remains that as a closing statement, Dorothy's summation is best heard once rather than being read closely."

[Sculpt]

"The fact remains that as a closing statement, Dorothy's summation is best heard once rather than being read closely."
"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" ::big grin::

[Abishai100]

I think Dorothy learned that everyday people are strange enough for her not to fantasize about being whisked away to some land of complete eccentricity.

That's what makes Dorothy like Alice (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_(Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonderland)).

I think in another lifetime, I was a mailman (maybe in Kansas)!


::wink::

[Sculpt]

I think Dorothy learned that everyday people are strange enough for her not to fantasize about being whisked away to some land of complete eccentricity.

That's what makes Dorothy like Alice (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_(Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonderland)).

I think in another lifetime, I was a mailman (maybe in Kansas)!


::wink::
Hi Abi! Maybe in another lifetime you gave a letter to a postal worker who took the letter to Kansas... ::wink::

Regarding your summation of what Dorthy learned... I think it's really easy to come up with what you think she learned, but what I'm really asking is: what do her actual words mean?

If you were going by her actual words, can you match up what you said with what she actually said?

DOROTHY
Well, I -- I think that it -- that it
wasn't enough just to want to see Uncle
Henry and Auntie Em -- and it's that -- if
I ever go looking for my heart's desire
again, I won't look any further than my own
backyard. Because if it isn't there, I
never really lost it to begin with! Is
that right?

[fudgetusk]

That always mystified me too. I think it is just garbled nonsense or a message for the Illuminati :)

Maybe it is Dorothy telling us not to dream about anything better. GRIM! Try and stop me.

[Sculpt]

That always mystified me too. I think it is just garbled nonsense or a message for the Illuminati :)

Maybe it is Dorothy telling us not to dream about anything better. GRIM! Try and stop me.
You're probably right on both accounts. The film itself begs symbolic messages. I don't know if the original writer ever wrote what 'things meant', but it'd be easy to make it mean almost anything.

[fudgetusk]

You're probably right on both accounts. The film itself begs symbolic messages. I don't know if the original writer ever wrote what 'things meant', but it'd be easy to make it mean almost anything.

It is a truly strange film and haunts my childhood. I think it has a place in a horror forum. Consider the scene where the witch is writing in the sky. She writes the letters 'surr' As if she is about to write the word 'surrealism'.

Definitely a surreal film.

Some people believe it is used in mind control programs.

https://kassandraproject.wordpress.com/2008/10/22/the-wizard-of-oz-and-monarch-slave-programming/

The Simpsons has a similar thing. We see the word SIMPS in the sky at the opening credits. Then the rest of the word appears. Suggesting the family are simps/simpletons.