XPost: rec.arts.sf.written, rec.arts.books.childrens, alt.books.cs-lewis   
   XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: seawasp@sgeinc.invalid.com   
      
   William George Ferguson wrote:   
   > On Fri, 10 Sep 2010 04:47:00 +0000 (UTC), Andrew Barss   
   >  wrote:   
   >   
   >> In rec.arts.books.childrens Christopher Henrich    
   wrote:   
   >> : plenty of times. Let's see: Dorothy's parents die; her aunt and uncle   
   >> : are not very sympathetic; she is sucked into a tornado; the Wicked Witch   
   >> : of the East (IMS) is killed by a falling house... skip ahead ... the   
   >> : Wicked Witch of the West is dissolved by a bucket of water. Scary enough?   
   >>   
   >> Don't forget that at the end she has to leave a magical kingdom   
   >> in which she has lots of friends and adventures to go back to a   
   >> dustbowl farm with humorless relatives. Talk about a sad ending!   
   >   
   > She doesn't have to, she chooses to (the inhabitants of the magical   
   > kingdom, in both the book and the 1939 movie, wanted her to stay).   
      
   	Indeed. But her primary characteristics include loyalty to her friends   
   and family, and that meant Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. Note that she   
   believed that the two would miss her terribly, and this was indeed true;   
   it was stated (working from memory) that she was the "one spot of bright   
   color in their otherwise drab existence"; the two loved her very much   
   and did their best to take care of her AND protect her from the harsher   
   aspects of life, even at the expense of themselves.   
      
   	In the books they actually are clearly very good, very tolerant parents   
   to their adopted child, and after the second or third trip they accept   
   that Dorothy's stories HAVE to be basically true because there's no way   
   a young girl could just (as William points out) disappear from a ship in   
   a storm and reappear, alive and well and dressed, etc., in Australia, etc.   
      
   	(I snip the rest, as he said pretty much everything that needed saying)   
      
      
      
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