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margoslxix · 7 years

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“Wonderful Wizard,” Chapter 6

“The Cowardly Lion,” or “Dorothy Literally Slaps a Freaking Lion, What a BAMF”

With this chapter, our adventuring party is finally complete! It’s also important to note that.... the Lion.... is actually a lion. He’s not a furry. Nothing against furries or anything, but y’know, it just makes a lot more sense that way. The sense of scale in the 1939 movie will always bug me, since the Lion is definitely supposed to be Large, and does get used as a mount later. He’s got four legs and everything!

Also, this has nothing to do with anything, but the phrase “Meat Dog” to describe Toto always makes me laugh really hard.

Honestly, though, I think actually meeting the Lion isn’t even the most important thing this chapter. This chapter, more than anything, is like... Honestly, at this point, it’s kind of strange that no one has stopped to think “Gee, you know, maybe the powers were inside us all along?”

But I think part of it is, they’re too far in their own heads to really think about it in that way.

I mean, look at the Lion.

"’It's a mystery,’ replied the Lion. ‘I suppose I was born that way. All the other animals in the forest naturally expect me to be brave, for the Lion is everywhere thought to be the King of Beasts. I learned that if I roared very loudly every living thing was frightened and got out of my way. Whenever I've met a man I've been awfully scared; but I just roared at him, and he has always run away as fast as he could go. If the elephants and the tigers and the bears had ever tried to fight me, I should have run myself--I'm such a coward; but just as soon as they hear me roar they all try to get away from me, and of course I let them go.’”

This is normal animal behavior, dude. You’re not a special coward, you’re just a cat, dangit. Especially when Dorothy’s like:

"’You will be very welcome,’ answered Dorothy, ‘for you will help to keep away the other wild beasts. It seems to me they must be more cowardly than you are if they allow you to scare them so easily.’

‘They really are,’ said the Lion, ‘but that doesn't make me any braver, and as long as I know myself to be a coward I shall be unhappy.’”

And I think, more than anything, that’s what it comes down to. It has nothing to do with what the companions are literally lacking, it’s more about their ability to be, like... comfortable with themselves. We’ll talk about that some more after they actually get their items from the Wizard, but I think it’s important, so let’s just keep that in mind.

Because we all know that, from his own description, the Lion isn’t especially cowardly. He’s just a normal cat. But because he’s so convinced that he’s a mess and somehow Less Than, he’s got this sort of mental block preventing him from really feeling his best.

It reminds me a lot of like, people in my generation talking about how hard it is “to adult,” I guess. Like, I agree, it’s very difficult. But we’re surviving. The power is in us, and we’re not really any worse at it than any other generation. I think everyone’s got that fear, really. Everyone’s worried that there’s something wrong with them. But we’re surviving, and that’s important. The Lion is really a very good Lion, and we’ll see that in later chapters.

Actually, that brings me to Nick Chopper, who honestly steals the scene in this chapter. I mean, really:

“Once, indeed, the Tin Woodman stepped upon a beetle that was crawling along the road, and killed the poor little thing. This made the Tin Woodman very unhappy, for he was always careful not to hurt any living creature; and as he walked along he wept several tears of sorrow and regret. These tears ran slowly down his face and over the hinges of his jaw, and there they rusted. When Dorothy presently asked him a question the Tin Woodman could not open his mouth, for his jaws were tightly rusted together. He became greatly frightened at this and made many motions to Dorothy to relieve him, but she could not understand. The Lion was also puzzled to know what was wrong. But the Scarecrow seized the oil-can from Dorothy's basket and oiled the Woodman's jaws, so that after a few moments he could talk as well as before.

‘This will serve me a lesson,’ said he, ‘to look where I step. For if I should kill another bug or beetle I should surely cry again, and crying rusts my jaws so that I cannot speak.’

Thereafter he walked very carefully, with his eyes on the road, and when he saw a tiny ant toiling by he would step over it, so as not to harm it. The Tin Woodman knew very well he had no heart, and therefore he took great care never to be cruel or unkind to anything.

‘You people with hearts,’ he said, ‘have something to guide you, and need never do wrong; but I have no heart, and so I must be very careful. When Oz gives me a heart of course I needn't mind so much.’

NICK, holy HECK.

He really is the soft, compassionate heart of the team. The rest of them don’t particularly care about things like stepping on bugs, because it’s just a thing that happens when you’re very large and you walk around outside. It’s unfortunate, but it happens.

To Nick, though, it’s absolutely heartwrenching. The thought of causing death and misery (for reasons other than self-defense--trust me, this guy can be hardcore) absolutely tears him up inside. A bug is an innocent, and he’s the reason it’s dead.

What kills me is that he rationalizes this whole thing by doubling-down on this idea that it’s because he doesn’t have a heart. He feels like he has to work extra hard not to hurt people, because without a heart, he doesn’t actually have a conscious. This is obviously false, but it reminds me a lot of how... sometimes, people with very, very high empathy will scan as having very little. It happens a lot with autistic people, I find, but it’s not exclusive to autistic people. I think there’s a lot here, though, that’s relevant to mental health discussions in general. Because even though I made a connection to a developmental disability, I think there’s a lot of mental illness communities that might identify pretty heavily with this sentiment, too.

He does care. He’s a good man. But he’s afraid that he can’t, and that makes him care even more.

(Also, he says that he won’t worry as much after he “gets his heart,” but... he’s lying. We’ll talk about Nick and his love for bugs in a later book, when it’s actually plot relevant.)

#phoenix rereads oz #the wonderful wizard of oz #long post #l frank baum #the wizard of oz

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