SOURCE: Gilman, Todd S. “‘Aunt Em: Hate You! Hate Kansas! Taking the Dog. Dorothy’: Conscious and Unconscious Desire in The Wizard of Oz.” Children's Literature Association Quarterly 20, no. 4 (winter 1995-96): 161-67.

In the following essay, Gilman addresses Dorothy's possible unconscious desires in the film version of The Wizard of Oz and the fact that in Baum's Oz books Dorothy's desire to leave home rather than return is more explicit.

The quotation in my title—taken from a T-shirt popular in queer culture—bitchily suggests that in Victor Fleming's 1939 film adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, the rosy resolution we are left with (“There's no place like home”) is somehow at odds with the preceding portrayal of Dorothy's turbulent emotional life. Yet the film's happy ending has not failed to convince generations of viewers of its congruity with what comes before. Those satisfied with the ending see the events...