Station Eleven vs The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard in The Wizard of Oz and the prophet from Station Eleven have many

characteristics that make them comparable to each other. Both the Wizard and the prophet are

respected and feared by the people under their command. However, while the prophet and the

Wizard of Oz are revered as these great rulers, the people they are supposedly responsible for

often suffer from their flawed leadership styles. Both the prophet and the Wizard rely on the faith

of their people to stay in power.

In real life, Jim Jones is a perfect real life example of the effect false prophets can have

on a group of people. Jones was the infamous leader of the Peoples Temple cult and is well

known for leading his numerous followers in a mass suicide by ingesting punch laced with

cyanide, an event that later became known as the Jonestown Massacre (Jim Jones Biography).

Through his actions as the head of this cult, he proved to the world just how terrifyingly real

people like the prophet and the Wizard of Oz actually are. The prophet from Station Eleven and

the Wizard from The Wizard of Oz are both extremely manipulative leaders that are worshipped

by a group of people who ultimately suffer from the unfavorable guidance of the man overseeing

their lives.

The Wizard and the prophet could be considered reflections of each other. In both stories,

the prophet and the Wizard of Oz are described as these terrifying, godlike presences that their

people both fear and respect. In Station Eleven, Mandel writes, The prophet. Something in his

tone made Kirsten want to run, a suggestion of a trapdoor waiting under every word (59). This

is the prophets first physical appearance in the novel and gives the first indication that there may

be more to the prophet than he initially lets on. Kirstens observation about the way he speaks
beautifully foreshadows the deceptive false prophet he is revealed to be later in the novel. Later,

Mandel says, a ripple of murmurs and gasps moved through the audience, but the prophet raised

a hand and they fell silent (60). From this line, the reader gets the sense that the prophets

people will ultimately obey him, even if they do doubt what he says occasionally.

The prophets terrifying presence among his people is comparable to how the people of

the Emerald City, along with what seems to be the entirety of Oz itself, live in awe of their

wondrous Wizard, even though nobody has actually seen him and they really have no genuine

proof of his supposed great and powerful abilities. Glinda the Witch of the North describes him

as the great and wonderful Wizard of Oz, to which the munchkins all bow respectfully. She

then states that the Wizard is very good, but very mysterious. However, Glinda encourages

Dorothy to blindly follow the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City to find him anyway,

seemingly sure that the Wizard will be willing to help her. However, when Dorothy and

company reach the Emerald City, the doorman reacts fearfully when he learns that they want to

see the Wizard, because nobody can see the great Oz. Nobodys ever seen the great Oz. Even

Ive never seen him (The Wizard of Oz). The people of Oz worship the Wizard the way they do

because people in general have a strong desire to be guided, especially when they do not know

what they are supposed to do next. Glinda, a magical being herself, believed that the Wizard

could help Dorothy because of this same blind faith. In Station Eleven, the people of St Deborah

also blindly follow their prophet because of the direction he provides to his herd.

A leader emerges when he can provide guidance to the people under his control. The

people of Oz and the prophets flock both suffer from the substandard guidance of their leaders.

Whenever the prophet addresses his flock in the novel, he speaks at length about how they are

blessed and pure. He tells them that they are the light that will save the world (Mandel).
Why, then, do the prophets people appear to be only just holding themselves together? In

Station Eleven, when Kirsten first noticed the little girl that was to be the prophets newest bride,

Mandel describes her as, A serious child, unkempt in a way that suggested neglect, her hair

tangled, her T-shirt collar torn (51-52). This girl, Eleanor, was so important to the prophet that

he was willing to harm other people in order to bring her back when she flees the town in order

to get away from him. And yet, he could not even be bothered to keep her clean and well clothed

when she was in his care, which is contrary to the prophets repeated assertions that his people

are blessed by following him. The prophet solidifies his position as their leader by acting as a

source of light in the dark world of Station Eleven. Similarly, in The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy is

thrust into a brand new world she does not quite understand, clinging to the idea of a magical

wizard that can solve all her problems simply because she needs to believe that she can get back

to Kansas to keep her hope alive. This reinforces the idea that people will follow a leader without

question even when all logic dictates that the leader in question is false.

Like the prophet of Station Eleven, the Wizard of Ozs people also suffer from his actions

as a skilled manipulator. Most of the plot revolves around the main characters quest to find this

great wizard and ask him to give them what they most desire. When they get to the Emerald City

where the Wizard of Oz dwells, however, Dorothy and friends are told that they must first bring

the Wizard the broomstick of the Wicked Witch of the West before he will help them (The

Wizard of Oz). Knowing that the Wizard is a fraud, this scene must be explained to mean that the

Wizard was simply giving the group a task he believed they could never accomplish to protect

his reputation as an all-powerful magical being. Rather than admitting that he cannot help them

and potentially save Dorothy and her pals from the potential danger, he allows the ruse to

continue, therefore leading the group directly into the Witchs clutches. Further, the Wizard of
Oz might have even seen this request as a convenient way to eliminate a known threat to his

kingdom while still remaining safely inside the Emerald City. This way, the people of Oz are

liberated from the Wicked Witch of the West, and the Wizard then gets all the credit without

even lifting so much as a finger. All because Dorothy and her traveling companions were

manipulated into believing in the Wizards power.

Just like the prophet in Station Eleven, the Wizard of Ozs power relies entirely on the

faith of the people in his domain. When Dorothy reaches the Emerald City to seek counsel with

the Wizard, the doorman expresses that nobody has ever seen him, not even himself. Dorothy,

understandably, asks him, Then how do you know there is one? The doorman, of course, did

not have a decent answer for her. Later, when the Wicked Witch of the West burns Surrender

Dorothy into the sky above the Emerald City, the townspeople immediately turn to their Wizard

for answers. But the Wizard has never showed his face in public, and he does not emerge then

either, even though the people of the Emerald City are frightened and seeking their Wizards

guidance and support (The Wizard of Oz). Why, then, do the denizens of the Emerald City have

so much trust placed in this Wizard who they have never even seen? The answer is simply that

they are able to have faith in him, and this faith is what allows the Wizard to remain powerful.

By never appearing in public, the Wizard allows his people to build him up grandly in their

minds, to conjure up this godly vision of a man who really is no use to them at all. If the Wizard

ever showed his face, he could ruin the grandiose facade that his people had imposed on him in

his absence.

The prophet in Station Eleven also relies on the faith of his people to keep his credibility.

Like the Wizard, the prophets people know next to nothing about him, including his real name.

In Station Eleven, when Sayid questions one of the prophets men about why they choose to
follow him, Mandel writes, Clancys a true believer. Steve too, probably most of the others. If

youre not a true believer, youre not going to talk about it (292). While this does allow for

some doubt among the flock, this boys comment leads the reader to believe that the majority of

the prophets people do truly believe in what this man is preaching to them because they desire

structure and stability. This prophet is a man who seems to contribute nothing positive to the

lives of the people of St Deborah by the Water, just like how the Wizard of Oz is revered by his

people and yet not present in their lives. These people believe in their false prophet, like the

people of the Emerald City with their Wizard, because of the very human need to be guided.

These people spent years of their lives in turmoil, surviving but not thriving in the wasteland

leftover after the virus killed so many of their own. The appearance of a prophet, a charismatic

man that promises the world, would have seemed very tempting to those who had nothing

already and therefore nothing to lose. Simply, they believe because they want to believe that they

will be rewarded for their loyalty. Both the prophet and the Wizard of Oz receive this same kind

of undeserved trust from their groups.

The prophet from Station Eleven and The Wizard from The Wizard of Oz are similar in a

variety of ways. Like the real life cult leader Jim Jones, the prophet and the Wizard of Oz are

false prophets that exploit a vulnerable population of people. They fulfil their peoples need for

leadership and community without providing them with the assistance they actually require.

Jones, along with the Wizard of Oz and the prophet of Station Eleven, illustrate that blindly

following a leader can only have disastrous results. The people that mindlessly follow the

Wizard of Oz and the prophet live in awe of their super-powerful leaders, even though the

Wizard and the prophet are both extremely deceptive in their dealings with the people. The

prophet and the Wizard of Ozs influence on their people is completely reliant on the belief that
the flock has in their supposed abilities, and likely would not be able to maintain their positions

without that blind trust. The prophet from Station Eleven and the Wizard from The Wizard of Oz

are similar because they are both poor leaders, lording influence over the lives of the people

under them even though neither the prophet or the Wizard of Oz are exactly what they seem to

be.

Works Cited page

"Jim Jones Biography." Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d.

Web. 26 Sept. 2016.

Mandel, Emily St. John. Station Eleven. New York: Vintage Books, 2014. Print.

The Wizard of Oz. Dir. by Victor Fleming, Perf. by Judy Garland and Frank Morgan. Metro-

Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, 1939. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.