Aunt Em is a
fictional characterA character is the representation of a person in a narrative or dramatic work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr through its Latin transcription character, the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its...
from the Oz books. She is the aunt of
Dorothy GaleDorothy Gale is a fictional character, the protagonist of many of the Oz novels by American author L. Frank Baum and best friend of Oz's ruler, Princess Ozma. Dorothy first appears in Baum's classic children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and reappears in most of its sequels. She also is the...
and wife of Uncle Henry, and lived together with them on a
farmA farm is an area of land, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibers and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single individual, family, community, corporation...
in
KansasKansas is a state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa tribe, who inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south wind," although this was...
. In
The Wonderful Wizard of OzThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W.W. Denslow. It was originally published by the George M...
, she is described as having been a "young, pretty wife" when she arrived at Uncle Henry's farm, but having been greyed by her life in Kansas, implying that she appears older than one might expect from her chronological age.
Em spends most of her life working on farms. In
The Emerald City of OzThe Emerald City of Oz is the sixth of L. Frank Baum's fourteen Land of Oz books. It was also adapted into a Canadian animated film in 1987. Originally published on July 20, 1910, it is the story of Dorothy Gale and her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em coming to live in Oz permanently...
, she states that she has raised
chickenThe chicken is a domesticated fowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other bird...
s for "nearly forty years." After confessing to Dorothy that their farm was facing imminent foreclosure, Em, Henry and Dorothy all move to the
land of OzOz is a fairy country containing four lands under the rule of one monarch.It was first introduced in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, one of many fairy countries that he created for his books. It achieved a popularity that none of his other works attained, and after four years, he...
to live for good in the
Emerald CityThe Emerald City is the fictional capital city of the Land of Oz in L. Frank Baum's Oz books, first described in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.-Fictional description:...
.
Aunt Em is a
fictional characterA character is the representation of a person in a narrative or dramatic work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr through its Latin transcription character, the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its...
from the Oz books. She is the aunt of
Dorothy GaleDorothy Gale is a fictional character, the protagonist of many of the Oz novels by American author L. Frank Baum and best friend of Oz's ruler, Princess Ozma. Dorothy first appears in Baum's classic children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and reappears in most of its sequels. She also is the...
and wife of Uncle Henry, and lived together with them on a
farmA farm is an area of land, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibers and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single individual, family, community, corporation...
in
KansasKansas is a state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa tribe, who inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south wind," although this was...
. In
The Wonderful Wizard of OzThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W.W. Denslow. It was originally published by the George M...
, she is described as having been a "young, pretty wife" when she arrived at Uncle Henry's farm, but having been greyed by her life in Kansas, implying that she appears older than one might expect from her chronological age.
Oz books
Em spends most of her life working on farms. In
The Emerald City of OzThe Emerald City of Oz is the sixth of L. Frank Baum's fourteen Land of Oz books. It was also adapted into a Canadian animated film in 1987. Originally published on July 20, 1910, it is the story of Dorothy Gale and her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em coming to live in Oz permanently...
, she states that she has raised
chickenThe chicken is a domesticated fowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other bird...
s for "nearly forty years." After confessing to Dorothy that their farm was facing imminent foreclosure, Em, Henry and Dorothy all move to the
land of OzOz is a fairy country containing four lands under the rule of one monarch.It was first introduced in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, one of many fairy countries that he created for his books. It achieved a popularity that none of his other works attained, and after four years, he...
to live for good in the
Emerald CityThe Emerald City is the fictional capital city of the Land of Oz in L. Frank Baum's Oz books, first described in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.-Fictional description:...
.
Princess OzmaPrincess Ozma is a fictional character in the Land of Oz universe created by L. Frank Baum. She appears in every book of the series except The Wonderful Wizard of Oz .- The classic books :...
appoints Em "Royal Mender of the Stockings of the Ruler of Oz" in order to keep her busy.
Her sister is married to Bill Hugson. It is never clarified in the books whether it is she or Uncle Henry who is Dorothy's blood relative. (It is also possible that "Aunt" and "Uncle" are affectionate terms of a foster family and that Dorothy is not related to either of them.)
She is featured slightly less than Uncle Henry in the Oz books, despite having a bigger role in the 1939 film
The Wizard of OzThe Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical / fantasy film directed mainly by Victor Fleming from a script by Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, Edgar Allan Woolf, and others and based on the 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum...
.
Ruth Plumly ThompsonRuth Plumly Thompson was an American writer of children's stories. She is best known for continuing the children's fantasy Land of Oz series after L...
gave her only two brief mentions in
The Royal Book of OzThe Royal Book of Oz is the fifteenth in the series of Oz books, and the first to be written by Ruth Plumly Thompson after L. Frank Baum's death. Although Baum was credited as the author, it was written entirely by Thompson...
and
Grampa in OzGrampa in Oz is the eighteenth in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors, and the fourth written by Ruth Plumly Thompson....
. She had somewhat larger roles in
John R. NeillJohn Rea Neill was a magazine and children's book illustrator primarily known for illustrating more than forty stories set in the Land of Oz, including L. Frank Baum's, Ruth Plumly Thompson's, and three of his own. His pen-and-ink drawings have become identified almost exclusively with the Oz series...
's
The Wonder City of OzThe Wonder City of Oz is the thirty-fourth in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors, and the first written and illustrated solely by John R. Neill.-Tone:...
and
The Scalawagons of OzThe Scalawagons of Oz is the thirty-fifth in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and continued by his successors; it is the second volume in the series both written and illustrated by John R. Neill.-Bell-snickle:...
and
Jack SnowJohn Frederick "Jack" Snow was an American radio writer and scholar, primarily of the works of L. Frank Baum. When Baum died in 1919, the twelve-year-old Snow offered to be the next Royal Historian of Oz, but was politely turned down by a staffer at Baum's publisher, Reilly & Lee...
's
The Magical Mimics in OzThe Magical Mimics in Oz is the thirty-seventh in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors, and the first written by Jack Snow. It was illustrated by Frank G. Kramer.-A new "Royal Historian":...
.
In
The Emerald City of Oz, she shows herself particularly unamenable to Oz, asking for a back attic room, simpler clothing, and is gauche enough to tell
BillinaBillina is a character in the Oz books of L. Frank Baum.She is a yellow hen tossed overboard in a storm with Dorothy Gale in the novel Ozma of Oz, the third Oz book, and a sequel to L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
that chickens are for broiling and eating without realizing that such a conversation would be deeply offensive. Uncle Henry has seen more of the world than she has, and is much more prepared to accept Oz as it is. In this book, unlike in
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, her speech patterns and accent indicators are very similar to Sairy Ann Bilkins, the title character of Baum's
Our Landlady, who, too, was quite set in her ways. Ultimately, though, she comes to the epiphany that she "ha[s] been a slave all [her] life," and is ready for her life to change.
Aunt Em appears occasionally in the works of Baum's successors in Oz literature; one notable example is
Eric ShanowerEric James Shanower is an American comics artist and writer, best known for his Oz novels and comics and the on-going retelling of the Trojan War as Age of Bronze.-Biography:...
's
The Giant Garden of OzThe Giant Garden of Oz is a novel written and illustrated by Eric Shanower, first published in 1993 by Emerald City Press, a division of Books of Wonder. As its title indicates, the novel is a volume in the ever-growing literature on the Land of Oz, written by L...
.
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical / fantasy film directed mainly by Victor Fleming from a script by Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, Edgar Allan Woolf, and others and based on the 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum...
In the film she is referred to as "Auntie Em" (real name Emily), and pushes Dorothy away when she is counting chicks. When Ms. Gulch arrives to collect Toto, Auntie Em tells her off, saying to her: "Elmira Gulch, just because you own half the county doesn't mean that you have the power to run the rest of us. For twenty-three years I've been dying to tell you what I thought of you! And now... well, being a Christian woman, I can't say it!" (Baum's character never mentions anything about religion beyond the implications of Sunday best clothing.) She is seen in the crystal ball in the witch's castle looking for Dorothy. And Dorothy is reunited with her when Dorothy awakens.
When Elmira Gulch arrives at the farm she says, "Mr Gale! I'd like to speak with you and your wife right away". Since Dorothy's last name is also Gale, this implies that Henry is her blood-uncle, and Em is his wife. Auntie Em was portrayed by
Clara BlandickClara Blandick was an American actress best known for her portrayal of Auntie Em in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:...
.
Return to Oz (1985) filmReturn to Oz is a 1985 film which is the semi-sequel to Victor Fleming's The Wizard of Oz. It was made by Walt Disney Pictures without the involvement of MGM, the studio that made the 1939 film. However, no approval was necessary, because by 1985, all of the Oz books on which the film was based...
Piper LaurieRosetta Jacobs, better known as Piper Laurie , is an American actress of stage and screen noted for her roles in the television series Twin Peaks and the film Carrie.-Early life:...
plays Aunt Em significantly 6 years younger than Blandick. She is intolerant of Dorothy's talk of Oz and presses that they are going to have two
mortgageA mortgage is the transfer of an interest in property to a lender as a security for a debt - usually a loan of money. While a mortgage in itself is not a debt, it is the lender's security for a debt...
s into her mind before taking her to
shock therapyShock therapy or shock treatment may refer to:* A form of aversion therapy where an electric shock is used as a negative stimulus* Electroconvulsive therapy or "Electroshock", the deliberate and controlled induction by electrical current of a seizure for the purpose of psychiatric treatment*Insulin...
administered by Dr. J.B. Worley. She mentions having a sister named Garnet who would loan them money for the therapy. Garnet may or may not have been intended to be Bill Hugson's wife. Nurse Wilson refers to her as "Mrs. Blue," which contradicts the MGM film, in which Henry's last name is Gale.
Other Adaptations
Em was played by
Queen LatifahDana Elaine Owens , better known by her stage name Queen Latifah, is an American rapper, actress, singer, model, and CoverGirl...
in the
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. It first broadcast on television in 1948...
made-for-television movie
The Muppets' Wizard of OzThe Muppets' Wizard of Oz is a 2005 musical telefilm directed by Kirk Thatcher and starring Ashanti and The Muppets. The film was produced by Bill Barretta and written by Debra Frank, Steve L. Hayes, Tom Martin, & Adam F...
where this character owned a diner. In the
VeggieTalesVeggieTales is a series of English language children's computer animated films featuring anthropomorphic vegetables. Developed by Big Idea, the films convey moral themes based on Christianity, often compatible with Judaism, spliced with satirical references to pop culture and current events...
episode
The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's is the 33rd episode in the VeggieTales series, and was released on DVD on October 6 2007 in Christian Bookstores and on October 9 2007 in other stores. It is based on the parable from the Bible, The Prodigal Son, and a parody of The Wizard of Oz film adaptation rather...
, Aunt Em and her husband Uncle Henry were substituted by a father (Dad Asparagus) to retell
The Prodigal SonThe Prodigal Son, also known as the Lost Son, is one of the best known parables of Jesus. It appears only in the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Bible. By tradition, it is usually read on the third Sunday of Lent...
, a biblical parable from the Gospel.
Comics
In the comic book
The Oz/Wonderland Chronicles #1, Em takes Dorothy to Henry's grave in St. Ann's Cemetery. The gravestone has been snapped in two. Em later returned the slippers to Dorothy, having kept them safe at
GlindaGlinda is a fictional character in the Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum. She is the most powerful sorceress of Oz, although a fairy in later books, ruler of the Quadling Country south of the Emerald City, and protector of Princess Ozma.- Literature :Baum's 1900 children's novel...
's insistence.