Tin Woodman

Nick Chopper, theTin Woodman, is a character in the fictionalLand of Ozcreated byAmericanauthorL. Frank Baum. He first appeared in his 1900 bookThe Wonderful Wizard of Ozand reappeared in many other subsequentOz booksin the series. In late 19th-century America, men made out of varioustinpieces were used in advertising and political cartoons. Baum, who was editing a magazine on decorating shop windows when he wroteThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz, was inspired to create the Tin Woodman by a figure he had built out of metal parts for a shop display.
InThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz,Dorothy Galebefriends the Tin Woodman after she finds him rusted in the forest, as he was caught in rain, and uses his oil can to release him. His name was Nick Chopper and he used to be an ordinary woodman, working in the woods ofOz. He was in love with a servant of theWicked Witch of the East, Nimmie Amee. The witch didn't want them to marry, so she enchanted Nick's axe to cut off his limbs. Each limb had been replaced with a tin equivalent and in the end only tin remained. He follows her to theEmerald Cityto get a heart fromThe Wizard. They are joined on their adventure by theScarecrowand theCowardly Lion. The Wizard sends Dorothy and her friends to theWinkie Countryto kill theWicked Witch of the West. The Tin Woodman's axe proves useful in this journey, both for chopping wood to create a bridge or raft as needed, and for chopping the heads off animals that threaten the party. When theWinged Monkeysare sent by the Witch of the West against the group, they throw the Tin Woodman from a great height, damaging him badly. Winkie Tinsmiths repair him after the death of the Witch.
His desire for a heart notably contrasts with the Scarecrow's desire for brains, reflecting a common debate between the relative importance of the mind and the emotions. This occasions philosophical debate between the two friends as to why their own choices are superior; neither convinces the other, and Dorothy, listening, is unable to decide which one is right. Symbolically, because they remain with Dorothy throughout her quest, she is provided with both and does not need to select.The Tin Woodman states unequivocally that he has neither heart nor brain, but cares nothing for the loss of his brain. Near the end of the novel,Glinda the Good Witchpraises his brain as not quite that of the Scarecrow's.
The Wizard turns out to be a "humbug" and can only provide aplaceboheart made ofsilkand filled withsawdust. This is enough to please the Tin Woodman, who, with or without a heart, was all along the most tender and emotional of Dorothy's companions (just as the Scarecrow was the wisest and the Cowardly Lion the bravest). When he accidentally crushes an insect, he is grief-stricken and, ironically, claims that he must be careful about such things, while those with hearts do not need such care. This tenderness remains with him throughout the series, as inThe Patchwork Girl of Oz, where he refuses to let a butterfly be maimed for the casting of a spell.
When Dorothy returns home to her farm inKansas, the Tin Woodman returns to the Winkie Country to rule as emperor. Later, he has his subjects construct a palace made entirely of tin — from the architecture all the way down to the flowers in the garden.
A recurring problem for the Tin Woodman inThe Wonderful Wizard of Ozand afterward was his tendency to rust when exposed to rain, tears, or other moisture. For this reason, inThe Marvelous Land of Oz, the character has himselfnickel-plated before helping his friend the Scarecrow fight to regain his throne in theEmerald City. Even so, the Tin Woodman continues to worry about rusting throughout the Oz series.
The Tin Woodman appeared in most of the Oz books that followed. He is a major character in the comic page Baum wrote withWalt McDougallin 1904-05,Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz. InOzma of Oz, he commandsPrincess Ozma's army, and is briefly turned into a tin whistle. InDorothy and the Wizard in Oz, he serves as defense counsel in the trial ofEureka. He affects the plot of a book most notably inThe Patchwork Girl of Oz, in which he forbids the young hero from collecting the wing of a butterfly needed for a magical potion because his heart requires him to protect insects from cruelty. Baum also wrote a short book titledThe Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, part of theLittle Wizard Stories of Ozseries for younger readers.
InThe Tin Woodman of Oz, Nick Chopper finally sets out to find his lost love,Nimmie Amee, but discovers that she has already married Chopfyt, a man constructed partly out of his own dismembered and discarded limbs. For the Tin Woodman, this encounter with his former fiancée is almost as jarring as his experiences being transformed into a tin owl, meeting another tin man named Captain Fyter, and conversing with his ill-tempered original head.
Baum's successors in writing the series tended to use the Tin Woodman as a minor character, still ruling the Winkie Country but not governing the stories' outcome. Two exceptions to this pattern areOzoplaning with the Wizard of Oz, byRuth Plumly Thompson, andLucky Bucky in Oz, byJohn R. Neill. The biggest exception is inRachel Cosgrove'sThe Hidden Valley of Oz, in which the Tin Woodman leads the forces in the defeat of Terp the Terrible and cuts down the Magic Muffin Tree that gives Terp his great size.
The fact that Nick includes the natural deaths of his parents in the story of how he came to be made of tin has been a major element of debate. InThe Tin Woodman of Oz(1918), he proclaims that no one in Oz ever died as far back as Lurline's enchantment of the country, which occurred long before the arrival of any outsiders such as the Wizard. Although the living creatures of Oz do not die of age or disease, they may die of accidents or be killed by others.
In the 1998 novelThe Tin Man, byDale Brown, the eponymousprotagonistis a power-armoredvigilantewhom the media and police have dubbed "The Tin Man" for his physical resemblance to theWizard of Ozcharacter.
The Tin Woodman is a minor character in authorGregory Maguire's 1995 revisionist novelWicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, its 2003Broadway musicaladaptation and Maguire's 2005 sequelSon of a Witch. In the book, Nessarose – the Wicked Witch of the East – is seen enchanting the axe to swing around and chop off Nick Chopper's limbs. She does this for a peasant woman who wishes to stop her servant, probably Nimmie Amee, from marrying Nick Chopper. This seems to be close to the Tin Man's origin in the original books, but from the Witch's perspective.
In the musical adaptation ofWickedthe Tin Man is revealed to beBoq, a Munchkin whomNessarose, theWicked Witch of the East, fell in love with when they were at school together. When she discovered his heart belonged toGlinda, she botched a spell that was meant to make him fall in love with her by taking his heart, but instead shrunk his heart to nothing by taking it away without 'giving' it to Nessa. To save his life,Elphaba, theWicked Witch of the West, was forced to turn him into tin. Not understanding her reasons, he pursues Elphaba with a single-minded vengeance for his current form. The Tin Man's humble origin in the novel conflicts with his having been the aristocratic Boq.
InOz Squad, Nick was shown in a sexual relationship with "Rebecca Eastwitch" in order to get closer to Nimmie Amee and attempt to elope with her.
A darker twist to the beloved woodman is made by authorJames A. OweninThe Shadow Dragons, the fourth installment of his seriesThe Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica, when his identity is revealed to beRoger Bacon.
The Tin Woodman appears in the 2011 TV seriesOnce Upon a Timeepisode "Where Bluebirds Fly" portrayed by Austin Obiajunwa (as a teenager) and byAlex Désert(as an adult).In this version he goes by the nameStanum(derived from theLatinword "stannum", which means "tin").
Since youth, Stanum has been awoodcutterand one day when he first met Zelena, the daughter of another woodsman, he finds out that Zelena has magic and befriends her, regardless of whatever the children say about Zelena, who they see as a freak. Many years later, Stanum, now a man, is punished by the Wicked Witch of the North for chopping down a tree in her domain, and his body slowly begins to transform into tin. To prevent himself from completely becoming tin, Stanum seeks out help from Zelena (now the Wicked Witch of the West) at the Emerald City of Oz. Zelena agrees to help him seek out the Crimson Heart, which can save him. During their quest, Stanum tells Zelena that she does not have to be lonely but she is doing her best to deny his advice. Suddenly, a lion comes of nowhere to attack Stanum, and Zelena uses her magic to make the lion go away (at this point the lion has become as Zelena would put it, cowardly). When they finally arrived to the location of the Crimson Heart, the two learned that the only way to make it work is through the absorption of another person's magic. Unfortunately Zelena's actions and selfish greed for magic causes her to betray Stanum, whom she suspect was aligned with Dorothy by keeping the Crimson Heart for herself, leaving Stanum to transform into the Tin Man permanently. Some time later, whenRobin Hoodarrives in Oz in the episode "Heart of Gold", the Tin Man is seen on the side of the Yellow Brick Road, torn apart.
Economics and history professors have published scholarly studies that indicate the images and characters used by Baum and Denslow closely resembled political images that were well known in the 1890s.They state that Baum and Denslow did not simply invent the Lion, Tin Woodman, Scarecrow, Yellow Brick Road, Silver Slippers, cyclone, monkeys, Emerald City, little people, Uncle Henry, passenger balloons, witches and the wizard. These were all common themes in the editorial cartoons of the previous decade. The notion of a "Tin Man" has deep roots in European and American history, according to Green (2006), and often appeared in cartoons of the 1880s and 1890s.Baum and Denslow, like most writers and illustrators, used the materials at hand that they knew best. They built a story around them, added Dorothy, and added a series of lessons to the effect that everyone possesses the resources they need (such as brains, a heart and courage) if only they had self-confidence.The Wonderful Wizard of Ozwas a children’s book, of course, but as Baum warned in the preface, it was a "modernized" fairy tale as well.
The Tin Man—the human turned into a machine—was a common feature in political cartoons and in advertisements in the 1890s. Indeed, he had been part of European folk art for 300 years. In political interpretations ofThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Tin Woodman is supposedly described as a worker, dehumanized by industrialization. The Tin Woodman little by little lost his natural body and had it replaced by metal; so he has lost his heart and cannot move without the help of farmers (represented by the Scarecrow); in reality he has a strong sense of cooperation and love, which needs only an infusion of self-confidence to be awakened. In the 1890s many argued that to secure a political revolution a coalition of Farmers and Workers was needed.
The 1890 editorial cartoon to the right showsPresidentBenjamin Harrisonwearing improvised tin armor because he wanted a tariff on tin. Such images support the argument that the figure of a "tin man" was in use as political allegory in the 1890s. The man on the right is politicianJames G. Blaine.
The oil needed by the Tin Woodman had a political dimension at the time because Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company stood accused of being a monopoly (and in fact was later found guilty by the Supreme Court). In the1902 stage adaptation, which is full of topical references that do not appear either in the novel or in any of the film adaptations (unless they are satirical), the Tin Woodman wonders what he would do if he ran out of oil. "You wouldn't be as badly off as John D. Rockefeller", the Scarecrow responds, "He'd lose six thousand dollars a minute if that happened."