Wow. What’s kind of creeping me out is how topical the political interpretations of the original The Wizard of Oz are.

The Tin Man represents American industry paralyzed by rising oil prices. (In the original context of the 1890s, L. Frank Baum was a vocal critic of Standard Oil and John D. Rockefeller.) The flying monkeys may represent immigrants, people-of-color. (In the original context of the 1890s, they may allude to Chinese immigrants on the West Coast, or the retreating Native American peoples of the West.) Gregory Maguire makes this even more explicit by casting the Animals as a persecuted minority whose civil rights are being taken away.