So why did the Tin Man want a heart? Once you get through this you will realize that it’s one of the most messed up characters in juvenile fiction ever. Not because he was a shinny guy, but because of the bizzarre circumstances surrounding his creation. I do suppose thought that the logical answer to the question is because he is a hollow man made out of tin, and lacks the physical beating, thumping organ that is essential for human life, and as he believes it to be, love. But did you know that there is a dark, rather sinister story of why the Tin Man wants a heart? To tell you the truth, it’s more befitting a horror story than the magical journey of Dorothy in the Land of Oz, and all because he was almost murdered, well only if he were in the real world because no one dies in the Land of Oz.
As we know, the hero of the story The Wizard of Oz is Dorothy, a girl who is blown into the magical enchanted land when a tornado strikes her aunt and uncles house. While there she encounters three travelling companions, the Scarecrow who lacks a brain, the Lion who has no courage, and the Tin Man, who has no heart. Each of these three odd characters has a story of how they became to be, and all but one of them is PG rated. The Scarecrow wants a brain because he is a fool who can’t even do his job. He lacks a brain because his head is full of straw. In essence he sounds like a lot of people I know. The Lion wanted courage, because lions are typically courageous, and he was a coward. But it’s the Tin Man that is most intriguing, and disturbing. Why? It’s because he was a man that was painstakingly hacked to pieces and is now a cyborg. Kind of a wimpy Robocop or Terminator.
According to the 1918 book by L. Frank Baum called The Tin Woodman of Oz, the Tin Man started life off as a real flesh and blood lumberjack. He even had a pretty ordinary name, Nick Chopper. The problem was that he pissed off the wrong person, the Wicked Witch of the East. Way to go dude, that’s like going up to the biggest bully in the school and asking for a fight. How exactly did he piss her off? He was in love, awwwww.
You see, his problems all started when he fell in love with one of the Munchkins, Nimmie Amee. He wasn’t one of those typical male pigs that are only interested looks. He wanted a chick with connections, one that would take him places. Well his love did have connections, to the worst person in Oz, and she did end up taking him places, right to the Wizard of Oz.
When the Wicked Witch of the East heard of the illicit love affair she cursed the lumberjacks axe, as you do. It started cutting off his limbs, but not in a flurry. She was far crueler than that. It was a one body part at a time affair. As each limb, and dare I say it, “member” was cursedly removed from his body, good ol’ Nick went to his pal, tinsmith Ku-Klip to get a new, supposedly robotic limb. Before long each part of his body, including his torso and head, was removed. But the dimwit forgot to replace his heart. Because he hasn’t got a heart, he can not love. So that’s why the Tin Man wanted a heart.
But that’s not the end of the story. Just when you thought that a cyborg designed for children couldn’t get any weirder, he decided to chase his forbidden fruit once again. Now it gets messed up.
You know what leftovers are, right? They’re the bits that nobody really wants. Sure. they’re enticing, and most probably perfectly fine, but for one reason or another they are left behind. This can happen to some relationships too. When all the good ones are taken, or missing, you sometimes have to settle for the leftovers. That’s what Munchkin Nimmie Amee did, but in a morbid way.
It turns out that the land of Oz was home to a Dr Frankenstein. No, not really. It’s just that Ku-Klip was a skilled in more than one profession. As a backup to being a tinsmith he was also a mad scientists interested in creating monsters. From all of the spare and discarded body parts that were left over by Nick Chopper, he created a Frankensteinish creature called Chopfyt, with whom Nimmie Amee fell in love with and married. I’d love to see this air on Jerry Springer. But you know what? Nimmie Amee didn’t fall in love with her old flame, it was another man altogether because the tinsmith decided to use a different head. What the heck was Baum smoking when he thought this one up? But hey, we’re not done yet.
Yeah, so this lunatic tinsmith is the kind of body harvester who doesn’t give dismembered body parts a burial, or even just burn them (at least he didn’t eat them, we think). He built messed up monsters, and even decided to keep some parts, which is what he did with Nick Choppers head. He would then also have conversations with with it like some psychopathic killer. He even persuaded the Tin Man to have a conversation with his own decapitated head. Now that’s a messed up story if ever I heard one.
