the central character of this book,
especially after the first half, and the conflict between the boy and the
clock is a minor, unresolved yammering in the background. However, that
opening scene introduces one of the book's major themes, perhaps the
central one: the value of work.
The book starts out with people laboring away diligently. First Nine
sweeps, then we learn the Wizard has invented the scalawagons at least in
part to make sure Nine isn't late for work any longer [22]. (Ironically,
the boy doesn't get the day off to see the scalawagons make their product
debut [57].)
In the next scene, Tik-Tok feels "excitement" about getting the job of
scalawagon factory manager [32], and later "exasperated" at the lazy Pops
[118]. In both cases, the clockwork man is emotionally committed to
working. (As Nathan DeHoff noted, Neill followedget to spend some time in the
Emerald City. Baum always used E. City as a kind of
oasis after a long journey and was more interested in
describing the rooms wearly travelers were granted
once reaching the capital. (I'm thinking specifically
of the Shagy Man in ROAD, but there are any number of
others.)
For Thompson, the most important part of the Emerald
City seemed to be the "back yard" of the palace where
games took place; at one point she even adds a back
porch and swing.
Neill makes the Emerald City a real metropolis with
all the bustling inhabitants hurrying off to their
jobs. He, more than any of the other Royal
Historians, seems to have enjoyed the hustle that
comes from living in the city. I wonder, too, how
much he may have been influenced by the MGM film--the
inhabitants there