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Aunt Em (real name Emily) is a fictional character created by American author L. Frank Baum. Em apperars in many of the classic children's series of Oz books, first introduced in ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' (1900).〔Jack Snow, ''Who's Who in Oz'', Chicago, Reilly & Lee, 1954; New York, Peter Bedrick Books, 1988; p. 10.〕 She is the aunt of orphan Dorothy Gale and the wife of Uncle Henry who is a hardworking farmer. She lives with her husband and niece on a small and isolated farm in the midst of the sun baked prairies of Kansas during the early 1900s. Em is said to once having been a "young, pretty wife" when she first arrived at Henry's farm, but having been "greyed" by the decades spent living on the prairies. This implies that she appears older than one might expect from her chronological age. Baum's description of her is exactly — "''When Aunt Em came there to live she was a young, pretty wife. The sun and wind had changed her, too. They had taken the sparkle from her eyes and left them a sober gray; they had taken the red from her cheeks and lips, and they were gray also. She was thin and gaunt, and never smiled now. When Dorothy, who was an orphan, first came to her, Aunt Em had been so startled by the child's laughter that she would scream and press her hand upon her heart whenever Dorothy's merry voice reached her ears; and she still looked at the little girl with wonder, that how she could find anything to laugh at.''" Em appears rather emotionally distant towards Dorothy at the beginning of the story. However, after the girl is restored to her at the very end of the novel, we see her true nature when she joyfully cries out — "''My darling child!''" and covers her little niece with kisses. ==The Classic Oz Books== Surprisingly, in the Oz books it is Uncle Henry who Dorothy is more closer to, while she does love her Aunt Em dearly, Henry and Dorothy do appear to spend more quality time together. They even go on trips to Australia in ''Ozma of Oz'' (1907), and then to San Francisco in ''Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz'' (1908), while Aunt Em stays behind to look after the farm. There is no question about Dorothy's love for her Aunt Em. Indeed, in the end of ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'', when Dorothy knocks the heels of the charmed Silver Shoes together three times her exact words to the pair are: "''Take me home to Aunt Em!''" Emily spent most of her life working on her husband's farm as a seemingly submissive housewife. In the sixth Oz book ''The Emerald City of Oz'' (1910), she states that she has raised chickens for "nearly forty years." One day Emily confesses to her niece that their farm is facing imminent foreclosure from not paying the mortgage behind having to rebuild the new farmhouse to replace the old one that had been swept away by the cyclone in ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz''. Worried for her family's future, Dorothy immediately visits the Land of Oz to make quick arrangements with Princess Ozma regarding her situation in Kansas. Soon after, Aunt Em, Uncle Henry, Dorothy, and the girl's pet dog called Toto all relocate to live comfortably in the Emerald City's royal palace as Ozma's permanent guests. However, the elegance and magnificence of the city is far too grand for Emily and Henry's liking and they move to a more humble home on the outskirts of the Emerald City instead. Eventually, Ozma appoints Em as the "''Royal Mender of the Stockings of the Ruler of Oz''" in order to keep her occupied and 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.) Surprisingly, Aunt Em is featured slightly less than Uncle Henry in the Oz books, despite having a bigger role in the 1939 film ''The Wizard of Oz''. Ruth Plumly Thompson gave her only two brief mentions in ''The Royal Book of Oz'' (1921), and ''Grampa in Oz'' (1924). She had somewhat larger roles in John R. Neill's ''The Wonder City of Oz'' (1940) and ''The Scalawagons of Oz'' (1941) and Jack Snow's ''The Magical Mimics in Oz'' (1946). 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 Billina 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 has "been a slave to farm work all her life," and is ready for her life to change. She appears occasionally in the works of Baum's successors in Oz literature; one notable example is Eric Shanower's comic ''The Giant Garden of Oz''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Aunt Em」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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