Oz, the great and terrible wizard, is just as over the top, just as bumbling, and just as much of a fraud in the book as he is in the movie. If anything, he has more of each quality in the book. One of the parts I loved most was when Dorothy and the boys finally make it to Oz's throne room. Rather than give one audience, he sees them individually, one day at a time. For each character, he shows himself as something different: a great head, a monster, a beautiful lady, and a ball of fire. With each meeting, he refuses their request until the Wicked Witch is dead. When they return, Oz is exposed as a goofy little man from Nebraska. In the scene which follows this discovery, I found one of the most interesting parts of the book.
When the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion demand their rewards from Oz, he tries to explain that they already have what they are looking for. For each character he shows that it's not that they don't have brains, heart or courage, but that they have misunderstood themselves. If they had changed their points of view, they would have everything they ever wanted. For being a children's 'wonder story,' that is profoundly philosophic. It is also profoundly true. Speaking from my own experience, I know that there have been times in my life when everything I needed to be happy was right in front of me, if only I had stopped to see it all. Like the characters, however, I think most of us have to learn this the hard way.
The Scarecrow strikes me as an especially good stand-in for humanity. Even when Oz explains that it's not brains he is missing, but experience, the Scarecrow still wants brains. He wants Oz to put some thing in his head, and logic simply won't do the job. The Scarecrow needs something tangible, visible, to make him happy. So, Oz takes him in the back room and stuffs his head full of bran, pins and needles. This makes the his head all lumpy, but no more smart. Nevertheless, the Scarecrow is happy and becomes convinced he has gotten what he sought.
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