by 
Nia Rivera
on 03.03.2009
The wallpaper on Amanda's phone was this surreal photo of the Wizard of Oz characters. It struck me when I saw it – odd but weirdly powerful – but Amanda brushed it off when I asked her about it. I liked it, so I made her text the pic to me. Then I forgot about it. But now that she's gone, I'm wondering...
Maybe she’s headed to Kansas.
I think she’s taken off in that hot-air balloon with the Wizard and is up, up, and away. (Which is about as likely as your theory that phone wallpaper could solve a mystery).
One of the big themes in Wiz of Oz is friendship. No one would have gotten what they needed had they gone it alone. Everyone had tried flying solo and look where it got them. Nowhere. It was only once Dorothy, the Tin Man, Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion joined forces that they were able to find what they were looking for.
So maybe this pic is Amanda’s way of leaving a message to Callie, Hal and Nia. She needs her friends and needs their help.
My wallpaper definitely tells you something about me. It’s a picture of Christian Bale, which clearly says I want to have his babies.
VMisMyHero, yeah, maybe one of the themes in Wizard of Oz is friendship, but it’s also about self-sufficiency. (Oh shut it, I wrote last year’s English term paper on themes in the Wizard of Oz.) Everyone in the book (or movie) had what they needed/wanted all along. The Tin Man wasn’t given a real heart, the Scarecrow a brain or the Cowardly Lion bravery. They had these things from the get go and just needed to figure out that they really had them. Even Dorothy had the key to get home – the Wizard just showed her how to use it.
So instead of calling for help, maybe Amanda is telling Callie/Nia/Hal/us to chill. To sit back and watch the show. She’s got things under control. Just a thought.
I don’t know if it’s a clue, but I definitely think a person’s wallpaper can say a lot. Maybe Amanda was searching for her real home - she wanted to click her heels three times and be there.
Maybe Amanda’s back to her old home, or was taken somewhere by force and Endeavor High is her home? She either never wanted to go to Endeavor High in the first place, or she could be in danger now. Those are my two theories.
hmm ... wallpapers are the windows to a persons soul. maybe she’s not really from here ( this world).. like in wizard of oz it was kinda like an alternate universe. or maybe shes trying to say that the place she is now is so different from where she use to live that its like the land of oz… i wonder who the witch is..maybe thats where shes at.
She’s searching for something and has a dog? Also, Dorothy doesn’t look that happy and neither do the other two characters. Are those Amanda’s friends? Are they hiding a secret?
I agree with both Snow and Theresa. My pic, my uber hot boyfriend says a lot about me. I chose it because he is the most important thing in my life. This pic isn’t your average background, at least not among my group. It must mean something. Yah, I go with you two.
Sabster Queen.
It could stand for her heading to the Emerald City and what city is also known by this name? Seattle, Washington because it’s so green. Maybe that is where she is headed.
I think Vismyhero and Fashionita are both right. They all had what they needed/wanted all along, but they didn’t know it. They needed each other to find their heart, brain, bravery, and way home. Does that make sense?
Or maybe it doesn’t mean anything so literal at all. After all, Dorothy had to follow the Yellow Brick Road to get home. Maybe Amanda is following her own yellow brick road to get to a place that feels like home. After all, she was only here from the end of October to the beginning of March. Halloween to the Ides of March. Maybe Orion just never felt like home to her. Maybe she’s going back where she came from, or finding herself a new home altogether.
Well, Dorothy was trying to find her way home and found great friends along the way. Maybe, Amanda is trying to find out who her real friends are while trying to find her own way home.
The Yellow Brick Road leads o the place where you need’s something like what happened to Dorothy and her friends. However to get to that place you’ll need your friends to guide you because you’ll encounter many mishaps along the way.
Maybe that’s a clue saying Amanda is looking for something more; that she doesn’t feel like she is enough. I guess her personality doesn’t hint that way ... maybe the Wizard of Oz was her favorite movie! Or maybe she is looking for the set, where they produced the movie. She might be friends with someone who helped make the movie.
Maybe she’s telling us not to pay attention to the man behind the curtain?
post, I love it. But who whould her man behind the curtain be? Was there some guy that lead her on or something? I like this. And I can get any info we need out of any guy you find suspicious, me being me.
Sabrina Queen.
since she’s artistic she must be liking the way the story goes n that the way the steal man was put together made of metal…..no i dont think thats some clue where she’s gone missing maybe the story some how reflets part of her life story….....can be!
Uhhhh she went to the land of Oz? No I’m just kidding….. kinda,
Haha. That’s a good one, QuinnyCouture! I like that idea. :)
Eh, don’t think she really went to the land of Oz, but don’t we all wish we could walk down that ‘yellow brick road’?
it could just be nothing. like maybe her favourite movie or something.
I still believe she went to seattle because its known as the emerald city and the city of oz is the emerald city. Im sticken with that.
Each character needed something, a way home, bravery, and a heart. Maybe she was, er, looking for those things?
Where did Amanda come from, anyways?
I think that if it is a clue, which I somehow doubt, It would mean that she is going somewhere very strange. As in a place where there are things not seen around here before…strange things with pointed ears…well maybe not.
It could be nothing at all. I mean, we all have some stuff that’s completely weird to any other person on the planet. If it IS a clue, I think that it’s trying to tell you that she’s hiding in plain sight. Like Fashionista said waaaay at the start of the post, everyone already had everything they needed. You don’t have to go to the ends of the Earth to search for her. Plus, the best hiding spot is always in plain sight.
I agree with VMisMyHero. I think that the wallpaper has a significance. Amanda is Dorthey, and her 3 friends are the Tin Man, ScareCrow and Lion.
Ooh, that one’s good. If it’s true though, then Hal, Callie and Nia might have to figure out which of them is whom so they can start finding Amanda.
ok maybe we r just reading too much into this…..maybe she just doesnt feel like shes welcome and that she needs to go somewhere that people will be more like her and more open to the kind of person that she is…..
when we went to new york city to see the play she kept her eyes the whoel time on the secenery and asking me if i have ever been in a tornado!
It could be, but also she might just love the picture or movie. She might have only just watched the movie recently for the first time and loves it
I was passing Nia’s locker the other day and saw that she had a postcard titled “The Thin Man” for a movie title.Do you think that the tin man in the picture is leading us to this postcard and that the post card is a clue?
I think that it depends when Amanda sent it to her, if it was close to her disappearance or not. Also, Nia DID force her to send it to her, and Amanda wouldn’t have done it anyway, so it is probably not a big clue.
You know, I never looked at my Thin Man postcard as a potential clue before. Never. I actually got it a William Powell/Myrna Loy retrospective at the Villa last summer, before Amanda came. I am obsessed with them. I put it up in my locker as inspiration—the wit, the quips, but I didn’t suspect I’d need the detective skills, too. But just because I don’t see it, does not mean there isn’t anything. GOOD POINT—Amanda makes all sorts of bizarre connections. Thin Man/Tin Man: I never thought of myself being the one needing a heart, though, or being the one who had compassion all along. Definitely not that obvious, I am just thinking out loud. Hum . . .
The Wizard of Oz has a number of themes that could be looked at here: friendship, escape and most of all a search for self. Every character ultimately finds themselves in the end. The reason they look confused and disoriented is possibly because they have no idea who they really are yet - and maybe Amanda doesn’t either. She’s probably on some sort of soul-searching journey, if you look at it that way.
I agree with paper doll - there are several themes.
I definitely think escape is a major one. Unless this isn’t a clue, and is just a fact that has nothing to do with her. Which I doubt, since every clue usually hints on something about your personality. Figuring this out will be complex. Just like her.
Maybe she is comparing herself to Dorothy and Nia, Callie, and Hal to the Scarecrow, the Lion, and the Tin Man????
i agree very much with globalgirl. this might just be her favorite movies. i doubt very much that this is a clue. i mean if i have a picture of oh gosh i cant think of a movie but you get where im going with this right???? well i hope so..
This could mean one of two things.
1. Amanda’s favorite movie was the Wizard of Oz.
2. This is the key to where she went, and how, and why she went there.
Both of which are sort of obvious, but I’m not sure if at this point we should be focusing on a wallpaper to solve a mystery.
What’s the most important message in the Wizard of Oz (My all-time favorite movie)? No, it’s not “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!”
It’s “There’s no place like home.”
i have 2 theories:
1. The Dorothy could be the mystery girl in the secret room because Dorothy doesn’t look all that much like Judy Garland.
2. In W of O Dorothy is in Kansas and then a tornado strikes and shes taken away from Kansas and has to go through certain problems to get back but when she “gets back” she realizes she was home the whole time in a dream. So possibly Amanda’s Disappearance is the tornado and her friends are to go through certain trials to get her back home so to speak.
She’s “off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz.” (:
I agree with Paperdoll and charlotte92 - one of the themes of The Wizard of OZ is a search for self and finding that “home” that’s always been in you. The Yellow Brick Road is a spiral, so when you travel it you keep going in circles (and isn’t life a series of circles?), but because you learn and gain wisdom along the way, each circle is a little bigger. But you can always follow that spiral back to your center.
Maybe Amanda has that wallpaper to remind herself to keep traveling the Yellow Brick Road - to be adventurous and see where that journey will lead her. Maybe the wallpaper is her way of telling the rest of us to not worry. She’ll click her heels and come back home eventually.
I Agree With Paperdoll, Charlotte92, And ArtsyFartsy..
Wizard Of Oz Is A Very Good Story That Shows Dorothy’s Trials & Tribulations As She Tries To Make It Home.
Amnda Claimed She Moved Around A Lot. So She Could Be Feeling Like She Wanted This Oz World To Be Real. To Find Her Home. I Know I Would.
what if those three characters represented Callie, Hal, and Nia? and the plot in the movie is how dorthy gets lost and trys to find her way back home.
I think it definately involves going home…. She moved around a lot and maybe she feels like she’s on the yellow brick road to find, and she has to keep moving along it to get home…she wants to find where home is… she could’ve had the wallpaper as inspiration for her to keep traveling on to find where she belongs, where she feels home. my wallpaper is from to write love on her arms, it reminds me of their vision statement and that inspires me….
I don’t know if it has anything to do with where she is, but I’m thinking she may have some connection to the Wicked Witch of the West. As I have mentioned before she would never go into my pool, or touch water, just like the Wicked Witch of the West. And if any of you have read Wicked, or seen the play, you would know that Elphaba was just really misunderstood, just like Amanda.
I agree with the escape theme, and also searching for yourself. Maybe there’s something Amanda needs to find out about herself, and that’s why she’s gone. So maybe she can find it.
Just a thought.
Hm. I also kind of agree with ArtsyFartsy about having the wallpaper as a reminder to herself.
So many possibilities…
i think amanda is following her yellow brick road; trying to find a home, friends, herself, and possibly her heart, brain, etc. everything that amanda leaves is probably a clue, so i am confident that it’s not just random. amanda seems way too smart to be random
xoxo, tiff
mabey she moved from home and is going on a journey to find her way back to were she came from. like dorthy went on a journey to find her way back home.
KayleighXqh95, idea but i think that she went on a journey to find a place that she saw in a dream or vision or something like that.
Wait, wasn’t the Wizard of Oz supposed to be always in control or something? Amanda seems to like control. After all, she disappeared and now she’s kinda running her friends’ lives until they find her.
I think Amanda just wants to have a home to go back to so shes searching for where she comes from, where she feels that she belongs.
Did you know Baum wrote a lot of Oz books, around 1900? They contain a lot of downright science fiction ideas. For example, the Tin Man was originally Nick Chopper, a lumberjack with a cursed axe who kept cutting pieces of himself off and replacing them with metal. He worried about having a heart because he knew he was a cyborg. After his head is replaced, he’s not even that, he’s a consciousness in an artificial body. All through the tales, though, it’s clear Nick is the kindest fellow in the world. The Wizard’s talent was to see deep into people, and America was wrong….
Talzhemir i did soooo not need to know that or maybe i did…
Amanda loved many wierd stuff. Wizard of Oz is a great book. She is kind of like dorathy in a way.
maybe she was on a mission(amanda) to bring people closer and maybe its suposed to represent hal nia and callie
callie maybe is the tin man because of the pain of her father in her heart
hal would have to be well dorthy always perky and ready to trty anything to get back home but in this case home is amanda
and that leaves nia and the lion strong but not enough courage to tell people to shut up for looking only on the outside and someimes even dweling on the past
hey wheres the scare crow maybe thats someone new from another school or even amanda n is there a scarecrow exibet in town
The Yellow Brick Road…..Hmmmm. Maybe she is saying that she might be in the places where we least expect. OR maybe she is saying that she isn’t going anywhere, she’s still there with them, very near, but to them very far.
remeber… the DONT LOOK BEHIND THE CURTAIN…. maybe Amanda is trying to tell us… that we arent supposed to really acually find her. Maybe she is where she is becuase she need too… or that she doesnt want us to get hurt either…. HMMM….
The Scarecrow’s missing… could that mean something?
I agree with VMisMyHero.
In the Wizard Of Oz, Dorothy found the Tinman, Scarecrow, and Cowardly Lion, three very different people, like Hal, Nia, and Callie. And she brought them all together like Amanda did with her new friends. Maybe it is a sign that she needs her friends just like Dorthy did, thus sending the pic as a reference of this.
Maybe Amanda really isn’t trying to find her home, maybe she has but she had to leave it. maybe she had everything and lost it because she couldn’t stand that her totally unrelated living partner/totally NOT boyfriend was dating someone! maybe shes just a conceited jerk who likes to skrew up peoples lives! maybe shes more like the wicked witch of the west and she wants to find her way home cause she realized she was wrong just to judge someone cuz they have tie-dyed hair!
Hey Fashionista…... I agree that self suffiency is an important theme in the book/movie, but I also noticed that Amanda helped to show each of the 3 unexpected friends to realise the potential they had to be confident and to fulfill whatever personal desire they had, similar to the way Dorithy helped her friends to fulfill their potenial…..
ummm, do you really think she is going with a robot, a scarecrow and a coward lion to this all-powerful guy??????? but it means hat she is going somewhere. Yellow. Brick. Road. well, the road means journey, brick, brick, that must mean, it’ll be hard(?) and yellow…(long pause,thinking moment) sunshine?happy?good? I think Amanda is trying to tell us that her journey will be hard for others, but it’s for a good cause????
Okay so i have 2 ideas my first one is that where ever they filmed The Wizard of Oz that is where amanda is heading or going….....my second idea is that maybe in the movie The Wizard of Oz they say some place that Amanda could g oto and then that is where she could be heading or going!
Well before Amanda came along on her own mission (Dorthy), Hall, Callie, and Nia (Scare Crow, Tin Man, Lion) didn’t even know eachother. and then her guides realize they are all looking for something too. and for Amanda just to click her heels and go off and leave her friends, they are now lost and still need to find what they are looking for.
And what about wicked?
If we pin down a “wicked witch”, could she have a side of the story? maybe she wasn’t always out to get Amanda. Were they ever friends?
this is all hypothetical of course.
Maybe she is waiting for little Midget people to tell her to follow the Yellow brick road…
Sorry thats all I got
i agree with awesomeanna93 & Vismyhero
This is probably not realistic at all, but another “Wizard of Oz” spin-off is Wicked. Excuse me for saying it, but I have Wicked on the brain at all times. A huge theme in Wicked is being yourself even though the rest of the world thinks you’re wicked. Maybe the wallpaper is Amanda’s way of saying that we know the real her, even though she didn’t tell us everything.
I sort of agree with soul_girl. The theme of Wicked is being who yourself. But maybe this is a message from Amanda to her friends? Maybe she was telling them “Be yourself, don’t pretend to be something else.” Like Callie and the I-Girls.
Or…in the WoO (wizard of Oz), they quest for courage, intellect, and home. Maybe it’s a message for the three of them? Or maybe just Callie? I can see how they can fit her. Callie needs her home rebuilt, and she needs the courage to stand up to Heidi. (I can’t think of intellect at the moment…)
Maybe its like a metaphor. Like Amanda dorathy and she needs her three new friends to help her get somewhere but she nows that they need something to.
Or, like FlyOnTheWall said, shes in Kansas :P
Maybe Amanda dreams to be every state in America. Because she wants to experience the same thing with Callie, Hal, and Nia. So, maybe that’s why she never told anyone where she lived before…?
The only one not in that picture is the Scarecrow, who wanted a brain, so maybe she knows her guides already have that. The fact that Dorothy, Tinman and Lion are still there could be that Callie needs/wants a “home”, maybe Nia needs/wants “courage” (to stand up to her mum, the iGirls?) and Hal wants a “heart” (ie. girlfriend, maybe Callie or Nia?). Or perhaps it shows that the three of them already have that, but don’t realize, just like the people in the story.
Just a thought.
Guys just a reminder this was her wallpaper BEFORE she disapeared.
I agree that a wallpaper can show alot about a person. But as Mrstery said, this was her wallpaper before she dissapeared. So maybe it was a hint of things to come, or a sign of some sort. But really idk.
No, it’s definitely not a clue on where she’s going, but most likely a clue for something else.
Amanda may have headed to a place that was serious about Wizard of Oz. Or she could have been reffering to something from the movie. Remember in the very beggining she runs away maybe she’s telling us that she needs help to get back home. Wherever that is. We have to help her!!!!!!!!!
There are so many ideas. I have to agree that the two major themes in this film are friendship and belonging. Trying to find her place in the world while finding out who her real friends are.
from the stuff here I have made a theroy Maybe Amanda wants to go home? Maybe her home is in seattle? Maybe the guides need to help Amanda get home. Maybe Amanda is running away from something or something is chasing her? Maybe she IS in danger/ mybe from herself or someone else!
Remember how you, callie, and hal each got a piece of a postcard with the yellow brick road on it? There was still one piece at the top missing. I forget if you ever found it [i can’t look back because i got Invisible I from a library] but mabey her wallpaper was a pic of the missing piece of the postcard. The scarecrow isn’t included but the crow is a totem. Amanda put a crow put in mr thornhill’s office.
Have anyone noticed that the scarecrow isn’t there? My theory is that the missing scarecrow has something to do with it, any other theory with an additional thought?
>Librarygirl> Possible, although if scarecrow was wanting a brain, maybe scarecrow wasn’t in it because its not suppost to be living…But it can’t be it, because tin-man isn’t living either… Ok Well I guess you can be right…
>jessicahuey> Seriously? Could that be another clue? Or just a coincidence? I think its just a coincidence…
>All> Although beside Dorothy is an area possibly able to put scarecrow in, but he wasn’t in there, maybe Amanda wanted to erase him for a reason, and plus, I don’t think pink is the right color to make it, maybe theres a reason its pink? Also, if this wallpaper on her phone(or was it the computer?) was on and yet you’ve forgotten until now that shes missing, maybe that was just a picture, something random? Nothing to do with this at all? Although it is possible that it will tell us some information, if it really did have something to do with this. We should look farther on.
Maybe the scarcrow isnt in the picture because while the other characters where looking for something connected to emotions (a heart, courage, a way home) the scarecrow wanted a brain, and a brain doesn’t have emotion, only logic. Maybe Amandas trying to tell us to follow what our emotions tell us to, even if it doesn’t make logical sense?
this is so cute! I saw a lottery ticket the other day in Rhode Island with the same image. hmm…
>Hinaru> yup I saw it yesterday. Maybe Amanda took a pic of the lottery ticket. what if she won money to go someplace…
I think she may be saying she is either in Kansas or she’s gonna go see the Wizard of Oz. I don’t know, that’s just random. :^)
>Helenajana> I highly doubt it, it’s like a total fantasy and Amanda seems like someone that looks for adventure, not a fantasy. Maybe that’s why she went missing?
>jessicahuey> Yea, that can be it, from what my friend said, she’s quite rich, but I’m not completely sure.
but if she won the money she could have given it to callie
>jessicahuey> Possible, but as to my responce to Helenajana, she maybe an adventurous person, so maybe she could have used the money to travel?
>All> My question here is why is she doing this? Why is she leaving clues behind for us to figure out?
She’s leaving clues for a good reason, for instance she left a letter in the car saying “Danger, Danger, what do you foresee?” So maybe she’s in danger but if she was really in danger, then it doesn’t make sense, she wouldn’t leave clues unless someone’s doing it for her? I think Amanda’s leading others to see Wizard Of Oz, but who is the Wizard Of Oz? Is it Amanda? Is it someone else?
@JinxTheRipper:
Run a google search of “Danger, Danger, what do you foresee.” (include the quotes—important). You get…Absolutely nothing.
She didn’t take the quote from anywhere. Buuuuuut, if you look, in Sherlock Holmes, there is a quote that goes “What danger do you foresee.”
Not sure what it means—but it’s got to do with something, or else AV wouldn’t have left the letter there in the first place.
Also: did anyone else (and I’m *positive* that someone did, I probably just missed it) notice that the scarecrow is missing from the wallpaper?
@luna*zeus:
You’re right! The scarecrow is missing.. which seems to put a lot of emphasis on the fact that there’s only three people in the picture-at least to me it does.
Hmm.. three, three.. what else do we have three of right now? Amanda had three ‘guides’ right? Of course :)
Maybe Hal, Callie, and Nia each represent one of the characters: in Amanda’s mind?
I said that the Scarecrow wasn’t there already 0.0 BTW, when you search the quote ‘Danger, Danger, what do you foresee’, there are 96,300 results, but most are irrelevant, the second one was about Sherlock Holmes.
The wallpaper looks like it was a picture. HAL, CALLIE, CORNELIA, EVERY ONE ELSE: KEEP A LOOKOUT FOR THAT PICTURE EVERYWHERE YOU GO. If you see it, it means Amanda was there, and that she was there while or before she was known to the founders.
Okay, here’s what I’m thinking:
A. That picture of Dorothy SO looks like a man
B. Do you think that Amanda may have thought of herself in Oz? A place where you could do anything, there was magic around every corner, an evil witch somewhere, and an authority that wasn’t worth following?
>AlexInvisible> Lolz @ A. xD
i reckon she is going somewhere with heaps of sunshine because yellow could be the sun if its a road then probably a city FLORIDA could be it or californa somewher over there.
Where would there be a yellow brick road? Or a golden road? The streets of gold. Maybe she intended on going to Heaven. Maybe she’s planning to commit suicide or she knows someone is after her life.
Take it easy on me! I just started reading!
im really not sure how important the initials AV really ARE. Amanda's used all kinds of …
hmmm... im sure we´ll find out.
Maybe she chose the initials, because she has a sibling with the first name beginning with …
RRRules-Province of Avellino, in Italy is an acronym for AV. maybe that place has somehting to …
Well I have noticed that when people use aliases (Like Amanda) they sometimes like to stay …
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