The Necessity of Fear: Symbolism of The Lion in The Wizard of Oz

It’s interesting how in The Wizard of Oz, the lion is cowardly and searches for courage, even though lions are commonly associated with bravery. Why would a lion search for courage if that’s what a lion is supposed to represent? Why would this lion lack courage when its supposed to be the pinnacle of bravery?

I think the answer is best framed through a question:

Is a lion courageous if it never feels afraid?

Of course not.

Because come on, it probably doesn’t feel fear. Why would something so strong and fierce get scared? And if a lion doesn’t feel fear, then it seems strange to say that a lion is courageous.

After all, there’s nothing courageous in doing something that doesn’t scare you. Fear is necessary for courage. You need to be scared to actually be courageous.

Not to mention, why would a lion even need courage in the first place? It’s just biologically superior to the rest of the food chain (except groups of humans). The lion is a quintessential apex predator. So where’s the room for courage when nothing scares you? Well… there is no room for courage. The lion lacks courage.

We all want to be courageous. We regularly hold ourselves back because of fear and wish we weren’t so scared. But The Wizard of Oz seems to suggest that being a lion will still leave us as cowards searching for courage. Perhaps courage is to be found in embracing fear and acting in spite of it anyway. As mentioned before, real courage comes from acting in spite of vulnerability and fear. It’s tempting to think that being courageous is to be a lion without fear. But true courage is through fear, and can only be found in fear.

We should know fear. We should be okay with fear. Not just okay with accepting fear, but okay with embracing fear!

We should walk the path of fear like its the road to victory.

So long as we’re lions, we can never be fearful. And so long as we are not fearful, we can never be courageous.