What Happened to Dorothy's Parents in 'The Wizard of Oz'? Here's Why She Lived With Aunt Em

The original Wizard of Oz story is best known for its groundbreaking 1939 screen adaptation, starring Judy Garland, Jack Haley, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Margaret Hamilton, and many more recognizable Hollywood Golden Era stars. But the story goes far beyond what people have seen on screen.

With 14 total novels in the Oz series written by L. Frank Baum, there's ample unexplored story to look to if you're hoping to learn more about heroine Dorothy Gale. However, one mystery seems to hang over the story.

Dorothy famously lives with her Auntie Em and Uncle Henry. So what happened to her parents? The answer may surprise you.

If you close your eyes and think for a moment, you may be able to conjure up the sound of Judy's voice as Dorothy as she cries out, "Auntie Em! Auntie Em!" Yet not once do we hear her say something similar to her mother or father. So what exactly is the story with the Gale matriarch and patriarch?

There are many theories about what happened, but the ultimate answer is just that we simply don't know. We know for sure that Dorothy is an orphan and that she lives with her Aunt and Uncle on their family farm in Kansas. But beyond that, there's not a lot of information to go on about her parents.

Even in the novels, which extends the movie's story far beyond the screen, there are few clues about where they may be. Except that we can be fairly certain they are dead.

In one of the books, Uncle Henry compares Dorothy to her dead mom, which answers that question. And fans have sussed out that, although Dorothy speaks most often of Auntie Em, she's probably actually related by blood to Uncle Henry.

This theory comes about due to the fact that Dorothy talks about traveling to visit relatives with Henry, while Em stays behind to watch the farm. Additionally, Henry's mention of Dorothy's mother who is "with the angels" doesn't smack of brother-in-law affection.

There are some fan theories about the nature of Dorothy's parents. We know that the characters in Oz are parallels to Dorothy's "real world" Kansas friends and family. One fan theory suggests that we can see a glimpse of the personality of Dorothy's departed mother in Glinda, who doesn't have any obvious real-world parallels except perhaps Auntie Em.

Another fan theory suggests that Dorothy was too young to remember her parents when they died, so they don't play prominently in her Oz adventures as a result.

One long-running theory has been that her parents were victims of a war, or some other great tragedy of the time. If they died at the same time as many other people, Dorothy and orphans like her may have been raised specifically not to talk about their parents, to avoid bringing up the collective trauma of contemporary society.

Whatever the truth is, the author avoids specifically spelling out their fate. Which means that, like Oz itself is intended to be, much is left to the imagination.