What does the Tin Woodman ask the Wizard for?

The Tin Woodman asks the Wizard for a heart. In Baum’s 1900 novel, he was once an ordinary woodcutter named Nick Chopper. An enchanted axe gradually cut off his limbs and body, and a tinsmith replaced each part with metal until he became entirely made of tin. He believes that losing his heart also deprived him of love and feeling.

Nick Chopper joins Dorothy after she finds him rusted solid in the forest and oils his joints. He travels to the Emerald City hoping the Wizard can restore what he lacks. The Wizard is ultimately a humbug, but he gives the Tin Woodman a symbolic heart made from silk and filled with sawdust. The gift confirms the novel’s larger idea that people may already possess the qualities they seek.

The heart request is often mixed up with the Scarecrow’s desire for a brain and the Cowardly Lion’s desire for courage. Oil is important to the Tin Woodman’s story because it frees him from rust, but it is a tool he needs during the journey—not his request to the Wizard.