Wicked!!

Essay by clee90Middle School, 6th gradeA+, May 2005

download word file, 2 pages 4.0

Have you ever wondered about what happened in the Land of Oz before that do-gooder Dorothy and her dog Toto came on the scene and saved the world? Well, Gregory Maguire did, and he went one step further - he wrote a book. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West is the result of Maguire's ponderings.

Did you know that the Wicked Witch of the West was actually named Elphaba, and that she could sing like a nightingale? Or that her sister, the owner of the red shoes , was named Nessarose and was born without arms? Did you know that Glinda the Good Witch (born Galinda) was, when she was young, a spoilt brat who cared for little other than her beauty and being in the "right" social group? The whole story unravels in between the covers of Wicked.

Wicked is the biography of Elphaba - the Wicked Witch of the West.

We follow her from her birth right through to her death. We see how she lives as an odd child, having been born with green skin and a fear of water. We then follow her on to her years at Shiz University, where she shares a room with Glinda and is accepted by her group of friends. Then there is her time in the Emerald City, where she tries to overthrow the Wizard. It is during this time that she has her one and only love affair, which ends in tragedy. Then there is her time in a religious sanctuary, when she realizes that she must go and confess to the widow of her lover, and, finally, there's her death at the hands of Dorothy.

Maguire has written an entertaining story for young adults who remember singing along with Dorothy, the Scarecrow,