Wicked: Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

In Part 1 of Wicked, Maguire constructs a world that is fantastical but also quite similar to the reader’s contemporary society.

Prominent in these chapters is the timeless tension between conservative religious values and tantalizing earthly pleasures. Frex represents a traditional devotion to an “Unnamed God,” and as a minister, his mission is to convert and nurture other peoples’ religious development. This mission is challenged by an evolving society in which people are more inclined to turn to vice than to faith. Inherent in this tension is the question about the purpose of life. Many of Frex’s parishioners are poor and struggling to make their days interesting amid their stresses. For Frex, life after death holds the promise of more happiness, but others, including his wife Melena, are unwilling to sacrifice pleasure for the possibility of a happy afterlife.

Through Frex and Melena, Maguire portrays a conflict that is relatable to his contemporary readers, though the parallel is extreme. Melena prefers to satisfy her sexual and emotional urges, even if her behavior could be perceived as “sinful.” But in giving up faith, Melena also gives up Frex’s firm moral code. Melena may think she is living her life to the fullest, but because she is so committed to her own pleasures, she ignores the feelings of others. She easily dismisses her daughter, and her affair with Turtle Heart is undergirded by her lack of concern for Turtle Heart’s reality. In thinking only of her own pleasure, Melena overlooks the humanity of the people around her.

Meanwhile, Frex is so concerned with the humanity and faith of others that he ignores the reality of changing societies and the well-being of his own family. Like Melena, Frex’s intensions are not as honest as he thinks. He cares about other people’s souls, but he approaches his mission work from a position of saviorship. He comes from a place of pity, which others find off-putting because they perceive it as judgment. Who is Frex, in this world, to determine how other people should think and live? Frex believes he is owed loyalty and respect because of his work, but he doesn’t realize he cannot earn loyalty and respect unless he meets people where they are. Too much judgment of others alienates Frex from lived reality.

Thus, both Melena and Frex are imperfect in their opposing views of how to live. Surely, there are people who can balance faith and earthly joy, but Melena and Frex are not role models. Both are, without knowing it, motivated by their own selfish desires. They are unable to engage in truthful self-reflection, which leads them to live unfulfilling lives that endanger other people.

A commitment to religion can be emotionally fulfilling, but it can also skew a person’s understanding of the real world. Societies are ever-evolving, and refusing to see these changes means that certain characters are left behind. Turtle Heart is a model of this conflict: He leaves home to seek a solution for his exploited community. He may not know a lot about the layers of Oz, but he is nonetheless eager to dive into the work of making his community safer and better. His affair with Melena distracts him from his goal, but that doesn’t make Turtle Heart any less passionate about his community. Turtle Heart represents a middle ground between Melena and Frex’s extremes. He is both committed to a higher purpose and firmly grounded in his reality.

The time dragon is an important symbol of this issue. The time dragon is scary; it is a mechanism that can tear communities apart. But in finding scapegoats in townspeople who are not living up to their community’s moral codes, the time dragon also comforts for those who are not condemned by it. It gives townspeople who are stressed or bored a vehicle for their frustrations and entertainment that distracts them from their hard lives. The time dragon is very reminiscent of the cancel culture that social media breeds in contemporary society. Once the time dragon plants the idea that certain community members are living shocking, even offensive lives, the community then excoriates their fellow citizens without guilt. The time dragon demonstrates the destructive potential of mob mentality, as once it plants an idea in the community’s mind, that community then collectively engages in judgment of others that makes them feel better about themselves.

Another parallel issue that the reader’s world is the question of beauty norms. Elphaba is a baby like any other. She needs love, care, and stimulation, yet most everyone around her is preoccupied with her green skin and unusual behavior, which mark her as different from others. Society standards doom Elphaba from the very beginning of her life. Her family’s treatment of her foreshadows how society will treat her: Frex and Melena prefer to keep her hidden away, to the detriment of her development, and Nanny strives to bleach her skin rather than teach her to embrace herself as she is. Instead of supporting Elphaba with unconditional love, they are all ashamed of Elphaba’s existence. She becomes a symbol of Frex and Melena’s problems, so she is not given the opportunity to give them joy or be given joy.

This is seen all too often in our own society. Institutionalized racism and beauty standards enacted and enforced by capitalist infrastructures have created societies in which anyone who seems different is immediately ostracized. Elphaba cannot be bathed, fed, or played with like other children, but in focusing on her differences, her parents ignore what Elphaba’s strengths could be. So often, marginalized people are prevented from pursuing their potential, which feeds into a cycle of normativity that never changes. Elphaba could teach the world how to look past her perceived defects, but not even her own parents are willing to support her. By villainizing Elphaba at an early age, Melena and Frex effectively seek to relinquish their parental duties and responsibilities. Instead of making the world a more welcoming place to Elphaba, they buy into social norms that endanger her.

Beauty and perceptions of normativity are tied to the classic tribalism of race and class. Melena believes she is better than Frex and the other people in Munchkinland because she was born wealthy and taught a certain set of manners. Melena is unable to make friends in her new home with Frex because people can sense her judgment. For Melena and Frex, these divisions are natural. They both see Turtle Heart as the lowest of the low on the social ladder, and this myopic preoccupation with social standing precludes them from understand Turtle who as a person. Because they cannot see the inherent worth in people with lower social standing, both Melena and Frex fall into selfish and dehumanizing behaviors, as Melena uses Turtle Heart for easy sex and companionship, and Frex uses his parishioners to write his own hierarchy of power.

But Oz is changing, whether Melena and Frex want to acknowledge this or not. The Yellow Brick Road, the new tax system, and other initiatives will inevitably make Oz’s disparate regions more interconnected. In the future, it will not be so easy to ignore other people. Oz will become a place in which people of different cultures and races mix and mingle, and this expose to new people and cultures will challenge preexisting social norms and standards. Melena may believe that her tribe is high-brow and sophisticated, but eventually even these established and powerful families will have to negotiate issues of inclusion and diversity. This directly reflects the reader’s modern world, where globalization, urbanization, and technological advances have forced people to look beyond their own culture and social norms. This foreshadows an exciting opportunity for someone like Elphaba, who is poised to be one of many different-looking people who will influence how Oz constructs its new, diverse society.