Wicked: The True Story of the Wicked Witch of the West settled comfortably into a spot among my favorite three novels of all time before Elphaba, the wicked witch, had even achieved adulthood. In fact, Wicked is my all time number two favorite novel, right behind A Confederacy of Dunces. As the title implies, it purports to tell an alternative version of the story L. Frank Baum first introduced to the world in his classic children’s books, and which most of us are familiar with by virtue of the classic MGM musical version.
Wicked: The True Story of the Wicked Witch of the West has also been transformed into a musical, a Tony Award-winning Broadway smash. If the musical is your only knowledge of this story, then you best put it out of your mind before you pick up the book. Gregory Maguire’s original novel is something else altogether.
Wicked includes most of the characters you’ve already met, although Dorothy and gang play a very small role. Consider it a prequel. Consider it, as well, an allegory that is far more at home in the current political climate than it was when it was first published. To wit: the Wonderful Wizard of Oz is less a goofus working behind the curtain to help people achieve their dreams than a charlatan holding onto his power through institutionally accepted lies and misinformation, along with a healthy supply of spies.
The Wicked Witch of the West begins the novel as a young girl who is born with the mysterious malady of being not only completely green, but an fatal allergy to water. While still a young girl, she had a vision of a man arriving in her homeland in some sort of balloon, and senses a coming horror. Elphaba grows up and heads off to college where she meets Galinda. (She will eventually change the spelling.) The two will grudgingly come friends as they meet the challenges of a changing Oz.
Why would I say that a story about the Wizard of Oz is more appropriate reading in today’s political climate than it was ten years ago? See if you recognize something in this: One of the driving forces behind Elphaba eventually coming to be seen as “wicked” is her defense against the stripping away of civil liberties for certain members of the population. Remember the Cowardly Lion? Well, he’s not the only talking animal in Oz.
In fact, Elphaba’s favorite college professor in a talking Animal. One of the steps taken by the Wizard is to remove the rights of these talking Animals that separate them from being merely animals-beasts of burdens and pets. The Animals are intelligent, can learn, can teach, fall in love…yet they are treated as less than that because they look different. Sound familiar? What it makes it okay to restrict the rights of one group of sentient creatures while allowing all other groups the same rights? Don’t ask me. Why not ask every member of Congress who voted to the ban the right of gays to get married.
Even more timely however is why Elphaba becomes to be seen as wicked. Without giving too much away, Elphaba’s outrage against the creeping fascism she sees spreading throughout the various lands that make up Oz result in her achieving a radical consciousness. She moves to the Emerald City and goes underground. She engages in violent behavior against what she sees-indeed, what it is-clearly a despotic power. She is branded as wicked. In American she would be branded a terrorist.
Part of the probably unintended appeal of Wicked: The True Story of the Wicked Witch of the West is that it has become a parable about the making of a terrorist. There is no doubt that part of Elphaba’s path which will end in her unfortunate encounter with a bucket full of water at the hands of young Dorothy include radical acts of violence. But the question always remains, when is a terrorist really a freedom fighter and vice versa?
In the intervening years its publication, the middle section of the novel has been forced to the forefront. The Wizard takes great steps to protect Oz from what he sees as dangerous elements. His attempts to enforce security against the evils of an outside world he alone knows exists is eerily familiar.
Except that in the case of the Wizard, he really does know the evils whereas in our case, the security measures is a vast web that, yes, will catch the occasional terrorist threat but will also catch countless thousands of innocent people as well. In light of today’s political climate Wicked: The True Story of the Wicked Witch of the West comes to be seen as a case study in how paranoia and secrecy results in the destruction of a good soul.
