Choose an important character
Write the following:
Write a paragraph about the character and include:
--appearance.
--actions
--ideas-- what the character thinks.
--manner-- how the character acts.
--reactions of others to the characters.
Elphaba is an important character in the novel Wicked. She has a lush green complexion and at the moment; she is a toddler. She has razor sharp teeth, but however, she has no disfiguration. She usually likes to bite and destroy anything that she can get her hands on. This is not an unusual behaviourism, though because of her unique abilities; it’s ten times worse than any regular toddler. She is a very curious child who loves to play with everything and find out about as much as she can. She is also a fast learner. Elphaba proves that she understands conversations that would normally be too complicated for other children her age. People do not respond well to her uniqueness. They are quite afraid of her really, and truthfully quite disgusted by her appearance. Even her own parents resent her. The only person to see a different side of Elphie has been the nanny.
Why is she/he important in the novel?
She is important in the novel because she will grow up to be the wicked witch of the west. She is also the main character; so she is an important character in moving the plot along.
Would you like to be the main character? Why or why not?
I would not like to be the main character because she has been treated badly in her lifetime. She also has a magical power that she may not yet understand; she can see into glass about other things- just like a crystal ball. I feel that she has the potential to turn her power into good use, but because of her mistreatment, this may turn into a bad thing.
Would you like the main character for a friend? Give your
reasons.
I think that I would because she would have a down-to-earth perspective on life. She would also understand if I ran into any complications. Her personality is yet to be determined, but I do think that deep down there is a nice person in her.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Disscussion #3- Disscussion Director
Hello everybody,
This week it is my job to be the discussion director. These questions below are to purposely cause a large open-ended discussion about the novel so far. Here they are!
1. Do you feel sorry for Elphaba because of the behavior of her parents?
2. Do you think that if Melena tried a little harder, she could feel more motherly towards Elphaba and maybe have a better relationship with her?
3. What do you think that it means when she sees things in the glass that Turtle heart blows?
4. Do you think Nanny's suggestion of taking her to play with other children was the best option?
5. Do you or do you not think that these chapters are somewhat predictable?
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Journal #2
1.
Wicked is told in third person by a narrator. The narrator can be biased at different times to tell the story from a different point of view. At the moment, the story is being told from Melena’s point of view.
2.
The point of view is effective because it allows you to see the story from your own point of view because you see everyone’s thoughts. I also think that this is effective because it shows you ‘a bird’s eye view’ of the character’s emotions.
3.
The bringing of the ‘Time Dragon’ into Munchkinland was one of the most exciting events in our town’s history- even with being next door to the Emerald City. I think that it is a great idea; it will bring entertainment and good fortune. The puppets/figures shown at the base of it are very comical – and very life-like! I also believe that it possesses magical powers- the clock is forever stuck on one minute before judgement. The dragon itself is very real- its skin is made of painted green leather with silvery claws and ruby jewelled eyes. It also belches out a flaming orange substance that resembles fire.
Even though the clock is all of these great things; I see some dark in it too. This magic that it possesses cannot be trusted in the hands of these simple farmers of Munchkinland. Something tells me that it will go out of control. I am not the only one who feels this way. In fact, brother Frexspar feels very outraged that they are establishing it. He has tried to rebel and got injured in the process. I would have waited to speak in a calmer manor. This is what he deserved for getting physical to solve the issue. My sources say that he has been allowed to stay in the celar of a sympathetic old widow. They shouldn’t be able to find him there, and personally I hope they don’t! They will beat him horribly if anyone objects to the town’s new beacon and symbol.
I believe that the Time Dragon will be good for the town. However, I think that we will have to be careful with this new privilege. I also feel sorry for any poor soul who tries to object. For now I will try not to worry; just try to enjoy the show of our newest symbol of Munchkinland.
Wicked is told in third person by a narrator. The narrator can be biased at different times to tell the story from a different point of view. At the moment, the story is being told from Melena’s point of view.
2.
The point of view is effective because it allows you to see the story from your own point of view because you see everyone’s thoughts. I also think that this is effective because it shows you ‘a bird’s eye view’ of the character’s emotions.
3.
The Bringing of the Time Dragon into the Town
From Perippa’s Point of View
From Perippa’s Point of View
The bringing of the ‘Time Dragon’ into Munchkinland was one of the most exciting events in our town’s history- even with being next door to the Emerald City. I think that it is a great idea; it will bring entertainment and good fortune. The puppets/figures shown at the base of it are very comical – and very life-like! I also believe that it possesses magical powers- the clock is forever stuck on one minute before judgement. The dragon itself is very real- its skin is made of painted green leather with silvery claws and ruby jewelled eyes. It also belches out a flaming orange substance that resembles fire.
Even though the clock is all of these great things; I see some dark in it too. This magic that it possesses cannot be trusted in the hands of these simple farmers of Munchkinland. Something tells me that it will go out of control. I am not the only one who feels this way. In fact, brother Frexspar feels very outraged that they are establishing it. He has tried to rebel and got injured in the process. I would have waited to speak in a calmer manor. This is what he deserved for getting physical to solve the issue. My sources say that he has been allowed to stay in the celar of a sympathetic old widow. They shouldn’t be able to find him there, and personally I hope they don’t! They will beat him horribly if anyone objects to the town’s new beacon and symbol.
I believe that the Time Dragon will be good for the town. However, I think that we will have to be careful with this new privilege. I also feel sorry for any poor soul who tries to object. For now I will try not to worry; just try to enjoy the show of our newest symbol of Munchkinland.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Discussion #2- Message Minder
Hello everyone,
In chapters 3-5, we start to see the real Melena for what she is. She is a woman who cheats on her husband often and doesn't even give her new daughter a chance becuase of her appearence. "We'll keep the jaw all strapped up until we can solve the skin problem." As the novel goes on, we learn that Elphaba can actually be sweet when people give her attention and so this teaches us not to judge a book by its cover. From Frex's experience of fighting the bringing in of the Time dragon into the city, we can learn that you should not physically show your resentment towards something- you should just speak up when appropriate. I think that Elphaba being green and the way she is in the story might be a lesson for Melena's poor behavior in the past.
In chapters 3-5, we start to see the real Melena for what she is. She is a woman who cheats on her husband often and doesn't even give her new daughter a chance becuase of her appearence. "We'll keep the jaw all strapped up until we can solve the skin problem." As the novel goes on, we learn that Elphaba can actually be sweet when people give her attention and so this teaches us not to judge a book by its cover. From Frex's experience of fighting the bringing in of the Time dragon into the city, we can learn that you should not physically show your resentment towards something- you should just speak up when appropriate. I think that Elphaba being green and the way she is in the story might be a lesson for Melena's poor behavior in the past.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Jounal #1
1.
The setting so far in the novel is Munchkinland, a town just outside of the Emerald City. Specifically in a little cottage in the countryside. " The sky was brown with flying sand and grit. The wind rushed high over the hills with the sound of a tremulous wail, as if pushing through some fissure of rock, on a ridge beyond any Frex could see." The town's newest addition is a 'Time Dragon', a clock with a fake moulded dragon surrounding it with many characters for entertainment moving at it's base.
2.
We have been introduced to a husband and wife- Frex and Melena, who's last name has not been given. Melena is pregnant with a child that she hopes to be sucessful and please her and her husband. Frex or otherwise known as brother frexspar is a priest, that works to go on journeys to convince people of righousness ect. For example, he sets out to stop the bringing of the time dragon as it is seen as an un-just thing to do. There are no conflicts between these two characters.
3.
"He had sacrificed for them. They couldn't be swayed by this Time Dragon Creature. They owed him." This is the perfect sentence to describe Frex. He loves Munchkinland and everyone in it. He constantly sacrifices for the community and gives whenever possible.
The setting so far in the novel is Munchkinland, a town just outside of the Emerald City. Specifically in a little cottage in the countryside. " The sky was brown with flying sand and grit. The wind rushed high over the hills with the sound of a tremulous wail, as if pushing through some fissure of rock, on a ridge beyond any Frex could see." The town's newest addition is a 'Time Dragon', a clock with a fake moulded dragon surrounding it with many characters for entertainment moving at it's base.
2.
We have been introduced to a husband and wife- Frex and Melena, who's last name has not been given. Melena is pregnant with a child that she hopes to be sucessful and please her and her husband. Frex or otherwise known as brother frexspar is a priest, that works to go on journeys to convince people of righousness ect. For example, he sets out to stop the bringing of the time dragon as it is seen as an un-just thing to do. There are no conflicts between these two characters.
3.
"He had sacrificed for them. They couldn't be swayed by this Time Dragon Creature. They owed him." This is the perfect sentence to describe Frex. He loves Munchkinland and everyone in it. He constantly sacrifices for the community and gives whenever possible.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Discussion #1-Vocabulary Enricher
Hello everyone,
As the 'Vocabulary Enricher' it is my job to define any unfamilliar or strange words in the novel. Here are some that qualify!
As the 'Vocabulary Enricher' it is my job to define any unfamilliar or strange words in the novel. Here are some that qualify!
- Jettison, from the sentence, "She couldn't jettison her pretty accent." (9) - to cast goods overboard to stabilize an aircraft or vessel.
- Alcoves, from the sentence, "It is nothing more than a tottering, free-standing theatre, punched on all four sides with alcoves." (11) - A secluded structure
- Ingenuity, from the sentence, " The time dragon combined the appeals of ingenuity and magic." (13) - Clever or resourceful.
- Abased, from the sentence, "He had abased himself in their names." (13) - To lower or reduce.
- Fissure, from the sentence, "The wind rushed high over the hills with the sound of a tremulous wail, as if pushing through some fissure of rock..." (14) - A narrow opening
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
About the Author
Gregory Maguire, the author of Wicked and many other children and adult novels. He was born in Albany, New York on June 9th, 1954. He went to school at State University of New York in Albany where he recieved his BA. He later gained his Ph. D at Tufts University. His latest works have included: A couple of April Fools, One Final Firecracker, What- the- Dickens; The story of a Rouge Tooth Fairy, Son of a Witch and Son of a Lion. "Writing is for me simply recording the story which is currently playing in my head," said Maguire." He has won artist in residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and fellowship residences at Blue Mountain Center, New York -the Hambidge center, Georgia- The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts- and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, Vermont.
http://www.bookrags.com/biography/gregory-maguire-aya/
http://www.harpercollins.com/author/microsite/about.aspx?authorid=6173
Wikipedia
http://www.harpercollins.com/author/microsite/about.aspx?authorid=6173
http://www.harpercollins.com/author/microsite/about.aspx?authorid=6173
Reading So Far
Hey Everyone!
I am a little more than a quarter of the way through the book! I finished reading the first two chapters a while ago!
I am a little more than a quarter of the way through the book! I finished reading the first two chapters a while ago!
Monday, February 2, 2009
Reviews!
When I was a child in the early '70s, one of the Big Three networks aired the classic movie "The Wizard of Oz" with some regularity, about once a year or so. I watched it every time it was on, captivated again and again by the struggle between Dorothy's innocent "good" (ironic, given Judy Garland's eventual reputation) and the absolute "evil" of the green-skinned Wicked Witch of the West.
In early junior high school, I discovered L. Frank Baum's whole blessed series of Oz books and raced through them all. I decided that the original creation was far superior to the movie - which I now own on video, so it's still beloved to me - in delving deeper into the society of Oz and depicting in loving detail the quirkier aspects of that enchanted land. It occurs to me that Oz is a venerable ancestor of Piers Anthony's Xanth, but that strays from the point at hand.
A few years ago, I picked up a brand-new hardcover by Gregory Maguire called Wicked, purely on the basis of its subtitle: "The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West." I started reading and honestly could not stop, enchanted by Oz once again, and this time from a vastly different point of view and of sympathy.
Wicked's flavor is the gothic freakishness of Carson McCullers and Flannery O'Connor blended with liberal amounts of dark humor and socio-political satire a la Kurt Vonnegut and Tom Robbins, seasoned with honesty, sympathy and earnestness. It is the heretofore untold story of the Wicked Witch of the West. In it we learn about
her name (Elphaba)
her childhood (really weird parents and unfortunate skin)
her sister (Nessarose, an armless conservative zealot who will become Wicked Witch of the East and who will die when Dorothy's Kansas house lands on her)
her schoolgirl days (where she and Glinda the "Good" will become reluctant pals)
her politics (she becomes a freedom fighter, working with an underground resistance movement to bring social rights to the thinking Animals, among other things)
her life's great sorrow, the loss of her one true love.
The infamous Dorothy is seen briefly in the prologue, but doesn't appear in the story proper until the fifth and final part of the book. Dorothy is depicted as a large-boned farm girl, a dull-witted but well-intentioned sort; Toto is "merely annoying." If you rewatch the movie, you'll grudgingly admit that this seemingly cruel characterization is actually pretty on-the-mark as far as the motion picture Dorothy goes.
Kirkus Reviews said "Save a place on the shelf between Alice and The Hobbit -- that spot is well-deserved." Wicked does earn a spot on the shelves of classic fantasy, but so does it earn a niche alongside the best modern literary fiction. Maguire has created a truly great -- and flawed -- heroine in a novel that is a psychological analysis on one of the most "evil" characters of the twentieth century.
I made this book my in-store staff recommendation twice when I was a bookseller, in hardcover and paperback, and my evident love for Wicked caused nearly half our store staff to read it for themselves. Two things we all agreed on: Wicked is one hell of a good book, and we will never look at Oz in the same way.
- http://www.curledup.com/wicked.htm
How did the Wicked Witch of the West, from Frank Baum's Oz stories, get to be so wicked? Gregory Maguire tells her story, in Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West . Author of Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Maguire seems to revel in turning our beloved fairy tales upside down, and having us rethink our cherished notions of absolute good and evil. The Wicked Witch wasn't born a witch, nor wicked. In Maguire's delightful telling, we learn of Glinda's obsession with status and fashion, the Wizard's inhumanity, and the friendships, loves, and lost loves of little green Elphalba, the story's moral center, who is ultimately destroyed by innocent Dorothy. This tale is more real, and more like life as we know and experience it, than the original. There's always a different side to a story, and in the case of Oz, this is it. A great read from start to finish. I could not put it down.
- http://www.elise.com/books/el/archives/wicked_gregory_maguire.php
In early junior high school, I discovered L. Frank Baum's whole blessed series of Oz books and raced through them all. I decided that the original creation was far superior to the movie - which I now own on video, so it's still beloved to me - in delving deeper into the society of Oz and depicting in loving detail the quirkier aspects of that enchanted land. It occurs to me that Oz is a venerable ancestor of Piers Anthony's Xanth, but that strays from the point at hand.
A few years ago, I picked up a brand-new hardcover by Gregory Maguire called Wicked, purely on the basis of its subtitle: "The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West." I started reading and honestly could not stop, enchanted by Oz once again, and this time from a vastly different point of view and of sympathy.
Wicked's flavor is the gothic freakishness of Carson McCullers and Flannery O'Connor blended with liberal amounts of dark humor and socio-political satire a la Kurt Vonnegut and Tom Robbins, seasoned with honesty, sympathy and earnestness. It is the heretofore untold story of the Wicked Witch of the West. In it we learn about
her name (Elphaba)
her childhood (really weird parents and unfortunate skin)
her sister (Nessarose, an armless conservative zealot who will become Wicked Witch of the East and who will die when Dorothy's Kansas house lands on her)
her schoolgirl days (where she and Glinda the "Good" will become reluctant pals)
her politics (she becomes a freedom fighter, working with an underground resistance movement to bring social rights to the thinking Animals, among other things)
her life's great sorrow, the loss of her one true love.
The infamous Dorothy is seen briefly in the prologue, but doesn't appear in the story proper until the fifth and final part of the book. Dorothy is depicted as a large-boned farm girl, a dull-witted but well-intentioned sort; Toto is "merely annoying." If you rewatch the movie, you'll grudgingly admit that this seemingly cruel characterization is actually pretty on-the-mark as far as the motion picture Dorothy goes.
Kirkus Reviews said "Save a place on the shelf between Alice and The Hobbit -- that spot is well-deserved." Wicked does earn a spot on the shelves of classic fantasy, but so does it earn a niche alongside the best modern literary fiction. Maguire has created a truly great -- and flawed -- heroine in a novel that is a psychological analysis on one of the most "evil" characters of the twentieth century.
I made this book my in-store staff recommendation twice when I was a bookseller, in hardcover and paperback, and my evident love for Wicked caused nearly half our store staff to read it for themselves. Two things we all agreed on: Wicked is one hell of a good book, and we will never look at Oz in the same way.
- http://www.curledup.com/wicked.htm
How did the Wicked Witch of the West, from Frank Baum's Oz stories, get to be so wicked? Gregory Maguire tells her story, in Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West . Author of Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Maguire seems to revel in turning our beloved fairy tales upside down, and having us rethink our cherished notions of absolute good and evil. The Wicked Witch wasn't born a witch, nor wicked. In Maguire's delightful telling, we learn of Glinda's obsession with status and fashion, the Wizard's inhumanity, and the friendships, loves, and lost loves of little green Elphalba, the story's moral center, who is ultimately destroyed by innocent Dorothy. This tale is more real, and more like life as we know and experience it, than the original. There's always a different side to a story, and in the case of Oz, this is it. A great read from start to finish. I could not put it down.
- http://www.elise.com/books/el/archives/wicked_gregory_maguire.php
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