Journal #4- Book Review

The engaging novel Wicked revolves around the life’s story of a young lady named Elphaba. In the first chapters of the novel, we learn about Elphaba’s childhood and how her parent’s examples of behaviour may have influenced her character. The next section is about her experiences at Shiz University. It is here that she meets some helpful friends; Galinda, Boq and Fiyero. After her first encounter with the horrible wizard of Oz, she decides to stay in the Emerald city to try and stop his evil-doings. She then worked undercover while having an affair with her university friend Fiyero. The next part of her life is the turn point of her mannerisms. She travels to a place called the Vinkus where she is still undercover, but now as a witch. This is where she will stay with Fiyero’s widow for many years. As explained in these chapters, she discovers her ability to accidentally kill using magic if she is angered at someone and she officially becomes the wicked witch of the West. The last section of the story is her encounter with Dorothy, they alien girl from another world and how the death of her sister might be the end of her.

There are many main characters that arise at different points in the novel. Elphaba who is the main character, she is a very smart and kind person at heart, though she was destined to be a witch, so this fades into evil later on. Galinda was Elphaba’s roommate when they attended Shiz. She is a very posh girl that is almost the complete opposite of Elphaba. Boq was a boy that went to Shiz University as well; he is a very sweet boy who just so happened to have a crush on Galinda. Nessarose (Elphaba’s sister) I believe is the final main character; she had a very important role in moving the plot along though she was not talked about as often as other characters. For example, her death was the final push to turn Elphaba into the wicked witch that she ended up to be. She is a very thoughtful and holy girl that is much attached to her sister though she doesn’t always get these feelings back. These are all very realistic characters that behave as we do. I cannot say that I like every main character in the novel, but I like most of them.

I believe that the novel Wicked is trying to tell us is that it doesn’t matter what life throws your way. It matters what you do with those things. Elphaba didn’t have to be evil just because she was cursed to be a witch. She could have used those powers to be good, like Galinda. Instead she uses them to be a vile person that only ends up being her own worst enemy.

I enjoyed the book because it was a good adventure to get gripped into. It created a good mental picture of how things might look in your head. It affected me by making me realize that bad experiences shouldn’t make you do wrong things in return. Elphaba had to learn this lesson over the course of her life. She never quite realized that she had made this mistake, but she did experience the consequences of it at the end of the novel when her friends/family turned on her or left her in some way.