Custom «Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West» Essay Paper

The first and the second parts of the book address the questions of religious life, social and moral relations in society and inside the family. Through his depiction of the state conditions that prevail in the religious community, Maguire makes quite vivid the repressive conditions that can result when religious conservatives gain political power, a suggestion clearly directed at the growing political power of the religious right at the time the book was first published. The section 1 is formally complex, being constructed as a series six individual sections, but which nevertheless work closely together to establish an intricate pattern of interrelationships that combine to produce a work the whole of which is considerable greater than the sum of the parts. In the second section, each of the individual scenes concentrates on a particular individual whose relationship to the society at large highlights a different aspect of life in this future world, the different parts then combining to produce an overall picture that is broader than that which could be provided within any one story, while also highlighting the relativism that centrally informs the entire book. The author creates vivid images of the main characters and their life style: Elphaba and Frexspar. The themes of secrecy, religious values and death provide a telling commentary on the proclivity toward violence that remains a part of this society, despite its supposed sophistication. Moreover, the motif of afterlife suggests that the rational rule of this society by its members itself involves the perpetration of a subtle kind of violence. The second section ends with the description of Elphaba and her personal qualities including intelligence and strong believes. The part of the book under analysis brings together the death motifs of the earlier stories to produce a conclusive picture of the dark side of human life. Family feelings, like art, provide no simple cure. Elphaba’s devotion to her family does not prevent her from being evicted from her apartment and finally begging for death. The book reflects cruelty and harsh reality of life faced by modern people. The main characters cannot control and change their daily existence destined to sufferings and emotional pain.