SURVEY OF AUTHORS & SECONDARY SOURCES

1) Title: Wicked

    Author: Gregory Maguire



Some members of the Wicked Cast



2) When choosing the novel I was going to read, the title Wicked immediately caught my eye. I knew that there was a play that was based on the novel and I had never seen the play before, therefore I decided to read the book to get to know what the story is about in more detail. I did not know anything about the author but I knew people who have read Wicked and his other books, so I did some research on Gregory Maguire and asked my peers who have read his works. I learned that he is a great writer and he has won many awards for his various books. So far, I have enjoyed this book and Gregory Maguire's writing and the way he switches between the different characters to show the characters different perspectives on events that have happened in the novel.



Gregory Maguire

 3) Gregory Maguire was born in Albany, New York on June 9, 1954. He received his B.A. from the State University of New York at Albany and his Ph.D. in English and American Literature at Tufts University. In 1987, he co-founded Children's Literature New England and he is still a co-director. He was a professor and co-director at the Simmons College Center for the Study of Childrens Literature in 1979-1985. He has written several books for children and adults, and he has written short stories and non-fiction books. He is currently married to an artist named Andy Newman and they have adopted three children.





Maguire's First

Published Book

4) Gregory Maguire has written many novels for adults and children. Many of his books involve fantasy and sometimes humour, and one single motif which is the loss of a mother, (Maguire lost his mother during childbirth). He also writes about people who are in a crisis or on the edge of it but in the end they overcome whatever problem it was and they become a stronger individual. An example of a childrens novel would be the first one that was published when he was a college juniour and the title was The Lightning Time. That book then turned into a trilogy. He also has written a five novel series called the Wicked Years which have become a very popular series in adults and young adults. Some of his novels are based on fairy tales people have read as children but he writes in someone else's perspective. An example of this is his book called, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister which is a novel based on the original story of Cinderella but it is written in the perpective of one of her ugly stepsisters. Gregory Maguires writing makes people look at the stories they knew so well in a different light, and it makes people think more about the "villians" they knew in old stories. Also, his writing gives some background and answers questions like, why the Wicked Witch of the West melted when water was dumped on her. His genre for the novels are usually fantasy.



King Lear



5) Gregory Maguire's main influence was the old fairytales many children know about princess' and evil stepsisters or stepmothers. He takes the plot of the story and adds more detail and depth, and he also puts the story in a different characters perspective so readers can see what Gregory Maguire thought about those characters who were in the background and never recognized for anything in the original stories. In addition, in his novels there is always a mother who is dead, extremely ill, or she could have left the family for someone else. For example, in Wicked Elphaba's mother died when she was giving birth to her son and this relates to Maguires life because his mother died in childbirth also. Gregory Maguire also said that for one of his books, Son of A Witch, the main character Liir was based on his assumptions on what King Lear from Shakespeare was like in his childhood. In an interview with USATODAY Maguire said that, "I've always wondered what the childhood of Shakespeare's Lear was like" (Minzesheimer).

6) Good vs. Evil
In Gregory Maguire's novel Wicked the main theme is good vs evil. The readers know the original story and they already know that Elphaba will be the Wicked Witch of the West in the future. But, Maguire has given readers a new perspective on Elphaba so even though readers know she's evil we are seeing a new story in her perspective, and personally, I don't imagine her as the Wicked Witch of the West anymore. This is because of the background Gregory Maguire has given the readers on Elphaba and her past.

Religion

Religion is a large part of this novel because in the beginning we find out that Elphaba's father Frex is a priest and he follows unionism. Also, his second daughter and sister to Elphaba, Nessarose, is very religious like her father and follows in his footsteps. In the Land of Oz, the country is divided up and in each 'state' they have a different religion that they believe in and that relates to the real world where there are different religions everywhere. In this book the people all have different views on religion and there are some who are very religious and others who don't care as much as others. In the novel, Nessarose, Elphaba and Galinda argue very often about certain topics on religion because they each have different points of views. Nessarose feels very strongly about her religion while Elphaba does not feel as strongly as her sister and Galinda usually disagrees with her completely.



Map of Oz

Family 


Elphaba and Nessarose



In the novel family is a very important theme because when Elphaba was born the only social interaction she had was with her family. She rarely went to go and play with the other children because her mother was embarrassed of her green skin. When her younger sister Nessarose was born she did not have any arms, so Elphaba had someone she could socialize with who had some sort of physical disorder like herself. In the novel the readers can really see how Elphaba's family develops.

Priscilla Galloway

7) Authors that are similar to Gregory Maguire are Robin McKinley, J.K. Rowling, Jane Yolen, Donna Jo Napoli, and Priscilla Galloway. These authors are similar to Gregory Maguire because they write fantasy novels and they have written novels like Wicked, where they take an original fairytale and put more detail into it and put it in a different characters perspective. These authors retell the classics in a new and interesting way for readers. They have the settings in fantasy places, like Hogwarts, Land of Oz etc.

Critical Articles

• Bakkum, Beth. "Gregory Maguire." Writer 3(2007):66. eLibrary. Web. 17 Oct. 2011 (http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/elibweb/curriculumca/do/document?set=search&dictionaryClick=&secondaryNav=advance&groupid=1&requestid=lib_canada&resultid=4&edition=&ts=168A6173EDD97DBFBBA897F0B5A3D762_1298607039655&start=1&publicationId=&urn=urn%3Abigchalk%3AUS%3BBCLib%3Bdocument%3B135547074)
• Fraser, Stephen. "Wicked with words: Gregory Maguire reimagines fairy tale." Writing! Feb.-Mar. 2006: 8+. General OneFile. Web. 17 Oct. 2011 (http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?action=interpret&id=GALE%7CA141492675&v=2.1&u=ko_k12hs_d21&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w%29&authCount=1)
• Kakutani, Michiko. "Books of the Times-Let's Get This Straight:Glinda Was the Bad One?" New York Times, 24 Oct. 1995. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE7DF1738F937A15753C1A963958260&n=Top%2fFeatures%2fBooks%20Reviews>.