Wicked-Social-

Sunday, February 14, 2010
Wicked-Social-

The social environment in Wicked seems to play a big role in the novel. There seems to be a cast system between the rich and the poor with nothing else in between. There also seems to be a bias against Animals. The head of the school Madame Morrible may be a unionist that believes Animals are inferior and have no business coexisting with people. I would imagine that with all these chips in play the environment at Shiz would be stuffy and tense for everyone except the elite few.
If your part of the rich population it is a custom to return home for the holidays and not stay at school. It states in the novel that only the “poor boys” wander around school after exams are over with. When Boq runs into Galinda he quickly realizes that it was a huge mistake telling Galinda he’s happy she decided to stay. According to the social environment of the novel this signified your lower class. This is just one small example. There are some characters though that have no boundaries. Master Boq is a fine example.

“And mine doesn’t include marrying a girl too wealthy, too foreign, too expectant.” Master Boq goes against his master narrative and falls in love with Galinda. He admits that their relationship will never work, but maintains his persistence. Elphaba who may or may not be growing a fancy for Master Boq calls Galinda an “Ice Queen.” The problem with this equation is that there is a possibility Galinda might like Master Boq as well, but she’s trying to follow her master narrative. Since she is above him, and he does not come from wealth, he is not interesting. Galinda refuses to attempt a friendship with Elphaba because her current social circle thinks of Elphaba as a joke, and not a human being with feelings. Galinda might have really enjoyed Elphabas company on Lake Chorge if she didn’t feel that her “friends” thought of Elphie as a joke. Master Boq may have started to realize what type of person Galinda really is. “How would I know that? You’re her roomie.” Although Galinda displays a negative attitude toward Master Boq, and he sees how heartless she is he still cant help himself from being goo-goo eyed. “Boq, you know despite myself I think you’re a little sweet and you’re a little charming and you’re a little maddening and you’re a little habit-forming.” She ends up kissing Boq which isn’t supposed to happen. Maybe persistence does pay off.

“He’s the son of a margrave. Even Madame Morrible would quail before a margreves son.” Avaric is a character that does not follow his master narrative and is not affected by his social environment. When we first meet Avaric he seems to be a genuine guy. He does not boast about who he is, or has a feeling of superiority unlike Galindas friends. Although he crashes with Elphaba he does not insult her. “Shenshen and Pfannee seemed to be besotted with Avaric.” Why? His social standing. When they met Boq all they said was he’s cute in a toy like kind of way. It’s apparent that Avaric comes from money because when everyone disembarks back to Shiz, Avaric stays behind to go home with Shenshen and Pfannee.

The social environment plays an enormous role in this novel. It determines who your friends are. It determines who can join your circle of friends. It determines who your friends can be, who you can marry, where you’re going to live, where you should be after exams are over, and many other things. We wouldn’t want to upset the master narrative, so these rules come into play. There are however, brave souls who bend and break the rules.

Posted by macaDamian at 7:26 PM
Labels: Damian Zuniga