The Wizard οf Oz - Book Report/Review Example

Wicked is the biography f Elphaba - the Wicked Witch f the West. We follow her from her birth right through to her death. We see how she lives as an odd child, having been born with green skin and a fear f water. We then follow her on to her years at Shiz University, where she shares a room with Glinda and is accepted by her group f friends. Then there is her time in the Emerald City, where she tries to overthrow the Wizard. It is during this time that she has her one and only love affair, which ends in tragedy.

Then there is her time in a religious sanctuary, when she realizes that she must go and confess to the widow f her lover, and, finally, there's her death at the hands f Dorothy. Maguire has written an entertaining story for young adults who remember singing along with Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion, and being scared f the Wicked Witch f the West in the movie, The Wizard f Oz. Instead f being afraid f Elphaba, you will find yourself agreeing with her, realizing that she was just human, and that it was society that made her what she was.

I would never have chosen to read this book on my own, but was forced to when my book group chose to read it, but I'm glad that I read it anyways. This is an incredible book and you'll never watch the classic movie Wizard f Oz in the same way again. It is about the same characters you meet in the movie, but you don't have to be a fan f the movie to love this book. You will be amazed with what Maguire was able to do with the characters. Everything that happens in the movie happens in the book, but your sympathies will not be with Dorothy, but with Elphaba, the Wicked Witch f the West.

The Wizard f Oz is a book with fantasy characters for children, but it also reflects the failed Populist reform. Born in Chittenango, New York on 15 May 1856, Baum was born into a middle class family. In 1868, he went to the Peekskill Military Academy, but left quickly. In 1897, he published Mother Goose in Prose, which was his first collection f fairy tales. Two years later in 1899, he published Father Goose in Prose ("Baum, Frank"). In 1900, he published his best-known work The Wizard f Oz (Wang).

Baum also published several other books under pseudonyms; however, none brought in the support like the many other Oz related books he wrote (Rahn X ).Sixty-four years after Baum's original publication f The Wizard f Oz, Henry M. Littlefield and his high school students formulated the theory that The Wizard f Oz (from here on "WOZ") was actually a political allegory, and eighty years later WOZ started to be taught as a political allegory (Wang). Why did sixty-four years pass from the original date f publication before someone formulated a theory that WOZ was a political allegory Further still, why did eighty years pass from the original date f publication before the general public accepted this theory and began teaching it in schools It took this amount f time because Baum first wrote the book for children, and secondly as a political allegory (Baum 26).

As the original theorist, Littlefield, wrote in his article "The Wizard f Oz: Parable on Populism," "Baum never allowed the consistency f the allegory to take precedence over the theme f youthful entertainment"