I never questioned that the Wicked Witch of the West was a villain until I watched it with my kids.

I was about to wonder out loud why she was being punished and labeled “wicked” when she is in the throes of mourning her sister when my kid asked that exact question. That started a dialogue in our family on people’s preconceived notions, and how even if you do a bad thing because you are in pain, it is still a bad choice.

In the book* and the musical/movie, Elphaba (the name the author Gregory Macguire gave The Wicked Witch of the West) is essentially a freedom fighter after she learns that the humans of Oz are discriminating against the animals who can also speak, ultimately trying to subjugate them.

So you can imagine the questions your kids might have.

*reminder that the book is Young Adult, if even that. Besides implied SA in the prologue, they visit a club with an X-rated animal show. All of Maguire’s retellings are extremely macabre.

It Starts With a Green Bottle

In WICKED, it’s heavily implied that the Wizard is Elphaba’s father. Essentially the Wizard-before-he-was-Wizard slept with Elphaba’s mother (who honestly deserves all the fun she can get for putting up with her husband and that’s why she’s green. But Elphaba’s religious father doesn’t know that (movie only points out that he’s a governor).

I tell you this plot point because even baby Elphaba is immediately an outcast for being green. Her father barely acknowledges her except for how can protect her sister. No one in Oz is shown to be nice to anyone, really. So it isn’t a big shock when the Oz police storm into their classroom, remove their Professor (an intelligent goat), and introduce the concept of caging these animals to the students in University. Faced with possible punishment themselves, most students comply and Elphaba is the only one to speak up.

Dialogue: The People Throwing Citizens Into Cages Are Supposed to be the Good Guys (in Oz)

This was the hardest thing to explain to my kids. They didn’t even see the movie yet and they had questions. (I am adding questions that I heard from other kids as well)

Why did she turn bad?

Well, she actually becomes the wicked witch because she refuses to do any more magic that hurts people in the name of The Wizard and Oz. So to protect himself and his power, The Wizard declares her the enemy.

So she isn’t bad?

In this version of the story, she is only called “wicked” because she wants her leaders to stop locking up citizens of Oz for no reason except they are different. When she turns against her teacher and leader, they brand her public enemy #1.

Why did they do that?

In this case, The Wizard turned Elphaba into the enemy so she couldn’t rise against him. It’s easier for people to follow bad ideas and make bad choices if they all have a common enemy.

But that doesn’t sound right.

No. It doesn’t.

What questions are your children asking? What do you anticipate will be hard to explain? Comment below or email editor@outthinkmedia.com.

Read more: How the “Bad Guys” Teach Kids Empathy

Listen to the podcast: Out Think the Classics: Exploring Evil. Episode 1: The Wicked Witch of the West!

Photo/Image Credit: Cindy Marie Jenkins, Canva

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