“When the times are a crucible, when the air is full of crisis,” she said, “those who are the most themselves are the victims.” (238)
-Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
By Gregory Macguire

            Evidently, I’ve been quite engrossed with Wicked lately. The novel, which is an expansion to the universe originally crafted by L. Frank Baum in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and subsequent films/plays/novels, tells the tale of Elphaba, also known as the Wicked Witch of the West. This book is, in my opinion, absolutely amazing. Not only does it serve to add rich history to Oz, but it is also largely symbolic and deals with what is really evil and how we perceive wickedness.

            In the above quote, Princess Nastoya, an elephant who takes the form of a human to avoid poaching, is addressing Elphaba about her situation. To break this down before I being to analyze, this quote is basically saying ‘When times are hard, people who refuse to change suffer the most.’ When I read this, it really struck me as one of the best lines of the book. Not only does it fit the situation our protagonist (antagonist, depending on what side you take) is going through, but it can also be ripped out of the book and applied to life. Within the story this can be interpreted to mean ‘If I showed what I really was, an elephant, I would be killed.’ But outside the story, the limits are endless. What comes to mind to me is the Holocaust. When Jews were being taken to the camps, those who chose not to hide their religion or sadly, couldn’t, were taken away and killed. But those who hide or disguised themselves survived, if only for a little while longer. In our society, we are hypocritically raised being told ‘Don’t hide who you are.’ ‘Be who you want to be.’ The hypocritical side to this is how our society condemns those who do not fit their definition of ‘normal’ (people of different religions, alternative lifestyles, etc.). But showing who we truly are, in certain situations, could put us in danger. Simply for self-preservation, it may be in our best interest to sometimes disguise ourselves in layers of faux personality. We just need to make sure we don’t bury ourselves too deep.

            I’d like to take this paragraph to touch on the idea of ‘burying ourselves too deep [in faux personality]’, as I brought up before. What I meant by this was that if we hide ourselves from the world for too long, we may end up hiding ourselves from ourselves. A bit abstract, yes, but I think we can comprehend that idea. We see this often in popular culture and also in our everyday lives. To fit in, someone may take up false interests. But after a while, they being to actually feel the way they were acting and then lose their old selves. Now, if the person is happy, is this really a bad thing? No, it’s not. If you radically change, as long as you are still happy, it’s fine. It is human nature to change and evolve over time. But on the other hand, you aren’t really you anymore. You have morphed into who you wanted to be. You have changed, either to protect yourself or to fit in. You have buried yourself too deep.

            I think the best thing we can do is be who we are, unless it is absolutely necessary to change. But we shouldn’t change for too long, because the worst thing that can happen to a person is for them to lose who they really are. I try my best to never act falsely. Everyone at school talks about sports, but I hate sports. I could take up a fake interest in sports and be included in their conversations, but I simply don’t care. I have a thirst for literature and music, not trivial ball games (though it can be argued that music is trivial; but not literature. Anyone who says literature is trivial is a fool). I stand very firm in my opinions and interests, and I think it’s quite a respectable quality in a person. Not to say that someone who gives in and changes to fit in isn’t respectable. I think they’re a victim in this situation, but not a helpless victim. We can always stand tall for what we love. Show no shame, take no flack, and be who you are. Because is a life of pretending really a life worth living?

You're Never Old Enough

You'll never feel old enough. You'll never feel old enough to end up at a party with alcohol. You'll never feel old enough to be offered drugs. You think, I'm too young for this. This only happens to older kids. We have these images of 'older kids' in our mind. You never realize when you slowly morph into one.