Wicked: Nanny and her perception of life.

Ophelia

Tammy wrote:

Ophelia · Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 4:18 pm Post subject:

Nanny is a character who deserves analyzing.

She amuses me.
She is a useful and colorful tool in what I see as the author's general enterprise of criticizing almost everything and everybody in the book.

She is grumpy (we are told she is old), she is direct and down to earth.
She knows exactly how the social class system works, and who belongs where.

She has no illusions about life or morals: for example we learn from her (becauses she guesses about the past) about Melena's extra-marital affairs.
She's extremely practical about Melena's affairs, and does not preach morality and fidelity, as one might expect a nanny to do.

When she speaks, she often uses maxims, such as in the paragraph Tammy quoted "Woe is the natural end of life".
Those maxims have a way of ending on a pessimistic note and bring in some dark wit, as in:

"Woe is the natural end of life, yet we go on having babies...halt production."

What words would you use to describe such speech?

Would you say Nanny is a cynic?

By the way, what would you say about the speeches some of the characters (usually Elphaba) give?

They remind me of Oscar Wilde's theatre plays, except that the tirades and witticisms are longer.
For example, Elphaba is very quiet at first at Shiz, but when she starts talking, p125, this is intricate quasi-monologue.

I certainly wish I had conversation like this!

To return to Nanny, she usually is the one to point at weaknesses around her, but the narrator also shows her stealing from Melena, and she is laughable in the episode of the garter.

Constance963 · Intern Joined: 20 Nov 2007 Posts: 165 Gender:

Nanny simply doesn't sugar coat anything - Life is what it is and she doesn't make excuses for it. She seems to be the kind of person who just pushes on no matter what happens. I think she's cynical but life probably hasn't always been kind to Nanny.

tlpounds · Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 2:05 pm Post subject: Thoughts on Life

Though Nanny did not say the below quote, I thought I would post this discussion question under this thread anyway because it does have "perception on life" in the label Wink

“All our lives are activity without meaning: we burrow ratlike into life and we squirm ratlike through it and ratlike we are flung into our graves at the end.”

This passage calls to mind, for me, the phrase “rat race,” which is often used to describe a strenuous, wearisome, and usually competitive lifestyle. Do you think you are living in a rat race? Do you like it? (The phrase has a negative connotation, but for some people, they love such a life. Even with the occasional “beatings,” don’t such challenges/hurdles/trials make one…capable? After all, change/evolution requires a catalyst, often being competition or survival…

Ophelia · Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 3:15 pm Post subject:

Tammy wrote:

tlpounds · Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 12:03 am Post subject:

Hi Ophelia!
I took the quote from page 23 of the book. A dwarf said it during his welcome speech to the crowd that gathered to see the Time Dragon in Rush Margins. Do you remember this event in the beginning of the book? The dwarf finished his speech by saying, “Now and then, why shouldn’t we hear a voice of prophecy, or see a miracle play? Beneath the apparent sham and indignity of our rat-like lives, a humble pattern and meaning still applies! Come nearer, my good people, and watch what a little extra knowledge augurs for your lives! The Time Dragon sees before and beyond and within the truth of your sorry span of years here! Look at what it shows you!”
I used “perception on life” from the name of the thread you gave for Wicked: Nanny and Her Perception on Life. Perception can also mean “grasp; understanding,” so I figured instead of making a new thread for this discussion question, I would post it under Wicked: Nanny and Her Perception on Life because, even though Nanny didn’t say the quoted passage, it is simply another perception (idea/understanding/grasp) on life I wanted to explore with everyone. Basically, I was just trying to justify my reason for posting this discussion question under this thread!
My reading group is simply made up of a couple of people from my work and my two roommates. We are all from different walks of life (e.g. education level, age, geography), but I somehow managed to inspire enough interest in the book to get them on a schedule to read it with me. It really helped when I made a reading schedule for us that included breaking the book into small chunks of readable parts. They were more willing to read a 500 page book when you tell them, “But we’ll only be reading less than a 100 pages a week!?” Wink

I am really not sure how or why they pick the discussion questions that inspire them and make them want to respond. Each question really does something different for each person, and sometimes I don’t receive a response for any of them. It’s just a crapshoot to find out what interests people. I just try to think of different questions that come to mind while I’m reading the book, put it out there for the group, and see what happens.
I think finding so many questions to ask has just been a result of my formal training these past two years. I just finished my Masters in Education, and pretty much all we did was learn various teaching techniques/skills, apply them in the classroom, and discuss our success and failure through group discourse and/or writing formal papers. (I have written so many these past couple of years that thinking of things to ask about Wicked is a welcomed break!)
I try to form my questions using Bloom’s Taxonomy. http://www.officeport.com/edu/blooms.htm
I start by asking questions that demand a simple cognitive function (i.e. recalling information and understanding meaning/translating) to ones that demand a more complex intellectual task (i.e. analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating/making judgments). Is this what you were asking about my questioning techniques?

Ophelia · Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 2:01 pm Post subject:

tlpounds · Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 5:55 pm Post subject:

“…If you don’t give her the weapons and armor with which she can defend herself against scorn, she’ll make your life miserable as hers will be miserable.”

What do you think of Nanny’s parenting skills, taking Elphaba into town to play with the children? Her intentions were to expose Elphaba to taunting and various abuses at an early age. Was it a good lesson for her to learn, or was it too harsh? If your child had some sort of birth defect or disability, would you expose him or her to ridicule at such an age, or would you shelter him or her as much as you could throughout life?

Ophelia · Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 6:04 pm Post subject:

Which page was this?

tlpounds · Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 12:58 am Post subject:


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