ariana grande

Like millions of others, I recently watched Jon M. Chu's long-awaited movie adaptation of "Wicked," a musical prequel to "The Wizard of Oz" that offers an origin story for the Wicked Witch of the West. Plenty has been said about the film—the performances of Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, the stunning sets, the fun choreography, the questionable lighting— but I'm much more intrigued by people's strangely partisan responses to the story.

As we walked out of the movie theater, someone commented on how "timely" the story was, "considering everything happening in the current political climate." I assumed I knew what they meant, but after reading scores of reactions to the film, I realized I had no clue. People watching the exact same film are walking away with very different ideas about who the characters and the plot represent, with some seeing Donald Trump in the Wizard (a charlatan who feigns being great and powerful) and some seeing him in Elphaba (a misunderstood outsider challenging the establishment).

Unsurprisingly, people seem to be viewing it through polarized partisan lenses, and hoo boy, does that color what they are seeing. 

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

How are people walking out of "Wicked" with totally opposite political interpretations?

There's no question that the story of "Wicked" is political, tackling fascism, populism, charlatanism, scapegoating and manipulation of the masses. The protagonist, Elphaba, is someone who has been "othered," a victim of prejudice and propaganda, who sees the pathetic reality of "the man behind the curtain" and courageously thwarts his plot to make himself more powerful. What and who the storyline and characters represent in our "current political climate" is open to interpretation, however, and people are coming to polar opposite conclusions.

You know the famous Rorschach inkblot test used to analyze how people interpret what they're seeing? "Wicked" appears to be a film version of that for American politics.

Partisan lenses cause people to oversimplify a story that is purposefully complex

Everything stemming from those opposing interpretations colors how people view the rest of the film, with both sides insisting they have rock solid evidence for their viewpoint. However, the partisan lenses that lead people to feel more certain that their side is the right side—the "good" side—entirely misses the point.

The first inkblot in the Rorschach test.Public domain

The show explores multiple themes, but the biggie is that “good” and “evil” are complex and nuanced concepts. What appears to be evil or good is influenced by people's motivations, perceptions, prejudices, relationships, self-interest, propaganda, power, sense of the greater good, etc. The deep dive into the complexity of how those things influence what—and whom—we view as good or evil is what makes the show so beautifully compelling. The three times I saw "Wicked" on stage, I came away delightfully awed by how it made me question my biases and beliefs.

If you walk out of "Wicked" more certain about your worldview, you're missing the point.

The point of "Wicked" is that good vs. evil narratives are overly simplistic. Not only is everyone capable of good and evil, but having the full context is vital in determining what is actually good or evil—and even then, it's not always clear. As we will see in Part 2, even Glinda's opening question, "Are people born wicked, or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?" proves to be overly simplistic because sometimes what is "wicked" is in the eye of the beholder. Ultimately, the show implores us to question what we believe about others and recognize how easy it is to be influenced by propaganda and fear-mongering. We aren't meant to come away more certain of our views.

That's not to say there aren't objectively good or evil actions or that some people don't indulge their evil tendencies more than their good. But there's a lot more gray area than our black-and-white public discourse, with its viral soundbites and hot takes and incentivized sensationalism, acknowledges.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Prejudice makes us easy to control

Another big takeaway from "Wicked" is that people in positions of power will exploit our prejudices and manipulate our perceptions of good and evil to achieve their purposes. That's a message for all of us, not just for the people we believe are being deluded by populist politicians or unscrupulous media outlets. If anyone of any political persuasion walks out of “Wicked” thinking, “That's right! THOSE people are being duped by propaganda from evil leaders masquerading as great and powerful,” without recognizing how they themselves might just be in the same boat, they’ve missed the point. If people walk out more confident that their political side is "good" and the other side is "evil," no matter what side of the spectrum they’re on, they’ve also missed the point.

"Wicked" asks us to untangle ourselves from the prejudices and biases that make us easy to manipulate, and that starts with seeing the inherent potential for good and evil that we all share. If we continue to toss nuance and complexity out the window in favor of simplistic narratives about one another, if we refuse to try to acknowledge that we might not be as right as we think we are and others might not be as wrong as we think they are, we might as well just be flying monkeys.