Witches and Power Struggles

    This week I read Aunt Maria by Diana Wynne Jones and it brought up multiple thoughts about witches as depicted in this tale as well as witches in general. Typically, I feel like witches are divided into good and evil and it is highly unusual for there to be much moral grey area for them. This is perfectly demonstrated in The Wizard of Oz. There is Glenda the Good Witch (it is literally in her title) who helps our heroine, and there is the Wicked Witch of the West who is the evil our heroine must defeat to go home. However, recently, there have been examples of people breaking that barrier, such as the book Wicked. Wicked takes the Wicked Witch of the West and shows all of her story. It details why she acts the way she does and it also shows that it is not just black and white.

    Aunt Maria is interesting because there is an evil witch, however, she does not recognize that she is evil. When asked at the end of the novel, Aunt Maria doesn’t think she has done anything wrong by controlling the entire town and turning people into animals. She feels as if she is just in every one of her actions.

    This book is also interesting because the entire time there is a power struggle and a misuse of power. Aunt Maria has sealed the men’s power and they are basically zombies that the women order around. They use their power to gain the upper hand over the men and to exploit them. The only way to change this is to get their power back. Basically, Jones is manifesting the power struggle between men and women today into an easy to read book. Although it is the 21st century, there are still gender equality issues that happen throughout the world. Jones recognizes that and depicts it through the intense power struggle between both sides. She ends the book in the way that she believes can solve this problem. Antony Green, once he is freed and receives his power, releases it to everyone instead of perpetuating the cycle and using it to rule over the women. This way, no one has the upper hand on the other and there is no fighting.

Witch puppy is the best puppy?