Manek Character Analysis

Manek is Sarima and Fiyero’s middle child and youngest son. The most cruel and volatile of their children, he is also the one Sarima and her sisters would most like to see inherit Kiamo Ko. This is largely because he embodies the kind of traditional “masculinity” they associate with the late Fiyero. Manek takes pleasure in tormenting his siblings, Irji and Nor, and the younger, more naïve Liir. He goes so far as to lure Liir into hiding at the bottom of a fishwell during a game of hide-and-go-seek and then “forgetting” about him, nearly killing him. Though Manek feigns innocence afterward, Elphaba sees him for what he is. That winter, she uses her magic to dislodge an icicle that falls on his head, killing him instantly. She feels no guilt afterward.