Ella Minnow Pea Book Analysis Essay Example

In the book Ella Minnow Pea, the islanders are faced with unfair challenges and treated unequally. This created conflict and tension between everybody living on the island and it got to a point where people were banished from the island. The island of Nollop is not like traditional societies like the ones we live in. This all happened because of a silly letter falling off a silly statue for a silly person. All things considered, although Nollopton shows sparks of being civil, at the onset of the novel, Nollopton is not an ideal society because of their unjust rules and unnecessary worship to a person with little significance. 

Early on in the novel, The villagers of Nollopton are one day struck with the news that there beloved statue of Nevin Nollop is falling apart and his famous sentence “The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over The Lazy Dog” which contains each letter in the alphabet is missing the letter Z. The villagers of Nollopton are forced by the council to obey their rules and ban the use of the letter Z. The council decides in order to honor Nollop, they must get rid of this letter as it takes away strength from Nollop as a person. Dunn writes himself, "Effective as of September 15, the primary responsibility of our isle's new assistant chief postal inspector has been to scan all posts for us of illegal letters of the alphabet, then to make nightly reports to the council. A report has been put on file on your behalf, your official sentence to be forthwith in issuance”(78) This creates the structure and tone for the rest of the island as more letters continue to fall and be banished. This also implies the harsh protocols the council is following to ensure they are honoring Nollop in the right way. The next letter stricken from the islanders vocabulary was the letter Q. It was taken away from the vocabulary on such short notice in regards to the letter Z and left the villagers wondering if this cruelness will continue. The council states , “At the cusp of midnight august 27/28 as you surely know by now the letter Q will be stricken from our vocabulary as utterly and thoroughly as was its hapless predecessor” (29). Being as naive as they were, the villagers decided to throw a goodbye party for the newly forbidden letters, but deep down feared what was yet to come as each day is unpredictable when living on such a strange island.  

The continuous ban of each letter from the alphabet after it had fallen from Nollop’s statue, inspired the council to create unfair and cruel punishments for voicing a letter that has fallen from the statue. All the villagers were faced with the challenge of communicating with one another without using the forbidden letters. The punishments for the use of the forbidden letters included banishment from the island and if it’s a 3rd offense, death. Due to these strict punishments, people were forced to live their lives very conservative. Tassie herself writes to Ella in a letter, “Yet, Observe that none of us will risk telling it so for fear of the consequences.”(10).  The villagers felt constantly as if they were sock puppets being controlled by the council. A prime example of this was on top of the fact that the villagers couldn’t speak certain letters in the alphabet and could only communicate with people outside of the island by writing letters to them. Ella herself writes back to Tassie, “I wish we could speak on the phones— that phone service between town and village were reinstated; The council continues to refer to the outage as a temporary “Hurricane - related disruption” (The hurricane in question having occurred 13 months ago) (26).  Ella’s point here is that the council is controlling their lives and the villagers feel “trapped”. A significant factor for an ideal society is communication with everybody in it and Nollopton doesn’t align with this model for various reasons and the most important one being not being able to communicate with outside people. 

While there are many people that would prefer to live in a society where they get the freedom to choose how they live their lives, others feel a different way. Proponents of the letters written by the council are right to argue that their way of living and worship to Nevin Nollop is essential for a well functioning society. While it is true that most countries and societies have a leader or leaders that help guide their civilization to greatness, it does not necessarily mean that their specific leader or leaders are worthy of being worshiped or the right people for the job. According to Ella very early into the book, the current high council members were called to obey Nevin Nollop’s rules and carry forth the traditions. “And we, as his grateful servants (serving the memory of his greatness) have been called by the High Council to obey. Under penalties to be determined by the aforementioned council” (6) In this letter, Ella is conveying the message to her Tassie that while most people would prefer the luxury of simple freedoms, others feel the need to obey others that they value in their lives. In this case, There is a group of people that are strong believers in Nevin Nollop and the impact he made on Nollopton.  Although a society where people aren't being controlled in every aspect may attract a group of people, it should catch the attention of people who enjoy their freedom and want their voices to be heard to do the opposite and be civil. 

In conclusion, The relationship between the council and the villagers creates unwanted conflict due to the council's unnecessary worship of Nevin Nollop. Along with this unnecessary worship to Nollop comes unjust rules that the villagers of Nollopton are forced to follow, dawning the idea of the town not being an ideal society. At the end of the book, Ella and her fellow villagers come up with a sentence that contains all the letters in the alphabet shorter than Nollop’s original sentence. This discovery put an end to Nollop’s significance and sparked a new beginning, a democracy.