Ella Enchanted Essay

Ella Enchanted Gale Carson Levine 232 Pages

What does the title reveal now that you have finished the novel? (min. 150 words)

After I have read the book, I understood the author named the book after the main character Ella. As the title indicated, the story involved enchantment, the use of magic that involved and surrounded Ella. Ella unfortunately had a magical spell put on her. The magic spell affected her life in every way. Ever since she was young, she was forced to obey every direct command she heard. For example, during her fifth birthday, her cook accidentally said to eat the cake. She could not stop eating until she was sick. She was only able to stop when her Mother told her to. As she got older, the charm gave her even bigger problems. She almost had to suffer heartbreak when she had to give up marrying someone she loved. However, Ella was not the only one affected by magic. Magic was the main driving force in the lives of other characters too. For example, ogres have a magic language that made people do what they said. However, this backfired on them when people found out and used the language against the ogres themselves. Ellas father managed to get hold of elvish magic mushrooms that makes people fall in love. He made Ella thinks that she was in love with a very old man. The use of magic usually did not work out too well for the characters in the book. The book was actually about the misuse of magic.

A theme of my book, provide examples to support (min. 150 words):

A theme of my book was about how Ella, the protagonist, when facing a difficult life problem, was able to persevere, grow, learn and eventually overcome her disadvantage. Ellas fairy gift gave her a great problem in life, the curse of blind obedience. When she was a child she had to purposely lose to her playmates in games. Later, as she grew, she tried to hide her secret from everybody. If anybody knew about her curse, he or she will have entire control over Ella. They could command her to chop her own head off or steal someone elses valuables; she would have no choice but to do it. However, instead of being timid, afraid and defeated, Ella tried her best to fight against the curse. She would try to obey in such a way that she could still do things her own way. When Ella went to finishing school, she was bullied by snotty girls who included her own step sisters. She made friends with an unpopular girl, Areida, who was from another country and poor. She made a good friend and managed to learn a new language from Areida. When Ella was forced to become a servant she didnt complain and instead of being down she learned to cook, and learned how to do house work. She understood how hard it was to be a servant. Through all her difficulties, she grew as person. Finally, when she had to give up on marrying the person she loved, she said, "In that moment I found a power beyond any I'd had before, a will and a determination I would never have needed if not for Lucinda, fortitude I hadn't been able to find for a lesser cause." (Chap. 29, p. 226). Ella always chose to be a better person.

Did your response to any of the characters change as the novel developed? Explain the changes. (min. 2 characters, 200 words min.)

The two characters from the book that I chose to talk about is Lucinda and Sir Peter (Ellas father). Lucinda was one of Ellas fairy godmothers who actually started the story of Ella of Frell. Like every fairy, she liked to go to weddings and births of babies. Lucinda was known for her spells she casted on the married couples and new born babies she met. She called her spells gifts. Everybody thought her gifts were terrible. Lucinda was at Ellas manor when she was born. Ella cried nonstop. This annoyed Lucinda. The crying gave the idea of giving Ella the gift of obedience. With Lucindas gift, Ella now had to obey every order. Ellas mother and other godmother thought this was a bad idea. This was how Ellas adventure started. In the beginning of the book, Lucinda was mean and stubborn. I did not like her one bit. She gave horrible gifts to all not just to Ella. For example, when a giant couple was getting married, Lucinda gave them a horrible gift. The giants could now never leave each others presence. This was a bad gift because after a while, being stuck together all the time with no breaks, they would eventually hate each other. No matter how many people said this was a bad gift, she ignored them all. She insisted her gifts were wonderful. However, at the end of the story I liked her a bit better. Mandy (Ellas fairy godmother) summoned Lucinda saying her gifts were terrible. Lucinda obviously disagreed and was willing to prove Mandy wrong. Lucinda said she would spend three months being a squirrel and three months being obedient. After six months she felt terrible. She began to understand what she had being putting people through and vowed never to give a horrible gift ever again. Since she repented, I liked her a bit better.

Sir Peter was Ellas Father. I also did not like this character at all. Sir Peters character grew from bad to worse. I did not like Sir Peter from the beginning to the end of the story. He worked as a merchant for a living. He cares more about his trading business than his own daughter. He was always off somewhere doing business having very little care for his wife and daughter. Ella hated him. He did not care about Ella at all. For example, at the funeral of Ellas Mother, Ella could not stop crying. Sir Peter grabbed her and covered her mouth. Ella knew he just wanted her to shut up. . When he talked about his wife at her funeral, he only described her physical looks and nothing about any of his love for her. As the book progressed, Sir Peter grew from an uncaring parent to actually trying to harm his child Ella. He tried to make Ella eat magical mushrooms that made her fall in love with an old man he chose for her to marry. He did this because he thought the old man had a lot of money. I disliked Sir Peter when he was an inattentive parent but he was just despicable when he was willing to exchange his daughter for money. I really hated him at the end and wanted bad things to happen to him.

Identify one symbol in the novel (can be an action, character, setting, object or words) and explain its significance (min. 150 words).

Spells were cast throughout the entire book. It was the main ingredient of the book that moved the story. The entire story started with one spell that almost ruined Ellas life. In the beginning of the story, Lucinda casted a spell of obedience on Ella when she was born. This caused Ella lots of pain and suffering. For example, when a prince, the love of her life, asked her to marry him, she had to refuse. This was because if people figure out her secret and she was queen, they would have the chance of destroying Prince Char, the person she loved. Spells were used t fool people into believing that they were in love when they were not. For example, Sir Peter (Ellas dad), made Ella eat elvish mushrooms that made her believe that she was in love with a wealthy old man that could save Ellas family from poverty. Spells and magic sometimes were able to save people from danger. For example, ogres have a unique language that could cast a spell on you and make you do whatever they want. However people found out about this language and used it to their advantage. For example, when Ella was kidnapped by a group of ogres, they were about to eat her alive. Ella suddenly talked in ogre language and forced them to go to sleep just before they sank their teeth into her flesh. Spells were an important symbol in the book.