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Chapter 2
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Ella Minnow Pea, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Totalitarianism, Complacency, and Resistance
Freedom of Speech
Betrayal vs. Solidarity
Blind Faith, Reason, and Logic
Summary
Analysis
The letter “Q” is now banned. Tassie writes to Georgeanne and Nash Towgate, the parents of Timmy, asking why they reported Mittie despite the fact that she’s never done anything to wrong their family and she has always tried to help Timmy as his teacher. Tassie notes that she believes latitude should be extended to those whose work requires them to speak for long periods of time.
Tassie’s plea for the Towgates to recognize that Mittie hasn’t done anything to harm their family highlights the betrayal that citizens are taking upon each other. The laws allow them to turn on one another and to take revenge for long-held grudges or perceived crimes.
Themes
Nash Towgate responds to Tassie, arguing that they believe that Nollop is demonstrating his will, that they did their “civic duty” in reporting Mittie, and that Tassie’s position is “blasphemous.” Nash says that they are glad the Council, whom he calls the “most sage among [them],” are divining the will of Nollop. He argues that without Nollop, the island would be a “shallow shell,” and the world would never have been given the “foxy-dog” sentence (which, he notes, they cherish but can no longer speak or write in its entirety).
Nash exhibits some of the same logical fallacies as the Council itself: like the Council, because the Towgates believe that they are just and wise, they assume that they are infallible. Thus, anyone going against their conclusion that Nollop is expressing his will from the grave must therefore be incorrect and “blasphemous.” Yet Dunn highlights the irony of what Nash believes: that the world is better for Nollop’s pangram, yet that gift cannot be spoken or written freely.
Themes
Georgeanne Towgate adds a note to Nash’s letter, saying that she completely agrees with her husband. She says that many people have joined her in talk sessions and they believe that Nollop is “attempting to pry [them] away from [their] traditional heavipendence on linguistic orthodoxy.” She emphasizes that there is no ill will between her family and Tassie’s family. She also asks if Tassie and Mittie want to join her in a painting group.
Georgeanne Towgate’s note, like her husband’s, is also paradoxical: even in arguing that Nollopians shouldn’t be so dependent on linguistic orthodoxy, she holds a staunch belief that all Nollopians should follow Nollop’s divine will in limiting their language. Thus, Georgeanne’s argument is illogical: she decries orthodoxy, yet she’s merely adhering to orthodoxy in a different form.
Themes
Mittie writes to her sister Gwenette that without two letters, she now chooses to “overuuuse the twenty-four which remaaaain.” She says that she hasn’t been feeling like herself lately and that Tassie worries about her, although she shouldn’t.
Mittie’s letter demonstrates how the ban is affecting not only the words Nollopians can use, but also their ability to express themselves, and in some ways, their very wellbeing. Thus, the lack of freedom of speech results in the feeling of one’s own identity or even one’s happiness being oppressed.
Themes
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A man named Nate Warren writes to Mittie from Savannah, Georgia. Nate explains that he is a master’s candidate in history and sociology at the University of Georgia and that he publishes an academic journal devoted to the island called Nollopiana. He writes that he was contacted by Willy Creevy to write about what is happening on Nollop.
Dunn illustrates how, once outside of Nollop, Nollopians like Willy are attempting to draw attention to the island and the totalitarianism that is taking hold there—perhaps to inspire rebellion among those watching from America and from those still living in Nollop.
Themes
Nate explains that he would like to come to Nollop to investigate this “odd, unprecedented political and social crisis.” He asks if he can pose as a friend of the family, particularly because Mittie and Tassie have remained in Council favor. He writes that he understands if they have reservations but he hopes that they might feel that the actions of the Council should be made known to the public.
Nate’s offer to make this situation public reminds readers that what is happening on Nollop is not normal—neither to the Nollopians nor to the world as a whole. In lending the Nollopians outside support, Nate may give the citizens the motivation they need to rebel.
Themes
Mittie discusses Nate’s letter with Tassie and she writes back that they would like to welcome Nate to their home if his visa to Nollop is approved. Tassie then writes to Ella, explaining her excitement that Nate is coming to write an article about what is happening on the island and how the prospect of his arrival has brightened Mittie’s spirits.
Nate’s impending visit serves not only as a boon to a potential mounting rebellion, but it also provides Mittie and Tassie with hope. This shows the power of unity and solidarity, as a simple letter reassuring the Nollopians that they’re not alone is enough to encourage them.
Themes
Ella writes back to Tassie, glad to hear of the development with Nate. Ella then tells her of another incident in Nollopton: all six members of the Rasmussen family marched into an open session of the High Island Council wearing cartoon masks and making loud duck sounds, which are obviously forbidden. The head of the household, Charles, explained that the family was fond of “Q” and they wanted to protest its removal by quacking.
Like Willy or Mr. Kleeman’s rebellions, the Rasmussen family’s act of resistance is important but ultimately fruitless because it is treated as an isolated incident. Even an entire family’s resistance does not provoke change or reassessment by the Council: instead, it simply highlights the rest of the society’s complacency.
Themes
Charles continued to explain that he wanted the family—including his nine year-old twin daughters—to be flogged in front of as many people as possible, and if this did not produce an outcry, they wanted to leave the island as quickly as possible. And so Ella, Gwenette, and Amos watched the horrifying sight of the Rasmussen children being beaten, and yet no one did anything.
This incident shows the ease with which societies can slide into complacency in the face of oppression and totalitarianism. Their freedoms have been so curtailed and their fear of punishment has become so great that they are unable to stand up against the clear injustice of children being beaten by the state.
Themes
Ella tells Tassie that she, Amos, and Gwenette plan to hold a secret meeting to begin a “nascent underground movement” to restore the alphabet. Ella closes with a final note: that that morning, a man was found trying to replace a newly fallen tile—“J.” Ella explains that the man was arrested and he is being held without bond for trying to circumvent this “all-holy decree from the great and omniscient Nollop.”
The outcome of the incident with the Rasmussens is not instant outcry or uprising, but it at least begins to spur whispers of resistance among its citizens. This becomes particularly important in the face of the unwavering blind faith of the Council as more and more letters disappear.
Themes
Nate writes to Mittie, letting her know that his visa has been approved and that he will arrive in 10 days. He also informs her that chemists in Georgia have obtained smuggled chips from the fallen tiles: their assessment is that the glue holding the tiles has calcified and that within months, all of the tiles will become similarly loosened. They doubt that within a year, there will be a single tile left. Nate says that he would like to reach the Council member who might be most open to reading the chemists’ report to make a case for a reversal of these “apocalyptic directives.”
Nate believes that the chemists’ findings will help the Council see the error of their ways. Given the Council’s staunch superstitions, however, it remains doubtful as to whether they’ll be open to a logical, scientific explanation for the glue.
Themes
Two days later, Tassie writes to Ella about Nate’s findings on the glue, explaining that his analyses “prove beyond doubt and wanton denial that the tiles are falling for the simple reason that they can no longer hold themselves to the bandiford.” She notes that “Nollop is not God,” and that they have to make their “decisions and judgments based on science and fact.” She asks Ella to advise her on which Council member will be most open to reading Nate’s report—positing that she thinks it would be Rederick Lyttle.
Tassie’s letter reveals the logical assumptions that she herself makes: she, like Nate, believes that if they can prove the glue is dissolving based upon scientific fact, that they will thus prove that Nollop is not willing the tiles down and therefore is not God. This oppositions situates the struggle between the Council and the citizens as one of science versus faith.
Themes
A directive from the Office of High Council is sent out to clarify the reasons for their edicts. They write that “Nollop was a man of words. We are a people of words. All that we are, we owe to Nollop. His will be done.” The Council writes that they have been complacent in their language usage, and that the fallen tiles are a challenge to that complacency. They write that “there is no room for alternative interpretation,” which would be heresy. They conclude by saying that “Heretics will be punished,” like Nollop’s stenographer, who was dismissed because she believed that she could create a better pangram than Nollop’s.
The Council’s letter shows both how unreasonable its members are and how much they are motivated by faith. Even though Nollop was not technically a religious figure prior to the letters falling, the Council now worships him above all else. The religious word choice of “heresy” implies that their analysis of the events is based not on any kind of logical, reasoned argument, but is instead based on their own superstitious interpretation. Even the word “interpretation” here implies that their argument is not necessarily based on fact, but opinion.
Themes
The Council adds three more points: that those who obey Nollop’s commandments shouldn’t fear punishment; that there are no accidents or misspoken words, only a lack of rigor in following Nollop’s directive; and that the severity of punishment is irrelevant, given the fact that punishment can be avoided altogether.
Again, the Council emphasizes their blind faith in the religious language of “commandments.” They also use Nollop as a justification for their curtailing of freedoms and execution of punishment, without any room for leniency as in a totalitarian regime.
Themes
The Council returns to the point of Nollop’s secretary, who couldn’t fulfill Nollop’s challenge of coming up a sentence that contained all 26 letters of the alphabet but that measured 35 letters or less. The Council argues that she was not able to create such a pangram because “it simply cannot be done,” and that “this is what has given Nollop his preeminence. Omnipotent. Omniscient. Omniglorious.” They conclude that they honor Nollop’s wishes “by removing ‘J’ with jubilation.”
Here Dunn reveals the basis of the Council’s faith: that no one else could create a pangram as short or shorter than Nollop’s (“the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”), and that this is the justification to deify him. This fundamental idea, it seems, is what the Nollopians will ultimately have to disprove, rather than trying to refute individual points that the Council makes.
Themes
