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Chapter 5
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 “K” is now banned. Tassie writes to Mittie that the citizens are very excited by the challenge of coming up with a shorter pangram than Nollop’s. She says that the possibility of being able to thwart the Council’s oppression of the Nollopians’ “very humanity” has dramatically brightened the spirits of those involved in the movement.
To the citizens of Nollop, this mission to come up with a shorter pangram becomes important because it not only represents a means to greater freedom—it actually allows them more mental freedom. Doing so once again enables them to use all 26 letters to make a sentence, even if they can’t be discovered writing that sentence down or speaking it allowed.
Themes
Tassie relates another decree of the Council: that any property that has been vacated by those emigrating from Nollop will be officially annexed by the government. One councilman, Harton Mangrove, is moving onto the estate of Georgie Boonswang, who has been forced to leave. Tassie says that other Council members have contemplated similar moves. Tassie closes her letter quickly due to the fact that she must help with the pangram challenge.
The annexation of citizens’ personal property is yet another means by which the government is sliding into totalitarianism, while its citizens simply stand by and watch—particularly because those most able to defend their own property have been removed from the island.
Themes
Two days later, Nate writes a love letter to Tassie as he watches her working on the pangram challenge. Rory also writes to Mittie, saying that he appreciates how she is taking care of him while he is sick with the flu. He tells her that he is spending his time in bed working on the pangram challenge, which he does with the aid of a girl named Eugenia, who is seven years old and thus is not subject to the Council’s edicts. Rory has come up with a pangram of 49 letters: “A quick move by the enemy will jeopardize six fine gun boats.” Mittie responds: she marvels at the sentence and she informs him that a professor in Nollopton named Mannheim has created one under 48 letters.
In the midst of the ongoing betrayal among neighbors, this challenge provides a way in which the citizens can all work together to overthrow the tyranny being perpetuated against them. Additionally, the bonds between these two blooming relationships (Tassie and Nate, Mittie and Rory) highlight the need for love in times of severe political oppression, as the feelings of support for one another help to alleviate their fears and sense of isolation.
Themes
The next day, Tassie tells Mittie that “F” and another “O” fell the previous night. “F” will be excised as of “twelve o’timepiece” the following evening. Still, she says, there is great support for what they are calling “Enterprise Thirty-two.”
Even in the face of more and more difficult linguistic restrictions (which result in eschewing familiar phrases like “o’clock”) the citizens of Nollop are finally finding courage and inspiration in a widespread resistance movement.
Themes
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Tassie also reveals how Council members laugh at their efforts, watching children running around to write down the sentences the adults try to create them (mostly by miming what they mean). Council members, on the other hand, “gather in reverent, worshipful circle beneath the cenotaph to sing praises to Nollop.” She explains that the recent confiscation of property is a violation of the constitution, but the Council says that they are in an “extraconstitutional crisis.” Tassie writes, however, that they are no longer afraid: they have found courage in their movement.
The irony of the Council’s decrees illustrates their own logical fallacy: they have created the constitutional crisis in limiting the linguistic freedom of their citizens. Yet they use this crisis as a justification to limit the citizens’ freedoms even more and to confiscate their property. This demonstrates how the Council is, at its heart, an oppressive government that is using any justification to further their own interests.
Themes
Nate writes to Tassie from the Office of Corrections at Town Center. He says he suspects that the Council has found out about his article on Nollop and that he will likely be kicked off the island. He begs Tassie to stay and fight for Nollop’s survival, to work on Enterprise Thirty-Two, so that he might one day return to her. Tassie then writes to Mittie, informing her of Nate’s banishment and lamenting that she could not even say goodbye to him.
The reason for Nate’s expulsion demonstrates another hypocrisy on the government’s part. In their letter to Gwenette, they argued that no one would be punished for criticizing the government or the content of their letters—which is what enabled them to say that Nollop is still a “free, open society.” Yet here, this assertion is proven untrue.
Themes
