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Chapter 6
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
Using the letter “F” is now illegal. The High Council (now writing “Ribs” instead of “Fribs” in the date) clarifies another ruling: that citizens will still be able to use the numbers four and five despite the outlawing of the letter “F” because there are no numbers in the “canine-vulpine sentence.”
In this latest clarification, the Council again demonstrates the inherent absurdity of their rulings. Already, the arbitrary names that they instated to replace the days of the week have become moot because of new fallen letters
Themes
That day, Mittie writes to Tassie, saying that she has received a second offense. She was buying shrimp on the pier from a woman named Xenia, but when Mittie said the woman’s name and received a shocked stare in return, she realizes that Xenia’s name must actually be spelled with a “Z” and not an “X.” Georgeanne Towgate was also in line and she reported Mittie for the violation. Mittie is frustrated with herself for the slip and angry at Georgeanne for reporting her twice over.
Mittie’s next slip-up illustrates yet again how neighbors are empowered to betray one another. While saying Zenia’s name is a trivial mistake, Georgeanne feels again that it is her civic duty to report this small and inconsequential slip. Although using the letter “Z” obviously doesn’t hurt anyone or impact Georgeanne in any way, the fact that she’s so eager to turn Mittie in perhaps suggests that Georgeanne is afraid of being caught slipping up herself and she is therefore quick to avert the government’s attention elsewhere.
Themes
Ella responds to Mittie for Tassie (who is still heartbroken over Nate’s banishment), informing Mittie that Enterprise Thirty-two has hit a wall at 47 letters. Many people in town have given up, believing a 32-letter pangram to be impossible. Many people are also gone from the island—either because of banishment or because they do not want to live in such a “hostile, inhospitable place.”
Here, Dunn implies how leaving Nollop, or being banished from it, can be just as bad as complicity, as there are now so few people left on the island that a resistance movement is difficult to execute.
Themes
Ella gives a few more updates to Mittie: the L.E.B. “thugs” are doing spot home searches, hoping to turn up anything with the illegal letters—including grocery lists. She also notes that the U.S. has stopped business transactions with Nollop, and thus Amos is having a difficult time selling his products. Ella begins to worry again that this crisis may never end.
Dunn again emphasizes how the enforcement of curtailing speech leaks into the curtailing of other basic freedoms in the society, like the right to privacy in one’s home and the right to one’s private freedom of expression, even for something as simple as a grocery list.
Themes
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Mittie writes to Ella, explaining that Rory is gone: the Council came to his home saying that they had the authority to confiscate his property. The reason given was, “It is the Council’s wish,” which they explained meant Nollop’s wish. The Council representatives said that they wanted to erect a “tabernacle” to worship Nollop. When Rory asked about the “Supreme Being” that they presently choose to worship, they responded that “there is no other Supreme Being but Almighty Nollop.”
Up until this point, the Council’s faith in Nollop has simply been one of ideological adoration, as they admired his use of language and they wanted to follow his wishes for the direction of their country. But here, their deification of the man hits a turning point, adding another curtailed freedom to the list: freedom of religion.
Themes
Rory then cursed the Council without restraint and he was expelled within the hour. As Rory was shipped off, he left the store to Mittie to run—as long as the Council doesn’t decide to turn it into a church for worshipping Nollop. Mittie assures Ella that they will be able to make a pangram of 32 letters, as she reminds Ella that Nollop could do it and he was “an imbecile.”
It seems that Rory’s expulsion is a turning point for Mittie: whereas before she was open to the idea of Nollop as a kind of deity figure, now she sees through the Council’s beliefs and she wholly rejects the notion that Nollop should be worshipped or obeyed.
Themes
Tassie writes to Nate, saying that they have hit a wall at 47 letters and that recently three more tiles (two “E’s” and a “B”) fell. There is one “E” remaining to them, but “B” will be banished in 36 hours. She writes that losing any letter is now “problematic.” She hopes “the cavalry will come to [their] rescue,” before realizing that they have to be their own cavalry. Tassie closes the letter by telling Nate that she misses him and she hopes that he will get her letter and write back to her.
Tassie seems to recognize the Nollopians’ complicity in this letter to Nate. She addresses the fact that no one is coming to help them; instead, they have to help themselves. The biggest issue, however, is that there are so few people to help that resistance is almost impossible. Now, it seems, they are bearing the fruit of their earlier complacency.
Themes
