A Progressively Lipogrammatic Epistolary

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Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters is a novel by Mark Dunn which was published and copyrighted in 2001. The book's main protagonist, Ella Minnow Pea, is one of the inhabitants of a geographically and socially secluded island of Nollof off the coast of South Carolina. The island's name derived from the name of the late author, Nevin Nollof, alleged creator of the thirty five letter pangram "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" containing all of the twenty six letters of the English alphabet.

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The latter, having attained some sort of divinity among the inhabitants of the island particularly within the governing council, was dedicated with a memorial statue bearing his divine phrase underneath. Faulty construction of the said statue, with the adhesive failing, the letters suddenly started to drop one by one as days pass by leaving the divine pangram one letter less each day and the inhabitants pondering, "Could this be our god talking to us from the ether?

" With this circumstance at hand the council issued a decree prohibiting its constituents to use, by any means, any of the letters that falls off from phrase imposing a harsh punishment to those who violates the new law.

The story's characters, not wanting to be subjected to such brutal punishments, were forced to adhere to the council's fancy, shun themselves from using the forbidden letters both in speech and in writing. With difficulty adhering to the law and not wanting to be under the dogmatic rule the people started to oppose the council leaving much of the characters banished from the island.

At the height of this social upheaval the high priest of the council proposed that a new sentence must be discovered that can outsmart Nollof's thirty five letter pangram in order to be free of its power. A race then was started before all of the letters fall off from the statue and seal their tongue forever. A project they called "Enterprise 32" was then born. The puzzle was solved when Ella discovered the answer in one of his father's earlier letters to her, "Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs", a thirty two letter pangram, beating Nollof's own by three.

The book is generally classified by critiques as an epistolary fable, a novel conveyed in correspondences passed among characters of the story focusing on the underlying emotions and ideals of the writer of each letters while adhering to the current setting of the story as it progresses. Imagine reading each of the letters with the forbidden letters omitted making it harder both for the writer and both the fictional and the actual readers to understand it as each of the letters fall off. The story then is a combination of humor and wit revolving around a simple plot while addressing deep issues of the mind and the society.

THE NOVEL AND APPLICATION OF THEORIES IN SOCIOLOGY Hierarchy Easily, the reader will find that the most obvious aspect exemplified in the story is the social hierarchy dividing two social classes: the council and the masses. The council, having found an opportunity to exercise their power over the citizens of Nollof devised a law that exemplifies this power. On the other hand, the Nollofian's, wanting to remain good citizens chooses to respect the power of the council by adhering with the new law.

One should understand that power waged by a higher social class over the inferior ones is a two-fold balance, in the case of our story, 1) the authority held by the council (higher class) as warranted by the existing law; and 2) and the amount of freedom the Nollofians (lower class) are willing to yield. In all societies social separation such as this must exist in order for individuals to survive. Each social class has its own qualities common among each individuals comprising their own social class. These qualities may include similar degree of needs, interest, beliefs, behavior and ways of doing things.

One social class may prefer fancy gatherings and expensive dinners while the other prefers a simple buffet with friends. The other may feel good to do long speeches in front of large audiences while the other prefers to spend a simple quite life far from public scrutiny. One group might be comprised of a paid employees while the other maintains a set of power. This is but to name a few. The point is social hierarchy does exist and it is a necessity in order to sustain survival of individuals in a community. This is based on the principle that survivability is more likely within a group.

On the other hand, without hierarchy, society will go undirected without another group leading the other into a common goal (which is social order) even though each group has its own particular benefit once the goal is achieved. Ideology There exists a theory called Ideology. It is an abstract set of beliefs, aims and ideas of individuals that affects the way a person perceive and perform things. In order for a society to exist a common ideology must exist in order to bind different social classes together.

These common ideologies converge to form government, religion, educational systems, commerce and all other elements needed by the society not only to sustain survival but to make everyday life more organized and comfortable. Probably, especially for those who belong to the higher social class, the most convenient way to gain more control over the inferior class is to utilize these common ideologies in their favor. In our novel, the council, knowing the mass' reverence to the late Mr. Nollof, used this ideology in order to demonstrate their power over their subjects by passing a peculiar laws and punishments.

On societies having high degrees of ideology logic is often irrelevant as belief often precedes logic and appeals more to emotion rather than reason. Reference What is it in the letters? What makes a crude structure such as a statue create such a great impact over a society? An outsider such as Nate Warren sees a status with falling letters due to poor adhesive. In the mind of the Nollofians, a sublime message from a god trying to make contact. Warren, not sharing the Nollofian's eminence to Mr. Nollof was able to address the problem rationally because he perceives the statue on the physical level.

The Nollofians, on the other hand, sees not a statue and letters but a reference their idol himself, Mr. Nollof (referent). This extreme idealism may have affected the Nollofians to regard the statue as Mr. Nollof himself and the letters beneath the statue as his actual words. Thus, they may perceive that falling letters from the statue may mean telling them to drop the letter from their speech as well.

REFERENCES

Wikipedia. org. 3 Oct 2008. Social Dominance Theory. 11 Oct 2008 <http://en. wikipedia. org/Social_dominance_theory> Wikipedia. org. 10 Oct 2008. Ideology. 11 Oct 2008 <http://en. wikipedia. org/Social_dominance_theory>