Literature Review: Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted
Food has always been associated with physical nourishment, but in Gail Carson Levine's children's novel, Ella Enchanted, food takes different meanings. Reimer describes food as "sustainable consumption" (35) and "pleasure" (35) associated with the protagonists on one hand, and as cause for domination (35) and greed (38) to represent the antagonists on the other hand. Elizabeth Reimer, whose literary expertise lies on children's literature, women's life history, and fiction writing teaches at the Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia (Reimer 53). For the purpose of this review, the subject of discussion is Reimer's "Consumption, Femininity, and Girl Power in Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted" as published in The Lion and the Unicorn in January 2012.
The story begins with an imprudent fairy bestowing Ella of Frell the "gift" of obedience, which makes Ella follow, although forcefully, everything she is asked to do. All throughout her childhood, her mother, Lady Eleanor, and the family cook, Mandy, protect her from harm by keeping her gift a secret, for fear of other people taking advantage of her "obedient" nature (Aulenback n.d.). Unlike the typical Cinderella story, Ella "exhibits rebelliousness, moral gravity, wit, courage, and enlightened sensibilities (Reimer 35). When her mother passes away, her father, Sir Peter, marries again and this is how she meets the antagonists, Hattie, Olive, and their mother, Olga. Soon enough, the stepsisters discover Ella's secret and uses this knowledge to their advantage. This prompts Ella to runaway and locate Lucinda, the fairy who gifted her with the gift of obedience. Although she finds her and asks her to take back the gift, Lucinda declines and leaves Ella no choice but to accept her terrible fate. Like Cinderella, Ella has her own Prince Charming in the person of Prince Charmont who is in love with her and even asks her hand for marriage. Although she also has feelings for him, she understands that she would only put him in danger with her gift if she marries him, thus, with all her might, she resists with great effort to defy his command, and by doing so, she breaks the spell herself. Free from the curse, she accepts Prince Charmont's marriage offering and they live happily ever after (Aulenback n.d).
In an extensive study of the novel, Reimer (2012) illustrates how the main protagonist, Ella of Frell, and the rest of her kin and friends, including her mother, her fairy godmother who is also the cook, her friend Areida, her love interest Prince Charmont, and the elves consider food. For them, aside from nourishing the body, food is also a source of pleasure, which allows them to share their blessings to others (35). It serves as channel for interaction among family members and the community as well (39).
Reimer (2012) further adds meaning in the novel by presenting how the antagonists, composed of Sir Peter, Olga, Hattie, Olive, and the ogres, think about food. For this group, food represents unsustainable consumption and supremacy (35) over others, which are, in reality, dominance in terms of power and control (Lahikainen 26) over Ella and greed in money. This is particularly evident on how Sir Peter and Olga regard their daughters, that is, as a commodity and treasure, when Sir Charles told Ella, "And I shall have to sell you, in a manner of speaking. You must marry so we can be rich again" (qtd in Reimer 37), and when Olga introduced her daughters as "my treasures" (qtd in Reimer 38).
Food also serves as a differentiation of identity among conflicting players in the novel. While Ella is associated with abundance in food because of her belief that food also nourishes the spiritual side of man and how it initiates or improves relationships, Hattie and Olive are epitomes of well-fed individuals and yet are still linked with notions about "deprivation and scarcity" (Reimer 40). Ella shows a strong and content personality, while the stepsisters show an unhappy disposition despite the riches and foods they have and a total lack of substance in character. Just like the stepsisters, the ogres show signs of a greedy disposition and even think that sharing Ella among themselves means "there wouldn't be enough to go around" (38). On the other hand, the elves are associated with wealth and profusion as they view food the same way as Ella does, in addition to providing feelings of completion and gratification.
Reimer's literature review comes across as an appropriate and well fitting evaluation of the novel as it makes use of metaphors and vivid mental images of the connection between food and what it represents. As much as food is nourishing, Reimer's constant allusion about food as an object of desire (Reimer 41) and as "sexual hunger" (Reimer 41) are accurate representations of another way of how characters interpreted food as exemplified by the antagonists and between Prince Charmont and Ella, respectively. Content-wise, Reimer correctly identified the main themes of the novel by pointing out that the novel was about food, femininity, and power and continued on to present accurate depictions of the personalities of the characters. In terms of organization, Reimer followed a themed presentation of evidences starting with food and appetite since these are the main themes of the novel, followed by the feminine characteristics of the main characters, and lastly, how the main character was able to twist the hands of destiny through sheer will power and determination. With over 25 sources used for the actual review, it is not surprising that Reimer's analysis of the literature is precise and truthful. The writing style must also be given enough credit considering that Reimer, in all her descriptions and depictions of the characters, used words associated with food to describe various aspects of the novel. For instance, the time when Sir Peter sent Ella to boarding school, Reimer (2012) states, "Ella must find companions who will nourish, rather than consume, her" (40). Other examples include, "Ella is famished and immediately associates Areida with sustenance" (40) and how "Areida quenches Ella's thirst for solace and understanding" (41). Reimer also used contradiction when it came to describing the characters and through all those introductions, she managed to correlate food and attitude effectively. The way she used the words further strengthened the main theme of the novel in the eyes of the readers.
Humorous and satirical in approach, Reimer's analysis of the essay captured the essence of Levine's book and gave insightful views that further lent credence to the novel's story. Through Reimer's scrutiny, understanding the various contexts by which Levine distinguished the characters became easier to understand, paving the way for better comprehension and awareness of where an individual would possibly relate oneself with any of the characters. Overall, this piece of literature is highly recommendable for students who are looking for correlations between food and attitude, relationships, feelings, depression, power, and pleasure, among others.
Works Cited
Aulenback, Stephany. (n.d.) "Ella Enchanted". Web. 9 Feb 2013. < http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/ella-enchanted>
Lahikainen, Johanna. (2007). You Look Delicious: Food, Eating, and Hunger in Margaret Atwood's Novels. Finland: Jyvaskyla University Printing House. PDF. <https://jyx.jyu.fi/dspace/bitstream/handle/123456789/13348/9789513929381.pdf?sequence=1>
Reimer, Elizabeth. "Consumption, Femininity, and Girl Power in Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted". The Lion and the Unicorn. 36.1. (2012): 35-55. PDF. < http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/lion_and_the_unicorn/v036/36.1.reimer.html>
