What would it be like to live a life completely constrained by obedience, and never get to make your own choices? Ella Enchanted has the answer: not too awesome. Sure, Ella can decide what she eats for breakfast if no one's there to do it for her. But choosing which brand of cereal you want that day seems trivial compared to being able to choose how you live your life, who you marry, and where you'll go to school. But Ella is still able to find wiggle room in the orders she's given, making us think that while her obedience spell still sucks, there's a lot of potential for strong-minded and creative individuals to carve out some freedom even in less-than-ideal circumstances.
Questions About Choices
- Which characters in the book besides Ella find their choices constrained, and for which reasons?
- How has not being free to make her own choices shaped Ella's personality?
- Ella's curse isn't the only choice-squishing phenomenon in Kyrria; how is the ogres' speech similar to and different from her curse?
- Put yourself in Ella's shoes. What would you do to evade harmful commands?
Chew on This
If Ella had not chosen to wed Char of her own free will, their relationship would never have lasted.
Ella Enchanted suggests that life's most important choices relate to other people.