"I love my parents and all, but why did they have to name me after someone so pathetic? The only thing my namesake and I had remotely in common was a mutual love of floating... although I preferred to do mine on a raft in a pool, whereas Elaine of Astolat favored floating to her death in a boat..." (133)
With the "floating" comparison starting from the very first chapter, I thought for sure some tragedy would befall Ellie by the end of the book. However, she persisted in not being like Elaine of Astolat. She became a hero of sorts and flipped which character she represented in the Arthur parallel. Even though Ellie doubted that any of it was true, she stayed loyal to her friend. Which is more than can be said for other Arthurian characters.
The story was cute, if teenagery, and the author brought some hope to an otherwise tragic story.
I agree about Ellie's loyalty. It felt like the theme of loyalty was pushed more in this book than in other stories. I feel like most of the time it is always some sort of betrayal happening. I agree that it did bring hope to a tragic story!
ReplyDeleteYeah, there are a lot of modern twists here that work for me, the biggest one being that we all want to have some say in our own lives, rather than leaving it all to destiny or fate. She chooses not to be Elaine, so she isn't. Marco has the opposite reaction: "well, I can't argue with destiny so I might as well just embrace it!" and I think it is the difference between Marco and Elaine that provides the real tension and lesson of the story.
ReplyDeleteI totally thought that something bad was going to happen to Ellie as well. Everyone kept alluding to the fate of Elaine, and never considered Ellie to be anyone else. I think that the consistency in denying that Ellie was Elaine truly revealed her character which came to fruition at the end of the novel.
ReplyDeleteI liked the unexpected turn and I felt like something was going to happen to Ellie but I didn't feel like it was going to be really bad or entirely great either. I think it's because I have read stories with these types of themes before. I was glad Ellie stayed loyal, it made me feel like she deserved her destiny.
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