Wednesday, April 22, 2020
Who really is Elle?
Obviously, we went into the book knowing that it was another story of King Arthur. While you were reading it was there any points in the book that you did not believe that Elaine was Lady of Shallot and was a different character from the mythic tales? Who did you think they were and what gave you that inclination?
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One main thing that made me think she was someone else was how many times Elle kept saying that she was not Lady of Shallot. I was not sure who she would be though. Another thing was the fact that she really was nothing like the Lady. I remember the Disney movie of the same name having a twist ending so I thought the book might too.
ReplyDeleteI mentioned this in my post: At the beginning, with all the mentions of Ellie "floating," I thought for sure she was going to have a tragic story like the Lady of Shallot. I was kind of expecting something bad to happen for most of the story, especially the chapters when they went out on the boat, but nothing did.
ReplyDeleteI didn't really predict any other characters Ellie might represent. I just kind of waited it out to see where the story would go. Because Ellie herself wasn't that responsive to being labeled Lady of the Lake, I found it rather bland as well. My reaction was more like, "Well, ok then." rather than it feeling like a plot twist.
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ReplyDeleteSPOILERS FOR THE DISNEY CHANNEL MOVIE AHEAD
ReplyDelete(I neglected to put that warning on my previous comment so I deleted it and then something weird happened where the blog deleted my spoiler warning. WTH?)
so ... as Caroline hints at, in the Disney Channel movie, Ellie is Allie and she ends up being King Arthur, not Will. It's honestly kind of silly and not the FEMALE EMPOWERMENT scenario that the film thinks that it is. I honestly really like the way that Cabot handles this - the novel shows us that Ellie has a significant part to play, that not everyone has to be the "king" in order to matter, and that we can all CHOOSE to make a difference, regardless of what pigeonhole we feel like others may have put us in.
I think it's too easy now for us to just be like, oh yeah, you have to be the king/CEO/president/whatever to have any power or to make a difference. Most of us won't actually be in that position, but what this novel does is show us that we don't HAVE to be in order to matter. I think it's a great lesson.
I liked the fact that the main character that we followed was not Arthur or Lancelot in this story. I think that it allows for a different perspective and like you said does give some female empowerment. I think that this is a great lesson for females to see that they can do small things that make big differences in the world!
DeleteAlso I can't believe I didn't know that it was a Disney Channel movie lol!
DeleteI didn't like the Disney channel movie but I am not surprised. The book was definitely better especially Ellie's ending. I liked that she was her own character and not Arthur as well but instead she was watching over him.
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