In the fifth and sixth chapters of Ella Enchanted, Ella gets terrible news from her father, and then her curse is tested in an AWFUL WAY. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read Ella Enchanted.
Chapter Five / Chapter SixÂ
- SWEET BABIES, WHO IS ELLA’S FATHER. This man is DOWNRIGHT TERRIFYING. He is unsettling, I don’t like him, and I don’t trust him, and what is happening in this book.
- Why does he tease his daughter with nice things, only to sell them? Does he hate joy? Ecstasy? Being a nice person?
- I admit that not only does Peter infuriate me, he confuses me. His behavior in this chapter is downright unreadable. In one breath, he says, “When you came in, I saw you couldn’t manage yourself.” Which… OKAY. YOU ARE A BAD FATHER. But then he’s polite to her? He is purposely trying to keep his anger back? And it’s not as if he’s attempting to be a better person and calm his temper in the wake of his wife’s death. No, that’s not the case at all. Later in this very chapter, he openly talks about how angry and rude and selfish he is as if he’s admitting his birthday. So what gives? Why act this way at all?
- On top of this, he treats Ella as if she’ll be part of a future business transaction. “I may need civilized company to like you,” he tells her. Lord, this is your daughter you’re talking to, not a shop hand! Not that that would excuse talking to an employee that way, but still.
- Then he’s complimenting her for being brave? What are you doing?
- At the very least, I have no problem stating that this man is super close to being verbally/emotionally abusive to his daughter. I DON’T LIKE HIM.
- I adore Mandy, though, and the way she comforts Ella in chapter five is so incredible. It makes me sad to know that Ella is going to be separated from her because she’s the best person to have around, and Ella’s going to have to make it through her time at finishing school without her.
- Mandy’s also a good person for Ella because she’s honest. She doesn’t shy away from telling Ella the truth about how her mother came to marry Sir Peter. That only makes his current behavior more egregious, though. HE ONCE WAS SUPER POOR. (Which also explains Hattie’s comment about “ill breeding.”) He should know better, but he sounds like one of those people who grows up in poverty, comes into money, and sprints in the opposite direction. Which means he becomes an unbearable jerk.
- Y’all, Mandy gave Ella a book of fairy tales to remember her by. SHE IS SO PERFECT. Books are my everything.
- And so, Ella decides to spend her last day on the castle grounds, visiting the people and places she loves so she can bid them goodbye. It’s a wistful sequence, especially since for the reader, this is our first time getting a better look at where Ella lives.
- And it’s immediately marred by the fact that because Peter off-handedly ordered Ella to “run off and bang into someone else,” she literally has to. So yeah, I imagine a lot of her clumsiness comes from that. Wouldn’t any of us be a nervous wreck with this sort of curse?
- Anyway, let’s talk about nice things.
- LIKE THE HYDRA
- THE BABY DRAGON
- THE BABY DRAGON THAT ELLA USES TO TOAST A CUBE OF CHEESE
- THAT IS LITERALLY THE CUTEST THING I’VE EVER HEARD OF
- “Did centaurs like cheese?” That is an actual sentence in this blessed book. Worth the whole experience. (I am not being sarcastic.)
- Then there’s Prince Dreamboat, who I should probably start calling Prince Charmont, but whatever. I like genuinely nice people, and it’s a great contrast to Sir Peter Jerkface.
- Parrots! That speak many languages!
- OF WHICH ALL APPEAR IN THIS BOOK AND I SWEAR TO YOU, WATCHING ME TRY TO PRONOUNCE THESE SENTENCES WAS PROBABLY VERY STRESSFUL. It seriously looks like gibberish. I thought they were all backwards, but NOPE. Gail Carson Levine did this just because she knew I’d have to read it on video one day. GUARANTEED.
- “Ogres weren’t dangerous only because of their size and their cruelty. They knew your secrets just by looking at you, and they used their knowledge.” Well, this book just managed to get a thousand times more upsetting and creepy. WOW. And yet, I didn’t figure out that Ella was about to see an ogre. And she had a secret. And that ogre would know the secret.
- AND IT USED TO IT COMPEL ELLA TO BRING HIM A BABY GNOME SO HE COULD EAT IT. COULD YOU NOT. DO YOU HAVE TO CLIFFHANGER ME RIGHT HERE.
- rude
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
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