Mark Dunn
is the author of more than twenty-five
full-length plays.
Belles and
Five Tellers Dancing in
the Rain have together received over 150 productions
throughout the world, and Dunn has been the recipient of several
national playwriting awards. He is currently
playwright-in-residence with the New Jersey Repertory Company and
the Community Theatre League in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
Originally from Memphis, he now lives in Greenwich Village with his
wife, Mary.
Ella Minnow Pea is his first
novel.
1. In what ways is Ella Minnow Pea unconventional? How
is it more like a fable than a novel? What characteristics does it
share with other fables? Does it offer a clear moral?
2. Why has Mark Dunn chosen to tell this story through letters
rather than a more straightforward narrative? What does Dunn gain
by eschewing a single narrative voice in favor of many characters
writing to one another about the events that beset their
island-nation? What ironies are involved in writing letters about
the disappearance of the letters of the alphabet?
3. In response to the first proclamation proscribing the use of
the letter "Z," Tassie warns, "it stands to rob us of the freedom
to communicate without any manner of fetter or harness" [p. 10]. In
what sense can Ella Minnow Pea be read as a satire
of censorship and the restriction of free speech?
4. All the inhabitants of Nollop are forced into linguistic
contortions to avoid being prosecuted by the High Council,
substituting words like "cephalus" for "head" and "sub-terra" for
"underground" [p. 99]. What are some of the other more amusing
verbal acrobatics they are forced to perform?
5. Nate Warren suggests that Nollop was a "charlatan" and a "con
man" and that the pangram-"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy
dog"-responsible for his divine status may have been stolen from
someone else. What is Dunn suggesting here about the ways in which
human societies venerate and mythologize sacred texts and heroic
ancestors?
6. What strategies do the islanders use to protest, oppose, and
finally overthrow the tyranny of the High Council? How do these
strategies create suspense in the novel?
7. When council representatives come to confiscate Rory Cummel's
property, they tell him they are only doing the will of Nollop and
that "There is no other Supreme Being but Nollop" [p. 121]. Seen in
light of recent events, in the Middle East and elsewhere, can the
novel be read as a commentary on religious authoritarianism? What
does the novel suggest about the dangers of humans assuming they
know God's will with absolute certainty?
8. Ella Minnow Pea dwells heavily on the theme
of communication-reading, writing, and talking. What is Dunn
suggesting by having the members of the High Island Council read
the falling letters as signs-supernatural communications from
Nollop-which ultimately make communication nearly impossible? What
does the novel as whole say about the nature and purpose of
communication and community?
9. How important are the love relationships in the novel-for
example those between Tassie and Nate and between Rory and
Mittie-to the main action? How do they enhance the plot?
10. Tassie writes that she longs to "live across the channel. .
. . With telephones that actually work, and television and
computers and books-all the books one could ever hope to read" [p.
32]. What does the novel imply about the dangers of trying to
create a utopian society? What examples of intolerant
societies-religious or otherwise-exist in the world today? Is the
message of this novel relevant to those situations?
11. What is the significance of Amos Minnow Pea writing, quite
by accident, a sentence which surpasses Nollop's illustrious
pangram? In what way does this undermine the divine value that the
high council attributes to Nollop's sentence?
12. At the end of the novel, Ella suggests a memorial to those
who suffered from the High Council's tyranny: "a large box filled
with sixty moonshine jugs-piled high, toppling over, corks popping,
liquor flowing. Disorder to match the clutter and chaos of our
marvelous language. Words upon words, piled high, toppling over,
thoughts popping, correspondence and conversation overflowing" [p.
206]. Why is this an appropriate memorial? In what ways is language
chaotic? In what ways is it ordered and restrictive? Why is Ella
comparing liquor and conversation in this passage?
13. How does Dunn manage to make Ella Minnow
Pea both a whimsical fable and a serious
anti-authoritarian satire? What elements of the novel seem comical
or lighthearted? What elements seem more pointed? How well does the
author integrate them into the story?