An Interview with Ella Minnow Pea

Scene: Ms. Minnow Pea sits with her mother and father; Gwenette and Amos Minnow Pea on a beige couch. They are positioned against a blue backdrop with tall white letters that read The Dunn Hour. Host Mark Dunn welcomes them.

Mark Dunn: “Welcome to the Dunn Hour, I’m your host Mark Dunn. I’m here with Ms. Ella Minnow Pea, who for all intents and purposes, led the crusade against the tyrannical government who had taken over the island nation of Nollop. Welcome Ms. Minnow Pea, it’s a pleasure to have you here.”

Ella: “It’s my great pleasure to be here, Mr. Dunn.”

Mark: “You’re a very brave young woman Ms. Minnow Pea. What, do you feel, is the source of your courage?”

Ella: “ I’m certain the source of my valor must be accredited to my deep love for Nollop, its citizenry, and reverence for my parents and all they have imparted to me.”

Mark Dunn: “What was it like to be stripped of your native tongue? To have it outlawed so brutally?”

Ella: “Mr. Dunn, I confess, I struggled with hopelessness in this time. I felt as though everything that made us Nollopian was stripped from us. Our native speech is essential to us”

Mark Dunn: “The burning of books must have been difficult?”

Ella: “ I can say now, as I could not say then. I was pusillanimous in thought that the incidents of which you speak could ever be recovered from within my homeland. It was the very wrenching away of all that was true.”

*Ella speaks with tears wetting her eyes

*Mark Dunn offers a tissue

Mark Dunn: “Four months enduring a repressive regime, much of that time spent without the support of family and friends nearby, how did you manage?”

Ella: “To those who remained in Nollop amidst those times, I am forever in their debts’. I held fast to the belief that Nollop could be saved, simply because the other options were far too dire to consider. Never being reunited with my family on your native soil seemed to me the worst sort of amercement one can imagine”

Mark Dunn: “You must be relieved to finally be reunited with your family. How did you all celebrate your reunion?”

Ella: “When my family returned to me, it was a joyous occasion. We celebrated late into the evening with discourse of every kind. Without a single restriction to our merry speech. It was quite the time.”

*Mrs. Minnow Pea smiles and pats Ella’s hand

Mark Dunn: “What do you want the world to know about the events that happened in Nollop?”

Ella: “Tyranny has no limits. I desire the world to guard itself diligently against the consummate cruelty of despotism. Also, to treasure your lingua-franca, for it is all that makes us human, that raises us beyond the company of common beasts.”