Ellyday by Helen Oyeyemi
Ellyday is about two siblings, Sophie and Elly. The story takes place in Elly’s bedroom one cold Sunday morning, four days before Christmas. Sophie walked into Elly’s bedroom, because she was worried about her sister Elly, who is really skinny and she wanted to talk with her.
While Sophie tried to figure out, how to ask Elly to pull her jumper up, Elly wanted to listen to a CD. Elly wouldn’t pull her jumper up and said to Sophie that she was only going to get angry.Then they discussed Elly’s weight and appearance and Elly said that she thought Sophie’s problem is in fact, that Elly is now as skinny as Sophie. After that Elly started to cry hideous and sank to the floor. Sophie told Elly that she can’t see properly how she can think it’s worth it, but Elly just answered that Sophie didn’t really care and that she saw it happening. Sophie also told Elly that she was actually sick and needed help and that it would be wise to talk to someone. At this moment Elly listened to her sister and asked her when it’s okay to die.
Sophie got shocked and realized that she didn’t know this person anymore. Elly elaborate on her question about if it was okay to die before you’ve ever kissed a boy, or ever been loved, or anything like that. While Sophie was going to explain that it was not okay to die, she just stopped speaking and stared brimming overwhelmed, because Elly had pulled up her jumper. Sophie and Elly are teenagers and I think that Sophie is the oldest of them. Elly has an eating disorder and is very skinny and looks like a scarecrow. She has fluffy brown hair and leaking, dead brown eyes.She’s mostly a silent girl, but when Sophie talks directly about Elly’s thinness, she goes into self-defense.
Elly had no control over her words and stumble hesitates over every word that came out from her mouth. It’s painful for Elly to speak clearly and rounded, without a slur. She had pale skin tone and shaking hands due to her thinness. She wears baggy clothes and stuff like that so people can’t see how thin she is. Elly was fat before and has a serious psychological problem. She doesn’t feel well inside and asks questions like how it’s okay to die and when it will be a shame.It seems like that Elly feels she’s failed her sister, because she said to Sophie that she had seen what was happening with Elly and that she didn’t care.
Elly struggled to stand up, talk and things like that. She’s very weak but unshakable, and wouldn’t pull her jumper up for her sister. But in the end of the story Sophie gets a surprise. Sophie is the big sister, and she feels a responsibility over Elly. She’s very worried about Elly but also very straightforward in the language. She forced herself to sound irritable over Elly, as she had so many times before when they were younger.She threatened to stop speaking to Elly if she didn’t do what Sophie said.
Sophie behaves like a bossy kind, like who always told Elly what to do, to protect her little sister. I don’t like the end of the story; because we don’t know what happened after Elly pulled her jumper up. We don’t know h ow Sophie reacted and why Elly had talked about when it was okay to die. I would do everything in my power to prevent anything from happening to my friends. Weather it was drugs, drinking, eating disorders or over eating. I wouldn’t leave them. What are friends for? Friendship for me isn’t just about having fun.
It’s about taking the good and bad with each other. If I were a teenager I would probably get advice from some older wiser person who is more experienced in life. From there I would hope the best for them and let them know they have my support if they need me, because sometimes it’s not about to tell them what to do and such it’s more about support. Of course you have to tell them that what they’re doing isn’t good and helping, but not being bossy. Keep in mind they didn’t always do this to themselves by no reason, so figure out the reason and then help them through it.
