Enchantress from the Stars, by Sylvia Louise Engdahl

Essay by gina_princessHigh School, 11th gradeA+, March 2003

download word file, 5 pages 4.2 1 reviews

I.

The book I read was Enchantress from the Stars, by Sylvia Louise Engdahl. She was born on November 24 1933 LA, CA. She went to school to become an elementary teacher, and stayed in it for 1 year, then decided she hated it. She then became a computer programmer for the Top Secret SAGE air defense system for 10 years. She really did like it, even though she thought school was boring, she thought that was interesting. It was like going to the best class in the world and being paid for it.

She then became a full time writer from 1968-1980, she wrote 8 fiction (sci-fi) books, 5 non-fiction books, and won one Newbery award for Enchantress from the Stars. She then moved onto becoming a software developer and vender for PCs until 1985. She then worked online from 1985 on. She aims to "Bring present day issues into perspective through speculation about the future as related to the past with particular emphasis on space exploration"

II.

The theme of this story involves the issue of clashing cultures. The stronger civilization wants to wipeout and take over the medieval culture. It is similar to the scenario faced many times in our world. This happened when the Europeans conquered the Indians in the Americas. In the book the Imperialists came from a very technologically advanced planet, and the natives were similar to the people in the feudal system back in the time of the dark ages. The theme shows how those two cultures interacted and how the Federation Anthropologists tried to prevent ether culture from being damaged.

There is also a secondary theme, which shows the main character, Elana growing up. She starts out as an inexperienced trainee and because of the difficult decisions she has to...