The Page Sage

This week's question is about choice:

Eleanor behaves like she doesn't have a choice at the start of the book. Her goal is clear: get Elijah back, save her family, and then go back to doing all the things young ladies are supposed to do. But can you blame her? The alternative is turning her back on her mother, the one family member she has left (since Elijah, as far as Eleanor knows, is off galavanting across Europe). It's not like there are an abundance of alternative paths for women in the 19th century and, until she meets Jie, Eleanor wouldn't have imagined becoming a Spirithunter.

By the end of the novel, Eleanor sees that she is capable of anything. She's changed tremendously and yet she doesn't go with the Spirithunters. Why? She still can't abandon her mother. While Jie is right and there is always a choice, abandoning a mentally unstable, older woman is not the morally correct choice. So Eleanor has to wait and get things settled before she can go after what she wants. The difference, however, is that Eleanor knows what she wants.

She isn't just her mother's daughter, or Elijah's sister. Eleanor is her own person. She makes her own decisions and trusts in her own mind.

Do you feel Eleanor has a choice?