Morals, Ethics, and Eli.

[TigerEyes]

LOL. I'm damn sure my cat goes out at night and kills things. But I still love and have warmth for her.
One does not exclude the other.
I accept and love her for what she is, however unpleasant her habits.

I agree with you right there.

[EEA]

Ursula K. Le Guin's short story "Those who walked away from the Omelas" reminded me of Eli. The story is about this Utopian society in which everyone lives without worries. Once they are told that their source of happiness is a kid who has been sacrificed some decide to stay but other leave. The kid is like Eli since both are outcasts into a society that does not know what to do with their presence. If someone were to help them it would mean the destruction of a society. I could not answer either if Eli is The lady or the tiger. When I read the short story I was whats the answer! I thought and thought.

[PeteMork]

There are very few places in the novel where Eili was acting above self-interest, me and mine. Oskar being mine.
Perhaps where she bought blood from Tommy instead of just murdering him could be one.
If Eli had no interest in Oskar, she wouldn't have had a second thought about seeing him as another supper.

Hmm. I’m not sure of this. When Oskar reached up and touched Eli’s cheek (and heart) I doubt that Eli was thinking “he’s mine so I won’t eat him just now.” She was responding to his touch on an emotional level; above self-interest. Self-interest wouldn’t have been a factor yet. If it were, she would have likely nommed him anyway, IMO. She was really hungry, and he was there; young, defenseless and delicious. And she’s only 12, and should be living in the here and now -- like she was when they decided to turn Oskar in LTODD.

But she wasn’t.

That's a good thing from the writer's perspective because it shows Eli for what she is.
Not such a good thing for those who put Eli on a pedestal of purity and love and innocence.

I think Eli’s purity, love and innocence comes from her age, her empathy and her attitude, and isn’t affected by her ability to make a quick meal of any one of us, primarily, and most significantly, because she’s a vampire against her will.

I love her so much because she's such an unpredictably wild character. Kiss you just as soon as murder you. I like that unpredictability in a person.
I'm sure she kissed Hakan plenty of times, but while he remained useful, he wasn't dinner.

I love her for her unpredictably wild character also, but I disagree that she would kiss you just as soon as murder you; to kiss you she’d have to care about you – to kill you, she wouldn’t. And Håkan was Eli’s dinner only by his own request. There’s no evidence she would have done it otherwise.

I do agree that, when Eli turned Oskar, the high road was lost to her from a ‘purely innocent’ point of view, but because she’s only a child and hadn’t the ability to think it through properly, many on the forum forgive her her trespass, and still credit her with a flawed but still real, purity, love and innocence. In the real world (and IMO, in JALs) these two characteristics aren’t mutually exclusive.

LOL. I'm sure my cat goes out at night and kills things. But I still love and have warmth for her.
One does not exclude the other.
I accept and love her for what she is, however unpleasant her habits.

Your cat doesn’t go out at night and kill your next-door neighbor…or your wife; or child. Consequently, loving Eli in spite of your view of her dark, selfish side requires a great deal more effort than loving your cat, I suspect.

[Ash]

Your cat doesn’t go out at night and kill your next-door neighbor…or your wife; or child. Consequently, loving Eli in spite of your view of her dark, selfish side requires a great deal more effort than loving your cat, I suspect.

That it does. I like how JAL made Eli's victims real people that I could have some empathy with, rather than nameless John Does.
Despite the fact I really liked Jocke, and Lacke and especially Virginia, I can still love Eli even though she killed them.
If Lacke was my father and Virginia my mother, I might feel differently though.

[cory]

It is hard to get into the mind of a 200 year old vampire that's own mind is stuck at 12 who was tortured and castrated. I've gone back in forth on the mind set of Eli. How could you not with such a complex character! But her core to me is a predator. Who would be dangerous around human like any wild animal would. You could give a baby tiger all the love in the world but one day it WILL kill you. Its body and mind is a killer...a predator. How many times have we heard stories of wild animals(Chimps,Tigers,Bears,Pythons) killing there handlers that raised them from birth? They are wild and if you around on a day there predator side kicks in your done.

There are people who say well Eli is not an animal. Really? She takes the form of many different animals. Owls eye so she can see at night and zero in on you. Cheetah speed so you have no way in getting away from her, and if trouble comes while she's feeding on you she can fly away. She can think claws and teeth(Describe to resemble a lion)and has the strength of 10 men....and oh yea needs blood to live like a vampire bat. Eli is NOT human...ha sent been so in over 200 years. She...he is a super natural creature that is truly a perfect killing machine. I think if she had not turned Oskar he would have always been in danger.

[a_contemplative_life]

It is hard to get into the mind of a 200 year old vampire that's own mind is stuck at 12 who was tortured and castrated. I've gone back in forth on the mind set of Eli. How could you not with such a complex character! But her core to me is a predator. Who would be dangerous around human like any wild animal would. You could give a baby tiger all the love in the world but one day it WILL kill you. Its body and mind is a killer...a predator. How many times have we heard stories of wild animals(Chimps,Tigers,Bears,Pythons) killing there handlers that raised them from birth? They are wild and if you around on a day there predator side kicks in your done.

There are people who say well Eli is not an animal. Really? She takes the form of many different animals. Owls eye so she can see at night and zero in on you. Cheetah speed so you have no way in getting away from her, and if trouble comes while she's feeding on you she can fly away. She can think claws and teeth(Describe to resemble a lion)and has the strength of 10 men....and oh yea needs blood to live like a vampire bat. Eli is NOT human...ha sent been so in over 200 years. She...he is a super natural creature that is truly a perfect killing machine. I think if she had not turned Oskar he would have always been in danger.

I think Eli has a human side, too. She wants genuine human contact; wants friendship. I think she's both human and monster. But I also don't think she is all powerful. The story proves that, I think. She doesn't always get her way; she bumbles through some of the killings and makes mistakes. If she had been nothing but a sleek, efficient predator I don't think the story would have been nearly as interesting.

[metoo]

... Eli is NOT human...ha sent been so in over 200 years. ...

To everyone what he or she wants, Eli is a fictional character, and can be shaped into anything by the reader or watcher. So, for my part I take Eli's own statement ad notam and perceive Eli as a human with a very uncommon disease. There are two points here, human and disease. The disease makes Eli suffer, his life is hard because of it, it makes the Eli character tragic and lonely. However, it also is what makes Eli the horror element in the story, and possibly the very thing Oskar wishes for to come upon his bullies. But Oskar doesn't initially know that aspect of Eli, so he befriends Eli as a human. The story could have developed in a very different way, instead of Eli satisfying Oskar's need of a human friend, he could just have become Oskar's avenger.

It's easy to imagine the scene, Eli approaching the bullies, telling them to stop harassing Oskar. Of course the bullies would then have laughed, and we all know who would have had the last laugh. But that wouldn't have been very interesting, Eli would have scared the bullies into trembling jellies, and then what? This possible outcome isn't drawn on at all in the story, at no point does Oskar think that he has a terrible friend who could help him with the bullies, not even near the end, when he knows that Eli is a vampire. Oskar never uses Eli, although he cold have done so, and one might think that he would, given his fantasies of revenge early on. But to Oskar Eli is a friend, not a tool for revenge. Eli's humanness makes the friendship with Oskar possible, this is what Oskar really needs and wants. That these two lonely characters still can find a friend is what has captured me in this story. Maybe what you need is something different, thus you see something else.

[drakkar]

So, for my part I take Eli's own statement ad notam and perceive Eli as a human with a very uncommon disease. There are two points here, human and disease.

This is a crucial part of the story for me. The rest of the story is partly autobiographical, and the way JAL (and Mia, after what John says) manages to include Eli in the sociorealistic description of Blackeberg is a stroke of genius. This gives us the opportunity to relate to E&O as children, their love and happiness becoming important to us.

[cory]

I think Eli has a human side, too. She wants genuine human contact; wants friendship. I think she's both human and monster. But I also don't think she is all powerful. The story proves that, I think. She doesn't always get her way; she bumbles through some of the killings and makes mistakes. If she had been nothing but a sleek, efficient predator I don't think the story would have been nearly as interesting.

All predators with all there skills can be clumsy. Sometimes it takes Lions 1 out of 10 times to take out there prey. Eli was not clumsy when she crushed that guys rips and broke his neck. Or how the epic show down at the pool when she swiftly took there heads off. She is a killer no question, but I agree does have human wants and needs. That's what makes the story so great. That fact that your close friend fights off the urge to kill you because she/he loves you.

[DMt.]

An example to us all