Sarah Krueger
Throughout the narrative, Porpentine asks personal questions about the reader that allows for the reader to reflect on how they want to portray themselves in the story. In the beginning of the story, the author asks the reader the month they were born in and what “element” the reader connects with the most- (see picture)- this question will allow the reader to think more deeply about why they choose the image that most closely resembles them.

Through personalizing the story and allowing the reader to explore the narrative through their own eyes, there is a sense of interactivity that you can only get through e-literature. Porpentine also tells the reader to keep a pen next to them throughout the journey and do draw symbols on themselves that reflect each spot they have been to. This idea of drawing on themselves is showing the reader that every place that one visits makes an impact on their personality, whether they realize it or not. Porpentine is allowing the reader to further reflect on how this story is personally affecting them, which can later teach them to realize how every experience they have in real life affects them in some way as well. By the end of the story, the reader is given a list of all the symbols that they have collected throughout the story on their "skin" that reflect their choices throughout their journey in the story.

An example of someone who played the game and wrote on their arm throughout the game, taking in each symbol as a part of their identity is Alice O'Connor who blogged about the story after she read it. As you can see through clicking on the link to her article, the symbols that she drew symbolize each of the decisions she made throughout the game and are supposedly apart of her now. (O'Connor)

The author is asking these personal questions so the reader feels more connected to the story, rather than being a passive reader and having no activity with the text. The author also makes them feel more connected by speaking to the reader directly; for example when a page pops up that says “nothing you can do is wrong” (Porpentine) at the beginning of the story.

The struggle that the main character goes through in order to impress the empress is personalized to the reader, making it feel like the reader is living that life as well.
Through the mechanism of e-literature this sense of interactivity and exploration is able to be experienced by the reader. The exploration in the text delves into deeper meanings that just self as well. Porpentine also incorporates social exploration into the text by placing underlying social controversies into the text.

This idea that the reader is being oppressed and Porpentine is showing the reader how that would feel is similar to the author of "Public Secrets" describing how the prisoners are also being oppressed and kept hidden from the rest of the world. Whether it is behind bars or locked inside a castle, the underlying message is the same: no one wants to be held against their will. Humans crave freedom.