“Ellen Foster” is a novel written by Kaye Gibbons, who is an award winning author. The novel is praised as an unfortunate upbringing of a little girl name Ellen, who takes the readers through her childhood at her point-of-view. Ellen Foster is considered a emotional heart-warming book thus Ellen is an orphan and abandoned by her family. The novel demonstrates courage through Ellen’s will to survive, hope, and her coming of age.
The will to survive is psychological force to fight for survival either mentally or physically, throughout the novel Ellen demonstrates this through how she deals with child abuse. One example of this is her ability to cope with her alcoholic, abusive father. In the story, Ellen is left to live alone with only her …show more content…
This book is a great example of coming of age because Ellen takes us through her childhood and this is the theme of growing up. An example that shows Ellen growing up is when she learns the sense of morality. When she is working in the cotton fields she is introduced to a loving family that works for her grandmother as well. Ellen pays close attention to how a great family works and she compares it to her own family. The family that she works with is black, and this teaches her how to deal with racism. Ever since Ellen was little she was raised on the fact that black people were dirt and that you could catch diseases from them. Meanwhile her only friend was a black girl named Starletta. As Ellen gets older she starts to realize that racism is meaningless and based on lies as she spends more time around black families. For example, when Ellen first stayed over at Starletta’s house she would not drink or eat anything that the parents had offered her in fear of catching a disease. But now Ellen has realized that it was all a lie and has Starletta over for the night in her new home. When Ellen has to stay with the remaining members of her family she learns how cruel the world can be. For example, when she stays with her aunt for a couple days Ellen thinks she can stay there forever because her aunt lives all alone. Her aunt then tells her she can not stay because she does not want any kids there and
The will to survive is psychological force to fight for survival either mentally or physically, throughout the novel Ellen demonstrates this through how she deals with child abuse. One example of this is her ability to cope with her alcoholic, abusive father. In the story, Ellen is left to live alone with only her …show more content…
This book is a great example of coming of age because Ellen takes us through her childhood and this is the theme of growing up. An example that shows Ellen growing up is when she learns the sense of morality. When she is working in the cotton fields she is introduced to a loving family that works for her grandmother as well. Ellen pays close attention to how a great family works and she compares it to her own family. The family that she works with is black, and this teaches her how to deal with racism. Ever since Ellen was little she was raised on the fact that black people were dirt and that you could catch diseases from them. Meanwhile her only friend was a black girl named Starletta. As Ellen gets older she starts to realize that racism is meaningless and based on lies as she spends more time around black families. For example, when Ellen first stayed over at Starletta’s house she would not drink or eat anything that the parents had offered her in fear of catching a disease. But now Ellen has realized that it was all a lie and has Starletta over for the night in her new home. When Ellen has to stay with the remaining members of her family she learns how cruel the world can be. For example, when she stays with her aunt for a couple days Ellen thinks she can stay there forever because her aunt lives all alone. Her aunt then tells her she can not stay because she does not want any kids there and