Does one experience true love in their birth-home? Or is there another place in this vast world where they would experience the truest form of love, though they wouldn’t be born there? In Ellen Foster, Kaye Gibbons uses the misery and pain that Ellen suffers in her former home contrast the happiness, love and refuge she gets from Starletta’s home, thus illustrating another home truly loving Ellen more than her own, even though she was not born there.
For instance, in Ellen’s birth-home, her miseries start with two unloving parents: a frail mother with rheumatic fever who has no control over her own family, and a bullying father who abuses Ellen and her mother verbally, physically and sexually. To make matters worse, Ellen’s mother overdoses
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on her medication by taking “almost the whole goddamn bottle” (2.9) and eventually dies when “[her heart] has stopped” (2.10).
In order to make Ellen’s mother seem weaker than she is, Kaye Gibbons kills her character by suicide – a sign of the weak. Meanwhile at home, Ellen’s father becomes so abusive of his family that he threatens to “kill [Ellen] if [she] tried to leave” in order to save her mother by “[going] to the store and [using] the telephone” (2.9). To make Ellen more miserable, Kaye Gibbons eliminates Ellen’s mother so she is left with a bullying father at her birth-home who abuses Ellen in many ways. Also, some of Ellen’s major miseries begin in Chapter 6 where her father comes home and tries to rape her when “[he] stops [Ellen] and…does not listen to [her] but touches his hands harder on [her]” (6.38). Kaye Gibbons creates this scenario to show the immoral and unethical values of …show more content…
Ellen’s father in her birth-home and their impact on Ellen, herself. Fast-forwarding to Chapter 9, Ellen’s father comes to school “waving some cash money and telling Ellen dammit to come back [home] he would pay for it” (9.54). This incident was created by Gibbons to illustrate one of the miseries associated with her birth-home – bribery. In summary, Ellen’s birth-home is one of weakness, abuse, misery, immorality, unethicality, pain, bribery and chaos. On the contrary, in Starletta’s home, Ellen’s happiness begins with two loving parents and an equally loving child.
Notice how Gibbons portrays the “polar opposite” of Ellen’s birth-home: two unloving parents and a miserable child versus two loving parents and a happy child. For example, when Ellen’s mother kills herself in her birth-home, Starletta’s mother says Ellen is “welcome to stay [at Starletta’s home]” when she comes over to visit them (6.31). Kaye Gibbons uses this contrast to show that Starletta’s home serves as a place of love for Ellen instead of her birth-home. While Ellen’s father threatens to kill her at her home, Starletta’s father gets something for Ellen in his home: a Christmas gift, which turns out to be a beautiful sweater that she loves. Gibbons employs this contrast to depict what each father “gives” to their child; Ellen’s father gives her death in her birth-home and Starletta’s father gives her happiness in his home. After almost being raped by her father at her birth-home, Starletta’s mother offers refuge in her home when she said “[Ellen] was welcome…and that [Starletta’s family] does not take money from children” (7.39). Tying back to the “refuge theory” mentioned above, Gibbons shows that Starletta’s home is not only a home of true love and happiness for Ellen, but it is also a place of refuge for her. All in all, the love and happiness Ellen received from Starletta’s home contrasts the misery and pain she gets from her own
birth-home. To conclude, Kaye Gibbons uses the contrast between Ellen’s birth-home and Starletta’s home to illustrate the novel’s meaning as a whole: “happiness and love is not about where one is born or whose blood one shares; it is about where one is raised and who truly loves them”. For instance, though Ellen was born in her birth-home where she shared the blood of those around her, she did not get any love or happiness from there; on the contrary, she received happiness, love and refuge from Starletta’s home as she was raised there with the people who truly loved her. Looking at the universal theme from a farther distance, it is noted that for many individuals, such as orphans, love isn’t gained from their birth family, but from their foster family. As such, society should be more understanding of those who are not able to get true love and happiness from their family by showing them the love that they have been missing out on.
Ellen Hopkin’s daughter, Kristina, starts off as a sweet and innocent girl with great academic achievement. She gets a court sentence to go see her father for a few weeks. When she finally sees her father after not seeing him for years. He smells like alcohol and tobacco and looks like he hasn’t slept in days. She asks him on the way home if he has anything planned for the two of them but he seemed to not care. Upon arriving she steps outside for a minute where she notices a boy making out with a girl. He notices her and begins to flirt. They introduced
Her grandmother would often compare her with her father. Her grandmother would torture her because she wanted revenge from her father. Her grandmother also blames her for the death of her mother. While Ellen was staying with her grandmother her father died. When her father died she didn't feel sad because she had always fantasized about killing her father.
...e on her part. Throughout the story, the Mother is portrayed as the dominant figure, which resembled the amount of say that the father and children had on matters. Together, the Father, James, and David strived to maintain equality by helping with the chickens and taking care of Scott; however, despite the effort that they had put in, the Mother refused to be persuaded that Scott was of any value and therefore she felt that selling him would be most beneficial. The Mother’s persona is unsympathetic as she lacks respect and a heart towards her family members. Since the Mother never showed equality, her character had unraveled into the creation of a negative atmosphere in which her family is now cemented in. For the Father, David and James, it is only now the memories of Scott that will hold their bond together.
We learn that Jane is a young girl who is a victim of emotional and
Despite the connection between the girls, Twyla still feels alienated by the others in the shelter. “Nobody else wanted to play with us because we weren’t real orphans with beautiful dead parents in the sky” (10). The status of “real” versus “non-real” orphan becomes surrogate racism in the shelter. The value of this new classification of the girls is elucidated by the lack of distinct race between Twyla and Roberta, as they become united in the condition of living parents. Their race falls second to whatever else is used to alienate
Ellen Foster’s grandmother despises her because she sees Ellen’s father in Ellen. Ellen’s grandmother tells her, “All I know is when I look in your face I see that bastard and everything he did to my girl” (Gibbons 78). Ellen also fears that she is turning into her dad. Her grandmother made it seem so real to Ellen that she is the miniature version of her father. Ellen even thinks that, “Sometimes she talked so strong to me that I had to check in the mirror to see if I had changed into him without knowing or feeling
...e another for support because of the parent/child role reversal in the home. The most mature and responsible people in the family were the children. However many times the children were left to their own devices to manage their lives, the children always welcomed Rex and Rose Mary back into their open hearts. This can be explained in part by a hidden rule of poverty being that people are possessions. In Ruby Payne’s A Framework for Understanding Poverty, she explains, “In poverty people are possessions, and people can rely only on each other” (Payne, p. 23). The Walls children relied on their parents to hold the family together, if only in a physical sense. Jeanette and her siblings forgave their irresponsible parents repeatedly. This teaches an important message to readers: by forgiving others you free yourself of festering anger, bitterness, and judgments.
The childhood of Frances Piper consists of inadequate love, loss of innocence and lack of concern, ultimately leading to her disastrous life. As a six year old child, she encounters several traumatic events, explicitly the death of her loved ones and the loss of her innocence. Over the course of one week, there have been three deaths, two funerals and two burials in the Piper family. “Frances was crying so hard now that Mercedes got worried. ‘I want my Mumma to come ba-a-a-a-ack.’”( McDonald 174). As a young child, there is nothing more upsetting than losing a mother. A family is meant to comfort each other to fulfill the loss of a loved one; however, this is not the case in the Piper family. Mercedes, only a year older than Frances, tries to console her even though she herself is worried. The loss of motherly love and affection has a tremendous impact on her future since now her sole guardian, James, expresses no responsibility towards her. Instead, he molests Frances on the night of Kathleen’s funeral to lessen the grief of his lost daughter. As a result “These disturbing experiences plague Frances with overwhelming feelings of low self worth and guilt that haunt h...
Ellen Foster’s use of escapism reverberates as the theme of Kaye Gibbons’ novel. Her imagination, determination, tenacity and innocence allow her to escape, to break away from all of the unfathomable cruelty surrounding her. Without her unique and clever use of escapism, the heroine of Ellen Foster would have been easily overwhelmed.
In the story Ellen Foster, Ellen was a great example of a dynamic character. Ellen had a very tough life. Ellen’s life was like a rollercoaster going up and down dramatically not knowing what was going to happen next. Ellen was a racist child at the beginning but changes her opinion after going through many challenges throughout the story.
One would think that six of the most important external assets fall under the category of support. Without support from one’s family and friends, he/she would have to be living in a state of depression. Ellen can claim to have only two of the support assets, which are to be in a caring school environment and to receive support from three or more nonparent adults. In school, her teachers worry about her, and want to know if she is OK: “The first day back at school my teacher noticed a bruise he put on my arm… she asked me if I had somewhere to spend the night…the teacher says everything is OK and she will make the necessary arrangements”. Although Ellen found support from the school psychologist, she also found support from her best and only friend Starletta’s parents. Starletta’s parents told Ellen, “You come on back when you want to… If he’s there when you get home you come on back here if you want to…” Starletta’s parents are very understanding and they even take Ellen downtown whenever she needs to, buy clothing or food. Even though Ellen found sup...
Kaye Gibbons, the author of the novel Ellen Foster, believes that a quote from the Emerson’s “Self Reliance” is connected with Ellen’s struggle to survive and find her way in the world. The first line of this quote says, “Cast the bantling on the rocks” is related to Ellen herself. A bantling is an abandoned child. Ellen is a bantling even though she was not abandoned, she was deprived of a normal childhood. Her life as a child was extremely hard, physically and emotionally. She never had a mother or father take care of her through her entire youth. You could say that her childhood was “cast on the rocks”. The last line reads, “Power and speed be hands and feet”. This reminds me of how Ellen ran from her problems at home and stayed away from her house as much as possible. The line also represents strength and Ellen was a strong person. She dealt with losing a mother, father and grandmother within one year. She never even had a good relationship with her father or grandmother. The short inscription to “Self Reliance” is almost a short summary of Ellen’s character. In it, a child without parents is raised by someone that is a lot different than she is. After Ellen’s mother died, she is unwillingly left with her alcoholic father who mistreats her. Ellen spent a lot of time at her friend, Starletta’s house and at the house of her grandmother. Life with her grandmother was no better than life with her father. She did not want to be in either situation. After living with her grandmother, Ellen’s struggle to find a suitable, comforting home comes to an end. For the second time in her life, a family member has died right next to her, basically in her arms. Ellen is able to overcome this, even as a
Her parents meet at a social gathering in town and where married shortly thereafter. Marie’s name was chosen by her grandmother and mother, “because they loved to read the list was quite long with much debate over each name.” If she was a boy her name would have been Francis, so she is very happy to have born a girl. Marie’s great uncle was a physician and delivered her in the local hospital. Her mother, was a housewife, as was the norm in those days and her father ran his own business. Her mother was very close with her parents, two brothers, and two sisters. When her grandmother was diagnosed with asthma the family had to move. In those days a warm and dry climate was recommended, Arizona was the chosen state. Because her grandma could never quite leave home, KY, the family made many trips between the states. These trips back and forth dominated Marie’s childhood with her uncles and aunts being her childhood playmates.
At the age of ten, most children are dependent on their parents for everything in their lives needing a great deal of attention and care. However, Ellen, the main character and protagonist of the novel Ellen Foster, exemplifies a substantial amount of independence and mature, rational thought as a ten-year-old girl. The recent death of her mother sends her on a quest for the ideal family, or anywhere her father, who had shown apathy to both she and her fragile mother, was not. Kaye Gibbons’ use of simple diction, unmarked dialogue, and a unique story structure in her first novel, Ellen Foster, allows the reader to explore the emotions and thoughts of this heroic, ten-year-old girl modeled after Gibbons’ own experiences as a young girl.
Marie, who is a product of an abusive family, is influenced by her past, as she perceives the relationship between Callie and her son, Bo. Saunders writes, describing Marie’s childhood experiences, “At least she’d [Marie] never locked on of them [her children] in a closet while entertaining a literal gravedigger in the parlor” (174). Marie’s mother did not embody the traditional traits of a maternal fig...