Ellen Foster Home Analysis

When you are asked the question “What is home?.” What comes to mind first? Maybe love, warmth,family, and togetherness but is that really the meaning of home? According to Webster’s dictionary the meaning of home is “the social unit formed by a family living together.” In the book “Ellen Foster” Ellen was a young girl with a dysfunctional family. Her mother committed suicide to escape Ellen’s abusive and alcoholic father. This is when Ellen started to move from home to home to escape her father also now that her mother is gone. She started staying the night at her African American best friend’s house. In the text it states “ I will give you a dollar is what I told Starletta’s mama when she let me in the door. I do not care for the extras like food

In the text it states “Hello. This is Ellen. I’m fine. How are you? I was wondering if I could come stay with you. Is this weekend OK? Do you think you could come and pick me up now”(Gibbons 60). This shows how the very next morning Ellen was already leaving Starletta’s home to go to her Aunt Betsy’s home. Ellen didn’t stop there she then went to her art teacher’s home because of the potential dangerous she could have been in at home. In the text it states “I stayed at the art teacher’s house until it got warm and green outside. The law said I could stay temporary until somebody decided what to do next” (Gibbons 46). After the time was up to stay at art teacher’s home the judge ordered that she goes and live with her mama’s mama. In the text it states “When it turned summer I went to my mama’s mama’s house” (Gibbons 60). Judging by the information so far this seems more like a hotel than a home. Where you check in for a temporary stay then you have to find another place to live. This does not show the true definition of a home. Many of us think that it is just a place with a roof and blood family but it is