Ellen Foster's Childhood Analysis

Ellen Foster lived through a disturbed childhood. Within that unique childhood, there is a few things I can relate to like the resembles of Ellen to her parents, the lack of love and affection from her parents, and a fragile and feeble mother. 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

Maybe her wishing so hard had made it so I thought” (Gibbons 68). Whereas Mavis, who works for Ellen’s grandmother, said that Ellen looks just like her mother. Mavis tells Ellen one day, “One day she said flat out you look just like your mama. Lord chile you got that same black hair down your back” (Gibbons 65). Ellen shared similarities from both her parents because she was the offspring of the two combined. To Ellen’s grandmother Ellen looks like her father because she despises her father and blames Ellen and him for her daughter’s death, so she is not willing to see her daughter in Ellen. Ellen’s grandmother thinks that Ellen and her father had a hand in killing Ellen’s mother. She tells Ellen, “A big clown smile looking down at me while she said to me you best take better care of me than you did your mama” (Gibbons 73). She feels that Ellen did not try to help her mother, which is why she blames Ellen too. Mavis thinks Ellen looks just like her mother. Ellen does share similar traits