Ellen Foster Essay, Research Paper
The bulk of households were one time considered perfect. The male parent went to work everyday, while the female parent stayed at place and cared for her two kids, & # 8220 ; Henry & # 8221 ; and & # 8220 ; Sue & # 8221 ; . The kids ne’er fought and the parents were involved in all the community events. Our society has grown to accept that there is no such thing as a perfect household. Eleven-year-old Ellen from the book Ellen Foster, by Kaye Gibbons, grows up in a family where her male parent is an opprobrious alky and her female parent is excessively ill to finish mundane undertakings. By utilizing her positive assets, and larning from her negative assets, Ellen was able to get the better of a batch of challenges throughout the book.
One would believe that six of the most of import external assets fall under the class of support. Without support from one & # 8217 ; s household and friends, he/she would hold to be populating in a province of depression.
Ellen can claim to hold merely two of the support assets, which are to be in a caring school environment and to have support from three or more nonparent grownups. In school, her instructors worry about her, and want to cognize if she is All right: & # 8220 ; The first twenty-four hours back at school my instructor noticed a contusion he put on my arm & # 8230 ; she asked me if I had someplace to pass the dark & # 8230 ; the instructor says everything is All right and she will do the necessary agreements & # 8221 ; ( 44 ) . Although Ellen found support from the school psychologist, she besides found support from her best and merely friend Starletta & # 8217 ; s parents. Starletta & # 8217 ; s parents told Ellen, & # 8220 ; You come on back when you want to & # 8230 ; If he & # 8217 ; s there when you get home you come on back here if you want to & # 8230 ; & # 8221 ; ( 32 ) Starletta & # 8217 ; s parents are really understanding and they even take Ellen business district whenever she needs to, purchase vesture or nutrient. Even though Ellen found support from few people out side her household, it did non do up for non holding a household to love and care for her. Her female parent died when she was merely nine, and if her male parent was non out of the house rummy, so he would be in the house rummy. At the really beginning of the book she described her household like this, & # 8220 ; Everything was so incorrect like person had knocked something loose and my household was agitating itself to decease. Some wild drive broke and the 1 in charge strolled away and allow us whirl and agitate and wing off the rail. & # 8221 ; ( 2 )
Communication is a cardinal factor in holding a & # 8220 ; successful & # 8221 ; household. One could ne’er happen Ellen & # 8217 ; s father pass oning with her positively. If he of all time talked to her, he was demanding from her nutrient, or sex. One twenty-four hours at Ellen & # 8217 ; s school her male parent came in the center of naptime stating that he would pay Ellen for sex. This is the closest he came to being actively involved and portion of Ellen & # 8217 ; s educational calling. & # 8220 ; Get the snake pit out of here is what he told me to make & # 8230 ; he stepped out of the truck beckoning some hard currency money and stating Ellen dammit to come back he would pay for it & # 8221 ; ( 54 ) . Ellen was really used to this behaviour ; after he left she was non worried about him, all she wanted to cognize was if he had left the money. Another clip when her male parent communicated with her was when her female parent had taken an overdose of pills and was deceasing. Ellen comments, & # 8220 ; Well I & # 8217 ; ll merely travel to the shop and utilize the telephone & # 8230 ; . But my dada says he will kill me if I try to go forth this house. & # 8221 ; ( 9 ) Ellen had to be a really strong individual to set up with such a awful male parent.
Ellen changes her position on people with different cultural/racial/and cultural backgrounds drastically throughout the book. At the beginning of the book, she would non even eat a biscuit at her friend Starletta & # 8217 ; s house because they were black even though she knew that she was hungering and might non acquire something to eat that dark: & # 8220 ; Starletta slides out of her chair and her mamma says to take something you better eat & # 8230 ; She came at me with a biscuit in her manus and held it to my face. No affair how good it looks it & # 8217 ; s still a coloured biscuit & # 8221 ; ( 31 ) .After disbursement more and more Ts
ime with Starletta she became more cognizant of the similarities between them. Ellen has a little epiphany when she goes to kip at Starletta’s house ; “ When I got up in the forenoon I was surprised because it did non experience like I had slept in a coloured house. I can non state I officially slept in the bed because I stayed in my coat on top of the covers.” ( 39 ) This portion in the book is really of import because it marks the topographic point where Ellen starts to recognize that possibly there is non a difference between being black or white. Ellen eventually ends the phase in life when she thinks it is incorrect to wish inkinesss. She says ; “ I thought while I chopped from one field to the following how I could go through for coloured now… But that was All right now I thought to myself of how it didn’t do much of a difference anymore” ( 66 ) . By the terminal of the book she looks back on her premises on black people disgracefully: “I admiration to myself am I the same miss who would non imbibe after Starletta two old ages ago or eat a coloured biscuit when I was starved? ” Ellen even says, “ Sometimes I even think I was cut out to be colored and I got bleached and sent to the incorrect batch of folks” ( 85 ) .
While working hard at looking at people more every bit, Ellen besides was working hard at strategizing for the hereafter. Ellen could be categorized as a immature individual who knows how to be after in front and do picks. Every month her mamma & # 8217 ; s mamma sent an envelope of money, and Ellen ever saw to it that she got a clasp of the money before her male parent did. & # 8220 ; I figured out what I needed and took it. You got the visible radiations, gas to heat and cook, nutrient and extras & # 8221 ; ( 25 ) . Not merely did Ellen figure out how much she needed for the month, but she besides found the best trades at the supermarket. & # 8220 ; I found the best trade was the home base frozen with nutrient already on it. A meat, two veggies and a tap of dessert. & # 8221 ; ( 25 ) Planing in front kept Ellen busy, and further off from her male parent.
Ellen developed good friendly relationship accomplishments throughout the book. At the beginning of the book Ellen is really autocratic when she plays with Starletta. Ellen takes Starletta & # 8217 ; s toys place with her and repair them because she could non stand playing with broken playthings, even though she knew Starletta didn & # 8217 ; Ts like when she did that. By the terminal of the book Ellen besides feels sorry about how she treated Starletta, and she truly wants to apologise to her for moving so racist. On page 100 Ellen proclaims, & # 8220 ; Lord I do owe her. & # 8221 ; After Ellen invites Starletta to her new mamma & # 8217 ; s house, she goes out of her manner to do certain everything would be perfect for Starletta because all she wanted was to allow her hold an gratifying clip. Ellen had her female parent make Starletta towels with her name sewn into them. Her friendly relationship accomplishments besides help her to acquire off from her male parent and pass more clip with people who truly care.
Based on Ellen & # 8217 ; s responses to her fortunes in life and her developmental assets, one would believe that her hereafter would be bittersweet. Ellen was a nice miss throughout the whole book. She may ne’er turn up to hold a household because of the household that she grew up in was such a negative environment. It is really possible that she will turn up to be an art instructor. One might believe this because she looked up to her art instructor so much and admired her ; Ellen & # 8217 ; s head is full of creativeness and thoughts. When Ellen & # 8217 ; s school found out that her pa was opprobrious to her they put her up at her art instructor & # 8217 ; s house.
Ellen says & # 8220 ; I came a long manner to acquire here but when you think about it truly difficult you will see that old Starletta came even farther & # 8230 ; And all this clip I thought I had the hardest row to hoe & # 8221 ; ( 126 ) Like Ellen did, it is of import for everyone to look back into their life and see what they have learned. Making so can non alter 1s past but merely add to their hereafter. Ellen will ever transport the horrors of her childhood with her but by utilizing all of her assets that she gained throughout the book her hereafter can be enriched.
