... . That person gives them insightful information, encouragent, and sometimes even love. In this novel Ellen Foster, there are three characters that push Ellen forward and do not let her give up. Her art teacher, new mother and friend Starletta all have their own ways of helping Ellen. Through whichever way, Ellen gets all the support and hope she needs to overcome her times of despair ... gathers determination and trust in fate from the hearts of these people. Ellen's art teacher, Julia, is one of the few characters in the novel Ellen Foster that makes a positive impact in Ellen's life. T...

• Word Count: 665
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Ellen Foster vs. The Puritans This novel Ellen Foster is a very unique piece of literature that conveys meaning and peace to people's hearts. It is a very tasteful novel, if you like the sentimental way of life, and all ... of the way that their religion brought them up. In this essay I will tell the ways of the Puritan life style tie into Ellen Foster. Ellen Foster is a little girl that is being abused by her father mentally and physical, but through it all she has faith that someone will come along and save her from this ... historical thing that happened, the migration to the "new world"...

• Word Count: 442
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... Being in any surrounding for an adequate amount of time can change your whole identity without you even realizing it. One of the themes in "Ellen Foster" and "White Oleander" is sometimes our surroundings can change your identity. In "White Oleander", we see a change in Astrid's identity when she is living ... Jesus Christ in the conversation she had with Starr, she would have been out of the house a lot sooner and would have ended up in a new foster home. This change in Astrid learning to accept Jesus Christ as her lord and savior ended up changing her identity for the better. Not to men...

• Word Count: 932
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... 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 ... she and her fragile mother, was not. Kaye Gibbonsuse 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 Gibbonsown...

• Word Count: 637
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... book, Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons, the reader becomes acquainted with the mean character's, Ellen, personality. Ellen has so many characteristics and traits that make her such a complex character. Some of the adjectives that describe Ellen were her street smarts, her racism, and her artistic abilities. The first characteristic is Ellen's street smarts ... younger. Neither her mother nor father took very good care of her. Her mother was fatally ill and her father was an alcoholic. Ellen would have to help her mother do everything when she came back from the hospital. "We peel her dress a...

• Word Count: 403
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Ellen Foster takes place in a small segregated town in the South. Ellen, the main character and narrator, travels between numerous homes during the story. She first lives with her father and her mother, and then she moves in with her art teacher. Ellen then moved in with her grandmother, then with her aunt and cousin and finally ... new house where she is having fun riding the pony and helping her new Mama garden. Back living with her father, New Year's Eve rolls around and Ellen's father brings home a bunch of colored men. She runs to Starletta's and spends the night at her house. The next mo...

• Word Count: 597
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... many shocking events at a very young age in the novel, Ellen Foster, by Kaye Gibbons. Some might say these events have strenghtened her as a girl, have strenghtened her for life, and as a woman later on. Others might say ... easy." (1) which captures the reader's mind right away. This symbolic sentence also tells us that her father is a horrible person that has no respect for Ellen, himself, or anyone else. Ellen moves many times in the book. She tries to live with her father and tries to be independant. At first she is unsuccessful, but in the long ... One such method is that she tells ...

• Word Count: 372
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons is a book about the trials and hardships a young girl goes through in the first eleven years of her life. Ellen has to coupe with being abused by her alcoholic father, the death of both parents, and the death of her grand mother. Ellen goes through many harsh times and situations in the ... to draw for her Aunt and Cousin, she says, "I would really like to paint them one of my brooding oceans but they would miss the point..." Ellen likes the pictures of oceans more than those of the cats which she can also draw, because they depict more emotion. She says the pictu...

• Word Count: 475
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Ellen Foster'sHardships Functional, stable families are the cornerstone of society. Ellen was very much aware of not only her alcoholic father but also her dysfunctional, extended family. When judge decides to give Ellen's custody to her grandmother, a metaphor on page 56 best describes dysfunctional family situation. "What do you do when judge talks ... about the family society's cornerstone but you know yours was never a Roman pillar but is and always has been crumbly old brick?" Ellen knew that she would not be happy with her grandmother and will be tortured. This was like going from a fr...

• Word Count: 306
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... in which people search and struggle to understand themselves and the world that surrounds them. Three prime examples of adolescent struggles are in the characters Ellen Foster, from the novel Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons; Holden Caulfield, from the novel Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger; and Gordie from the movie Stand by Me. ... intensified by the severity of the relationship void between themselves and their parents. At the beginning of the three stories, Ellen Foster, Catcher in the Rye, and Stand by Me, the characters Ellen, Holden, and Gordie, were all comparatively at the same ...

• Word Count: 1185
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... a noted politician, and Maria Boyle. When he was sixteen he received an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point through his foster father, where he graduated sixth out of his class of forty-one. Though he felt uncomfortable under the restraining environment of the military academy ... still lived. However, Sherman remained in the army until 1853; he served in St. Louis and New Orleans in the commissary service. Ellen spent as much time as she could in Lancaster, while giving birth to two children there during these years. Sherman was still unhappy with ... banker and a fo...

• Word Count: 855
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School