From BookJive
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| Edition: | Vintage (Paperback) |
| Author: | Kaye Gibbons |
| Published: | May 1990 |
| Pages: | 144 |
| ISBN 10: | 0375703055 |
| New: | $0.90 (109) |
| Used: | $0.01 (1353) |
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Ellen Foster is a 1987 novel by American novelist Kaye Gibbons. It was a selection of Oprah's Book Club in October 1997.
Plot introduction
The novel follows the story of Ellen, the first person narrator, a young white American girl living under unfavorable conditions somewhere in the rural South.
The novel is not written in standard English. It is often grammatically incorrect (a egg sandwich, growed, etc.) and generally tries to render the language of a 9 through 11-year-old girl who, in spite of being clever and ambitious, is relatively uneducated.
The novel is set in the late 1970s,due to the fact that Ellen states the following on page 48 when talking about her teacher-"She lived in the sixties. She used to be a flower child but now she is low key so she can hold a job."
Two time levels are intertwined throughout the book: one presenting Ellen's life from her present point of view, living with her "new mama"; and the other one telling Ellen's story from her mother's death and leading up to the present. The two time levels are united at the end of the novel, when Ellen is about twelve years old.
The reader can follow her life over the course of a bit more than two years. A sequel, The Life All Around Me by Ellen Foster, was published in 2006. In the sequel, Ellen reveals that she lives in the sand hills piedmont region of North Carolina and that Ava Gardner's birthplace (near Smithfield, North Carolina) is down the road from her house.
Plot summary
Ellen is an only child who does not have a real home, even at the time when both her parents are still alive. Her father is "trash" and has a drinking problem, and the whole atmosphere is one of domestic violence. Her mother has a heart condition caused by "Romantic" Rheumatic fever and, when the novel opens, has to stay in hospital. From an early age on, Ellen's thoughts center on how she could get rid of her father—she imagines killing him one way or another. When her mother is released from hospital Ellen's father treats her as badly as before, and it is up to Ellen to protect her mother from him. Soon, however, she takes an overdose of pills and dies while Ellen is lying next to her.
After her mother's premature death, Ellen, who is now ten going on eleven, takes charge of the meager household finances. From now on, she starts accumulating money, which she thinks she will need to have a better start later in life. (Towards the end of the novel, when she moves in with her "new mama", she has already saved $166.) In spite of her unhappy childhood Ellen is a smart girl; she borrows books from the library and is rather creative when it comes to spending her spare time. Her best friend is Starletta, a young black girl whose parents are even poorer than herself. She is attracted to them although she has been brought up detesting "niggers" and although she herself cannot overcome all the racial prejudice that has been inculcated in her mind all her life. For example, she says she would never sleep in a "colored house". Also, she refuses to eat or drink anything when she is at Starletta's, remembering the myth that if you use the same glass or cup as "coloreds", the germs they have left on it will spread onto your lips and you will turn as dark as them.
On the other hand, her father himself has his "colored buddies" with whom he drinks. Ellen's odyssey (almost in a picaresque vein) starts when Ellen is raped by her father, who, while severely drunk, mistakes her for Ellen's dead mother.
- At Starletta's parents': After the first instance of sexual abuse, Ellen goes to Starletta's house, where she stays for the night.
- At Aunt Betsy's: On the following morning, having decided to leave her father for good, she packs all her belongings (they all fit into a box) and goes to her Aunt Betsy, her mother's sister who lives sans children, after her husband died. Betsy treats her well, but she misunderstands Ellen about the permanence of Ellen's stay. Accordingly, when the weekend is over, Betsy turns her out again, and Ellen has to return to her father.
- At Julia's: When he starts beating her, her bruises are noticed at school and as a temporary solution, her free spirited art teacher invites Ellen to live with her and her husband, Roy. Ellen accepts, and leaves with her few belongings, and the money she saved up over the past few months. Ellen feels loved, and happy, despite not completely understanding Julia and Roy's way of life. During the period of separations, her father tries to get her back by bribing her with money, but fails.
- At her grandmother's: Sooner or later the question of custody has to be settled in court. Ellen learns that her grandmother ("my mama's mama") is going to take care of her. Rather a well-to-do woman who can even afford two black household helps, her grandmother turns out to be worse than just a grumpy old woman who does not really love her granddaughter. By her workers, she is referred to as the "bosslady", and she even makes Ellen work in the cotton fields during the summer. Also, she permanently reproaches Ellen for being her father's daughter and for taking after him, and claims Ellen is responsible for her own daughter's death. Also, she says she knows that Ellen had sex with her father's colored friends (which is obviously not true). What is more, she suffers from persecution mania, believing that people around the house, even her doctor, are stealing things from her. When she becomes ill she expects Ellen to nurse her. This is what Ellen dutifully does up to the old lady's death.
- At Aunt Nadine's: Ellen's life does not improve when she is taken up by another of her mother's sisters, her aunt Nadine Nelson, who lives together with her daughter Dora. Nadine and Dora, who is the same age as Ellen, are a self-sufficient pair who consider Ellen an intruder. The big quarrel occurs, of all days, on Christmas Eve, when Dora gets all kinds of presents (toys mainly) and Ellen just a pack of white drawing paper, which she throws at Nadine's feet. What is more, Ellen has taken a lot of effort to make a drawing for her aunt and her cousin, but she overhears them talking badly about her picture. As an act of revenge, Ellen pretends she has a boyfriend who has given her a microscope for Christmas. Nadine calls her an "ungrateful little bitch" and tells her she does not want to see her again in her house.
- At her new mama's: In church Ellen encounters a nice and friendly woman, who she believes is called Mrs Foster, and her well-behaved children. She carefully plans to get in touch with them, so after her argument with Nadine she just packs her things together and goes to the house of the "Foster family". Actually, the "family" is a home for disadvantaged adolescents—a kind of foster family rather than a "real" family with the surname Foster. Orphaned after her father's death (of an aneurysm), Ellen does not tell us about the formalities she has to go through to be accepted, but the most important thing for her is that for the first time in her life she is given a warm welcome. Throughout the novel the reader learns how beautiful her new home is. Ellen has now also completely overcome her racial prejudice and is very glad that her new mama allows Starletta to spend the weekend with her at her new home.
