Ellen Foster Character Analysis

She frequently contrasts the characters in Ellen’s life with the African-Americans she meets. A few notable examples of the people in Ellen’s life are her alcoholic and abusive father, her spiteful grandmother, and her insensitive and stubborn Aunt Nadine, who calls her a liar and tells her to, “…find herself evil little self some hole for to crawl in” on Christmas day. On the other hand, Starletta’s family, although poor and “colored”, loves each other deeply and makes sacrifices for each other, like the expensive presents her family bought her for Christmas. Also, the colored families who live in the houses that Ellen repeatedly spies on seem to be content and happy with what little they have, while Ellen rich grandmother is hateful with her treasures. Gradually over time, Ellen begins to realize that the colored people she regarded as inferior are really better people than she

In the short story “Choices” by Susan Kerslake and in the poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, are two examples of literature which are similar to my experience.

In Brian Copeland’s memoir, “Not a Genuine Black Man: My Life as an Outsider”, he vividly shares to what kind of racism and treatment that he and his family have gone through in a white community in San Leandro, CA during the 70’s. Through an ethnic studies lens, we can see clearly that indeed, the treatment of most Americans or “whites” toward African-American or “blacks” are hostile. There’s an invisible gap between two races, and Being an African-American

“When I was little I would think of ways to kill my daddy.” This beginning to the novel “Ellen Foster” by Kaye Gibbons, prepares readers to enter the world of one of the most influential and appealing young woman protagonists in modern fiction. Ellen Foster, the main character of the book by Gibbons, is, in my view, the most fascinating and remarkable character in the story. Readers are introduced to the narrator Ellen, a determined, yet mature and individualistic eleven-year-old, who lives in the South during the 1970s. She lives with an alcoholic father and a sick mother. Ellen must go through many hardships and face much trauma, when she foreshadows her mother’s death and the long journey in front of her by saying that a storm is coming- “I can smell the storm and see the air thick with the rain coming.” (p.7). Young Ellen must go through much more than the average child her age, but she knows that she will get her happy ending. After dealing with her abusive father and depressed mother, Ellen deserves to go to a happy family, one that will accept her with smiles on their faces and joy in their eyes. Even if it means jumping from foster home to foster home, from a cruel grandmother to a condescending aunt and cousin, Ellen will find the people that will love her, even if it means first having to go to those who don’t.

In The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the Walls family is born and raised throughout the country, never settling down in one place. Rex, Jeannette’s father, is an independent thinker, and a highly intelligent man. He spends every second of his spare time inventing odd contraptions that he hopes will make his family rich. Despite his obvious intellect, Rex struggles profusely with alcoholism, making his goal of maintaining a job, and protecting his family very difficult. Jeannette’s dad is best known for “skedaddling”, when things get too hard in one place, or bill collectors come he takes his family, regardless of what they think or want, away from there. They have no say in it, he practically drags them along because they don’t have a choice. Rex asks Jeannette what

The raging cold screams against his back at night. Her father's drunken jeers make her shiver as she cowers in the corner of her room. Both have natural families, yet both have been driven to flee from these families. She flees because her life amongst family is terrifying, loveless, and oppressive. He flees because he believes that his family has grown arrogant and materialistic, and is thus oppressive as well.

The feeling of being judged for the experiences an individual faces can be detrimental to the person 's personality by that these experiences result in you trying to become someone you are not so that you hide what society feels is your flaw, your race. Starr lives in two completely separate worlds, Garden Heights and the area surrounding Williamson High School. These two worlds hinders Starr’s ability to voice her opinions and thoughts about anything because in both of these areas there is this fear of overstepping boundaries. Overstepping boundaries in either area causes an individual to become threatened, for example, in Garden Heights, Starr silences herself whenever she is around gang members because she is frightened that the gang members will harm both her and her family for her opinions. Starr silences herself when she is at Williamson High School, especially since she is one out of the few African Americans that attends there, because her opinion is outnumbered by the majority of the population who are either ignorant about the issues that affects Starr’s race or cares less to even hear issues that occurs to others beside them.

Racism has been a debated topic throughout the years. There have been many questions about if racism is a communal structured method of categorizing and separating people or if it is a learned or inherited behavior. The word has so many different meaning to each person affected by it. According to Miles and Brown, “The concept of racism is heavily negatively loaded, morally and politically” (3). All the way through history, racism has generated grief for those who fall victim to the problem. “Kindred” by Octavia Butler explains how a black woman is able to take a journey back in time to encounter and witness slavery up close and personal. In Natasha Trethewey “Bellocq's Ophelia”, the reader is able to recognize Ophelia’s yearning to be seen as a white woman opposed to a very fair-skinned black women. both Ophelia and Dana encounter racism and stereotypes. “During both of these women’s journeys throughout the stories, they have to face issues and hardships concerning their race in many different ways.”

Anne Moody came to know that bigotry and inequality came from all shades of color, from both white and black. It was her experiences through life that shaped

I have always thought and been taught that racism was a form of ignorance; people used stereotypes are the easy route, instead of looking at the individual outside of the whole. But Kelley’s thoughts on the topic rang very true to me—“Racism is knowledge…is learned behavior…” (7). When we are babies, we don’t notice or care if someone is of a different race, socioeconomic standing, sexuality; we just see them as people. It’s through repeated actions that we learn what separates us from the “other”. As a young child, my neighbor was my best friend. We played every day until I moved, but our families still kept in touch. It was until probably the 3rd or 4th grade that I realized he wasn’t like me, he had Down syndrome. Of course, that didn’t make a difference to me then or now, but I find it to be a striking example in my own life that as a young person, I was unable to see anything different about us, to me we were the same, we were

In U.S. history the roles of society were decide by gender, men’s role was mostly the same throughout history, but the women’s role changed slowly over time. There was many women who were fighting to change their roles and one such woman is Anne Marbury Hutchinson. In “Divine Rebel” Selma R. Williams tells the story of Anne Hutchinson, who was a Puritan woman of the late 1500s, and researched informations was hard to find. She was often described as a woman who did not fit the ideal woman mold and she did nothing to force herself into such a mold. Anne Hutchinson is described differently in the textbook that was assigned to our class as well as a few similarities. Anne Hutchinson may

Racism is a learned behavior; humans do not choose to be it but have it forced upon them from the second they come into this world. Written by David Margolick, “Elizabeth and Hazel” is a book which explores how racism has affected the life of two women captured in a historical photograph, one white, one black and in the end, friends.

Prejudice is a cancer that spreads hate among its perpetrators and victims alike. In 1930 Langston Hughes penned the novel, Not Without Laughter. This powerful story, written from the perspective of an African-American boy named James “Sandy” Rodgers, begins in the early 1900’s in the small town of Stanton, Kansas. Through the eyes of young Sandy, we see the devastating impact of racism on his family and those they are close to. We also see how the generations of abuse by whites caused a divide within the black community. Among, and even within, black families there were several social classes that seemed to hinge on seeking equality through gaining the approval of whites. The class someone belonged to was determined by the color

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee presents Mayell Ewell as a complex, round character with traits that evoke various feeling from the reader. In one light, “she seemed somehow fragile-looking” (179). She is scared of what would happen to her if anyone found out she was lying. The questioning became too much and made her “stare at (Judge Taylor) and burst into tears” (179). The crying showed her emotional and fragile side of her. The fact that there was a bigger, more powerful being forcing her to act a certain way scared her. She continued to cry at certain times and didn’t answer some of Atticus’s questions. She was scared of what would happen if they didn’t win

In the story, “Black and Blue,” written by Garnette Cadogan, the narrator talks of his struggles of discrimination and the differences he faces while assimilating into the culture of New Orleans and New York City from Jamaica. It is unsettling to think that the American Dream is not available to everyone because they are seen differently because of their race. Garnette’s story is just one example of the many people who are treated differently because of the color of their skin and overall appearance.