The book, “Ellen Foster” is a novel by Kaye Gibbons. Kaye Gibbons is an American novelist who is known as an award winning author. The book, “Ellen Foster” was Gibbons first novel, it was semi-autobiographical. Her poor and troubled childhood inspired and helped her to create this novel, because Gibbons life was a lot like Ellens. Her mother committed suicide when she was 10, and her father was an alcoholic and he died 3 years after her mother. Gibbons was passed around from relatives and foster parents before finding a stable home. The novel “Ellen Foster” shows that Ellen has a difficult life at a very young age; this can be seen through being abused, switching from one terrible home to the other and self criticism.
Ellens father, the antagonist of the novel, is an alcoholic, with no job and does not take care of Ellen or her sickly mother. Ellen's
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She is not only abused physically, but sexually, emotionally and is also neglected several times, by not only her father but other characters in the novel. One of the first signs of abuse in the novel is when Ellens dad threatens Ellen, she says “He would kill Me and my mama both with a knife” (Gibbons 9) when Ellen tries leave the house to find a phone to help her mother who has just overdosed on her prescription heart pills. Ellens father is the one to sexually abuse her. One night Ellen's father threw a New Year's party with “a whole pack of coloured men” (Gibbons 36) they talked about ellen when her father brings her up. One man says that Ellen is “just about ripe. You got to git em when they still soff when you mashum” (Gibbons 37). Ellen hides in her closet