Ellen Foster: A contemporary work written by Kaye Gibbons Kaye Gibbons’ Ellen Foster is a contemporary work that discusses women, cultures, and abuse. Ellen Foster is considered contemporary because it was written in the post World War era, and the topics within the book conflict with the ideals of the time period in which it was written. To capture the attention of an audience and enhance the mood of the book, Gibbons used diction, sentence structure, and misspelled words in a way that only the main character would. Gibbons was able to express her feelings on controversial topics through the situations characters experienced throughout her book. One might wonder when and where the inspiration for the setting of Ellen Foster began. Gibbons …show more content…
Gibbons combines these elements with sensory imagery described by Ellen to further capture the reader’s attention and to make them relate and empathize with every situation Ellen describes. Gibbons subtly added her opinion on sensitive topics through the main character of Ellen Foster. She mentioned several different types of abuse in her book. The main character, Ellen, experienced this abuse and witnessed the way it affected a loved one. Ellen grew up knowing abuse was not normal, but thought the way her abuser lived was. Since Gibbons decided to write her book on sensitive topics, she made the characters much like the people in her society. Abuse was kept a secret during the time Gibbons wrote her book, and that was reflected by Ellen not having anyone to talk to about her homelife. “I say I told you I wanted to come stay with you and you said fine. Now I am here and I got all my stuff that I brought from other place back in the bedroom closet. She says no and laughs at the same time. I meant you could stay with me for the weekend and then go back to your own home. Really? What did you think I meant? That I could come stay with you. Well I 'm sorry for the misunderstanding. Me too. Good. Let 's just take you back and you can come again another time.”