The Foster System In Jane Fitch's 'White Oleander'

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Jane Fitch’s novel White Oleander is about a young girl named Astrid who lost her mother when she was sent away to prison for murder, Astrid was then put into the foster system. White Oleander shows how the foster system is flawed and instead of putting children with rough backgrounds into loving, caring homes they are put into homes that are looking for the paycheques that come with the children. In order for children to grow up healthy they need the basic essentials like food, shelter, clothing, good role models who love, care and offer safety to them. Astrid didn’t have one stable home so she didn’t get these essentials. If she had someone there looking out for her then the chances of getting raped and getting into drugs would lessen and she’d know what a real, healthy, loving relationship was and she would know that her and Ray wasn’t right and she wouldn’t do sexual favours for drugs. When she was in one of her homes the only meal she was served was dinner to help conserve money. It goes to show that the system doesn’t care about the kids individually, they’re just numbers in the system that need to be placed, no …show more content…

So when she was put into these homes she didn’t have any social skills and she just knew what her mother had told her. Ingrid had always taught her that it was her against the world and don’t trust anything anyone tells you. So Astrid went through life trusting the wrong people and not understanding what to do. Her mother followed her through her homes getting rid of the families she thought were a threat to her and Astrid’s relationship and always making sure that Astrid was following in her footsteps. When Ingrid had gotten into Claire’s head and convinced her that Rob was cheating on her and caused Claire to kill herself Astrid finally realized that it was unhealthy relationship and started to distance

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