The book that I have chosen is Ellen Foster, written by Kayne Gibbons. Ellen Foster depicts the hardships that young Ellen Foster faced before her time in foster care. The story opens to the life of Ellen Foster in the past and the present. The story begins as Ellen expresses her deep hatred for her father. After her mother 's suicide, Ellen was forced to live on her own, care for her father and perform the duties of the house. With her father’s drinking habit, Ellen was forced to become an adult and assume adult responsibilities: paying bills, buying groceries, cooking, etc. Ellen endures the repeated sexual, physical, and psychological abuse at the hands of her alcoholic father. In order to avoid the advances of her father, she stays in …show more content…
Ellen Foster represents a woman in a non-traditional gender role that is struggling to survive in her current conditions. After the death of her mother, Foster is forced to support herself, as her father is abusing and absent in her life. In the South, a stereotypical Southern family runs under the patriarchal system, where the male figure that is overseeing his family and the women are in charge of taking care of the children, supporting the husband. In Ellen Foster, the roles of family members are displaced. As her mother was dying, Ellen took on the role of adulthood. She tends to her mother, by making sure she feed, cleaned, and rested before she continues on her day. She makes sure that her father is out of view, as her mother walks along their home. She feels hatred towards her father, as he is not fulfilling his duties as a man, father, and husband towards his family. This is seen as Ellen states "A grown man that should be bringing her food to nibble on and book to look at, no but he is taking care of his own self tonight"(Gibbons, 6). Also, her family is broken and isolated as the death of parents reveals. After the death of her mother and the abandonment of her father, Ellen moves from home to home, looking for a family to accept her into their lives. Although she does finds homes that were suited for her, but they were not her kin. For example, during her stay with her grandmother, she …show more content…
This becomes evident after the death of Ellen 's mother as, “unlock her door now because she feels safe to be out of a colored town"(Gibbons, 19). This quote highlights the attitude towards African-American and Whites during the South. African-American was viewed as inferior to the superior white race. The feeling of paternalism shadows the attitude projected toward African-Americans. Paternalism is the belief that an individual is more superior to everyone else. Foster showed paternalism towards her best friend, Starletta. During her stay with Starletta, she refuses to eat, sleep, and drink with her family. Ellen was afraid that something that small “is bound to get into you system and do some damage"(Gibbons, 30). Although Ellen comes from a poor background, she displays that she cannot lose what status that she has to be seen with African-Americans. This suggests that despite social standing, race continues to affect where an individual stands in the hierarchy. This superiority is showed during her stay with her Aunt Nadine. Aunt Nadine is portrayed as a wealthy Southern woman that is superior towards everyone. She carries herself and her daughter on a higher pedestal than everyone else. This becomes apparent as Aunt Nadine accuses Ellen of wetting herself, when it is in fact her daughter
“Children are not blind to race. Instead, like all of us, they notice differences” and the character of Ellen Foster is no exception to the rule (Olson). Ellen Foster is the story of a strong willed and highly opinionated and pragmatic child named Ellen, growing up in the midst of poverty and abuse in the rural south. Her life is filled with tragedy from the death and possible suicide of her mother to the abuse she endures at the hands of her alcoholic father and his friends. Despite her hardships as such an early age, she never gives up hope for a better life. In addition to her struggles with poverty she is surrounded by a culture of racism in a society that is post Jim Crow
When I first read the requirements for this book review assignment, I wasn’t currently reading a book. I knew I wanted to do it on a Nicholas Sparks books as those are easy reads for myself and I knew a lot of them had to do with family issues. I went to check out a few options at the library when I stumbled across this book, “The Mentor”. I started reading and I was instantly hooked!
In the first direction, the reader witnesses the era when women only existed to make the male happy. The main character Edna finds that she has nothing to do other than stay in the house bored, since even her children are raised and cared for by servants. Day after day, all Edna is permitted to do is care for her husband and be there whenever he needs help or entertainment. Woman at that time could not vote, could not go out without a male escort, were not allowed to smoke in public, and were not allowed in the work place. These ideals set by the male driven society caused Edna to face her second trend of free will, conflicting with her other direction of oppression.
Ellen Foster’s grandmother despises her because she sees Ellen’s father in Ellen. Ellen’s grandmother tells her, “All I know is when I look in your face I see that bastard and everything he did to my girl” (Gibbons 78). Ellen also fears that she is turning into her dad. Her grandmother made it seem so real to Ellen that she is the miniature version of her father. Ellen even thinks that, “Sometimes she talked so strong to me that I had to check in the mirror to see if I had changed into him without knowing or feeling
This passage bothered me. It is probably the part that bugged me the most about this book. There are many African Americans who are better behaved, smarter, more artistic, more athletic, etc. then white children. There are also many African Americans who are less educated and more poorly behaved than white children, but the same for both of these things go with white children. It bothers me that she knows that if the worst child in the class was white she wouldn't care if the best child in the class was white. I think that throughout the book she often generalizes with African Americans and doesn't even realize it. She claims that she is getting better, but I don't think that she really is. She keeps trying to have the African American children become the same as the white children.
The book I chose to read was “Smile for the Camera” by Kelle James, Copyrighted in 2010. It starts off with chapter one. Kelle, the main character, is lying in bed when her dad walks in. he has a gun in his hand and hes crying, not a good combination according to her. Kelle pretends to be asleep. She decides she needs to leave home. That’s where chapter two begins. She climbs onto the enormous Greyhound bus with her suitcase in hand. She waves goodbye to her father but he only nods. Kelle’s father never really liked her. In fact he hated her. As the bus pulls away, her father waves to her. Kelle was on her way to New York City.
She establishes "the 'do' and the 'don't' of behavior" (Smith 132) in her children and believes, "If you could just keep from them all the things that must never be mentioned, all would be well!" (Smith 142). At the same time, the southern white woman sits atop the pedestal of Sacred Womanhood that her husband and his ancestors built for her (Smith 141). She meekly sits there, a symbol of southern society used to benefit men's ideals, feeling empty and powerless against everything going on around her (Smith 141-2). The whispers in her children's ears and her presence on that pedestal fulfill the white woman's role as protectress of Southern Tradition, but does not fulfill the southern white woman. In fact, the roles of the southern black woman and the southern white woman are equally important and equally oppressive: "In a culture where marriage and motherhood were women's primary roles, neither black nor white women were free to be fully wives or mothers, and neither were able to shield their children from the physical and psychic destruction of the racist society in which they lived" (Gladney 6).
The majority of families were once considered perfect. The father went to work everyday, while the mother stayed at home and cared for her two children, “Henry” and “Sue”. The children never fought and the parents were involved in all the community events. Our society has grown to accept that there is no such thing as a perfect family. Eleven-year-old Ellen from the book Ellen Foster, by Kaye Gibbons, grows up in a household where her father is an abusive alcoholic and her mother is too sick to complete everyday tasks. By using her positive assets, and learning from her negative assets, Ellen was able to overcome a lot of challenges throughout the book.
First, Ellen is born influenced by her parents to be racially prejudiced. Due to the time period Ellen’s mother and father were racist. After Ellen’s mother died from committing suicide her father began to be a drunk. Ellen was forced to get out the house because she hated him and wishes he was dead. While Ellen kept away from her father she met a colored girl named Starletta. Starletta became Ellen’s best friend. Ellen went over to Starletta’s house very often. Ellen was best friends with Starletta but was still racist. In the book it says “… I do not think I could drink after them” (p.29) and “I try to see what Starletta leaves on the lip of a bottle…” (p.29). It also say “…I have never seen anything with the naked eye” (p.29) and “If something ...
...ices, the medical field, teachers, and administrators could all benefit from reading about Kathy and her family. People who are considering taking part in fostering certification should definitely read Another Place at the Table. The events she walks the reader through are not common events taking place in the traditional family. It would help any professional who may be exposed to the Social Service System to understand the systematic process that a child in foster care experience, the good, and bad. So many professionals are mandatory reports and they know nothing about the system as it relates to the child’s experience. Hearing how these children and the foster homes they occupy could benefit from quality assistance and support would provide improvement to the system.
...e on her part. Throughout the story, the Mother is portrayed as the dominant figure, which resembled the amount of say that the father and children had on matters. Together, the Father, James, and David strived to maintain equality by helping with the chickens and taking care of Scott; however, despite the effort that they had put in, the Mother refused to be persuaded that Scott was of any value and therefore she felt that selling him would be most beneficial. The Mother’s persona is unsympathetic as she lacks respect and a heart towards her family members. Since the Mother never showed equality, her character had unraveled into the creation of a negative atmosphere in which her family is now cemented in. For the Father, David and James, it is only now the memories of Scott that will hold their bond together.
In the essay “Say Everything” written by Emily Nussbaum, the author presents the argument that young people in this generation do not have a sense of privacy and tend to post whatever they like on the internet. She presents 3 different ideas of what happens when young adults are on the internet.
Jane was oppressed by the cultural norms and was forced to live in a society where the white society has power over the African-Americans. Emma is the result of long term overpowerment by the white society. John says, “She so despises her own skin that she can’t believe any one else could love it” (Fire, 14). Due to the cultural norms and stereotypes of the “Old Negro” she became a race radical. This is the old psychology which differed from the new psychology of the younger generations. In both plays, the opposing forces were Alec versus Jane and Emma versus John. These forces were the ideas that were attributed by the ideals that existed in society. It was believed that African-Americans talked, dressed, behaved, and thought in ways that lacked in sophistication and refinement. These were some of the attributes that society generally gave to the whites (Jarrett 837). Throughout, both plays the stereotypical language is present in both Jane and
The reader first learns of Jane when she is an inhabitant of Gateshead. At Gateshead, Jane was excluded from the rest of the family. She was merely an outsider looking in on a nuclear family, excluding the father, who had died. We know that Jane’s Uncle Reed, the father and dominant figure of Gateshead, when alive, was a kind man. He was the guardian for Jane and when dying made his wife promise to always care for Jane. After his death, his wife resented the little girl and did not want to care for her. Knowing what we know of family life in the nineteenth century, we know that Jane’s life would have been much different if her uncle Reed had not died. Being the master of the home one can assume that he would have made sure that everyone in the household would have treated Jane well and with love and respect. A father’s authority was unquestioned. Once Mr. Reed had died, the masculine dominance was somewhat given to his son who did not care for Jane and made her life miserable by all of his cruelty and abuse. Although he did not rule the home, due to his young age, his authority as seen by Jane was unquestioned.
Eva’s lack of value for motherhood shaped the lives of her family as well as her own. Because of her negative feelings toward motherhood, many of the people surrounding her have similar values. Eva reflects her community’s negative perception of motherhood by being straightforward about it and passing it down through her family