Ellen switches houses multiple times during the book. After Ellen's mother's funeral, she goes to stay with her mother's sister, Betsy. Ellen misunderstands their agreement thinking that she is staying there permanently. Betsy laughs and tells her “i meant you can stay for the weekend and then go back to your own home” (Gibbons 42). Ellen also stays at her art teacher, Julia and her husband Roy’s, house for a little while because she knows ellen is being abused.“The first day back at school my art teacher noticed a bruise he put on me” (Gibbons 44) but this did not last long, an incident at school involving her alcoholic father granted custody of Ellen to Ellen's grandmother “by court order Ellen is sent to live with her maternal grandmother, who unfortunately is not a sweet, white-haired old lady” (Makowsky 157). She does not like Ellen's father so she seeks vengeance on him through Ellen. Ellen stays with her grandmother for a whole summer.…show more content… Her grandmother accusations also cause her to to be more self conscious. She tells ellen that she is a replica of her father. Ellen is shocked by this and sometimes has to look into the mirror, to make sure she is not becoming someone that she cannot recognize. At one point in the novel Ellen thinks that her body is not proportional, she thinks her head is too big for her body. She hopes that it will even out when she develops hips and breasts.
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. The novel is an inspiring story that is recommended by many authors. Kaye Gibbons did and a really good jobs taking us through the hard past of an eleven year old girl. This book teaches an amazing life lesson; to never give up no matter what difficult times come your way, there will be good times in the
