Ellen Foster (1987)

Ellen Foster is a 1987 novel by American novelist Kaye Gibbons. It was a selection of Oprah's Book Club in October 1997.

Background

Gibbons wrote Ellen Foster at age 26 while studying American literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Reportedly, at age 25 she approached professor Louis Rubin, who had just started the publishing company Algonquin Books, and presented him with the first 30 pages of the novel. After fellow student Lee Smith introduced Gibbons to her agent, Liz Darhansoff, Darhansoff agreed to represent her, and Algonquin would publish the book.

Gibbons has said she wrote Ellen Foster quickly, in about six weeks. Though the book is fictional, and Gibbons initially denied that it was autobiographical, she has since been more open in the press about its autobiographical elements. In 2015, she said of the story: "My emotional goal with [Ellen Foster] was to heal my mother's suicide."

Ellen Foster received the Sue Kaufman Award for First Fiction from the Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Louis Rubin Writing Award from the University of North Carolina.

Plot introduction

The novel follows the story of Ellen, the first person narrator, a young white American girl living under unfavorable conditions somewhere in the rural South.

The novel is not written in standard English. It is often grammatically incorrect (a egg sandwich, growed, etc.) and generally tries to render the language of a 9- through 11-year-old girl who, in spite of being clever and ambitious, is relatively uneducated.

The novel is most likely set in the late 1970s, due to the fact that Ellen states the following on page 48 when talking about her teacher-"She lived in the sixties. She used to be a flower child but now she is low key so she can hold a job."

Two time levels are intertwined throughout the book: one presenting Ellen's life from her present point of view, living with her "new mama"; and the other one telling Ellen's story from her mother's death and leading up to the present. The two time levels are united at the end of the novel, when Ellen is about twelve years old.

Synopsis

Ellen is an only child living in a highly dysfunctional and abusive household. Her father is "trash" and has a drinking problem, and the household atmosphere is one of domestic violence. Her mother has a heart condition caused by rheumatic fever and, when the novel opens, is in the hospital. Because of the abuse, from an early age Ellen has contemplated killing her father. After being released from hospital, Ellen's father treats her mother as badly as before, and it is up to Ellen to protect her mother from him. Soon, however, she takes an overdose of pills and dies while Ellen is lying next to her.

After her mother's premature death, Ellen, who is only eleven years of age, takes charge of the meager household finances, and she starts accumulating savings to improve her prospects. In spite of her unhappy childhood, Ellen is a smart girl; she borrows books from the library and is rather creative when it comes to spending her spare time. Her best friend, Starletta, is a young black girl who has poor but kind parents. Ellen is attracted to them even though she has been brought up hating African Americans and cannot overcome her own racist beliefs. Meanwhile, her father has African American friends with whom he drinks.

Ellen's odyssey (almost in a picaresque vein) starts the night Ellen's father mistakes her for her mother. After the first instance of abuse, though not sexual, Ellen leaves and spends the night at Starletta's house. The following morning, having decided to leave her father for good, she packs her belongings and goes to her Aunt Betsy's, who has no children and whose husband has recently died. Betsy treats Ellen well, but when the weekend is over, Betsy turns her out again, and Ellen has to return to her father.

When he starts beating her, her bruises are noticed at school and, as a temporary solution, her free spirited art teacher, Julia, invites Ellen to live with her and her husband, Roy. Ellen accepts, leaving with her few belongings and the money she has saved. Despite not completely understanding Julia and Roy's way of life, Ellen feels loved and happy. During the period of separations, her father tries to get her back by bribing her with money, but fails.

Eventually the question of custody is settled in court, and Ellen learns that her maternal grandmother is going to take care of her. A wealthy woman who can even afford two household aides, her grandmother turns out to be a grumpy and bitter old woman who does not really love her granddaughter. She reproaches Ellen for being her father's daughter and for taking after him, claims Ellen is responsible for her own daughter's death, and falsely accuses Ellen of having sex with her father's colored friends. When she becomes ill, she expects Ellen to nurse her, which Ellen dutifully does up to the time of her grandmother's death.

Ellen's life does not improve when she is taken up by one of her mother's sisters, her aunt Nadine Nelson, who lives with her daughter Dora. Dora, who is the same age as Ellen, and Nadine are a self-sufficient pair who consider Ellen an intruder. A quarrel occurs on Christmas Day, when Dora gets many presents and Ellen receives a single pack of white drawing paper, which she throws at Nadine's feet.

In church, Ellen encounters a friendly woman, whom she believes is called Mrs Foster, and her well-behaved children. After an argument with Nadine, she packs her things and goes to the house of the "Foster family". In reality, the "family" is a home for disadvantaged adolescents—a foster family. Orphaned by her father's death, for the first time she is given a warm welcome. Ellen overcomes her racial prejudice and is happy when her new mama allows Starletta to spend the weekend with her at her new home.