Ellen Foster (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Kaye Gibbons
- First Published: 1987
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Bildungsroman, Domestic realism
- Subjects: Girls, Maturation or coming of age, Family or family life, Suicide, Abused persons, Abandoned children, 1980’s, Alcoholism or alcoholics, Child abuse, Substance abuse, Adoption or adopted children, Southwest, Orphans or orphanages
- Locales: Southeast (U.S.)
Ellen Foster, Gibbons's first novel, actually began as a poem written from the point of view of an African American girl (this girl would eventually become Starletta, Ellen's best friend in the novel). After showing this poem to Louis Rubin, professor of southern literature at the University of North Carolina, Gibbons was encouraged to flesh out the work. It evolved into a novel, with many of the details taken from Gibbons's own childhood.
The novel, told exclusively from the point of view of ten-year-old Ellen, immediately reveals that the narrator has had a...
[The entire page is 906 words long]
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