Response to Ellen Foster, Prompt 2
by Aurora MacDougall

            In Kaye Gibbons novel, Ellen Foster, she details the difficult life of a young girl who has to fight the cruelty of the bitter world all by herself. This novel portrays a troublesome issue that is still present today even in our very own society. This issue would be racism. Sadly enough, racism is still alive in our country and the effects it has on people show in this novel.

            Ellen’s best friend is black and at the beginning of the novel she thought that her friend was of a lesser value just because of her skin color. Ellen even states, “No matter how good it looks to you it is still a colored biscuit” (38).  When Ellen says this she is starving but will not take food from colored people simply because she thinks it will harm her. Little does Ellen know that she is being sucked into a world of racism. That’s one problem that is still occurring in our country, people are letting ignorant, racist thoughts of others influence their own opinions.

            Racism interferes with the growth of our country. The issue of racism is metaphorically a roadblock in development. We are letting this roadblock stop us from completely joining together as one therefore prohibiting us from becoming a unified nation. This same type of roadblock occurs in Ellen Foster when Ellen’s mamas’ mama will not have a loving relationship with Ellen because she runs around with colored friends and she supposedly acts like white trash. It is sad when your own family discriminate against one another because one interacts with someone of a different skin color.

            However, at the end of the novel Ellen comes to the realization that skin color has no connection to the behavior of a person. She learns that she loves her friend for who she really is, doesn’t matter if she’s white, black, orange, or yellow, she’s still the same person. This shows when Ellen invites her over to her house for the first time to thank her for all she has done for Ellen in times of need. Ellen always thought she had the hardest life but she says “I came a long way to get here but when you think about it real hard you will see that old Starletta came even further” (146). Ellen realizes the negative effect racism can have on one single person. Your one judgment of a person can make their life that much more difficult, knowing that they are not acceptable in some peoples eyes.

            If our whole country were to read this book, they would open their eyes to see how we’re just making everything much more difficult on ourselves by having racism present. If we were to all come together and forget about color of our skin we could all work together and progress as a whole and make our lives that much easier. “It seems like the decent thing to do” (146).