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Ellen Foster, the character in Kaye Gibbons' novel Ellen Foster, is a young girl that is struggling to survive and find her way in the world. Ellen is deprived of a normal childhood. Her life as a child is extremely hard, physically and emotionally. She never had a mother or father to take care of her throughout her youth. Ellen is able to accept her difficult childhood as normal by blocking out her problems since …

…to heal from her past experiences. Ellen's strength gives her a new out look on life. She even says, "Two years ago I did not have much of anything. Not that I live in the lap of luxury now but I am proud for the schoolbus to pick me up here"(2). Ellen's strength helped pull her through hard times and gives her the power to stand on her own ground and overcome her painful childhood.