Ellen Essay, Research Paper

Ellen Foster Essay

The German philosopher, Nietsche, once said ?Whatever doesn?t kill you, makes you stronger.? This quote is intimately connected to Ellen?s struggle to survive and find her way.

This quote is very relevant to the novel because throughout the book Ellen comes across many hardships and has to find the courage and strength to overcome them. This is exactly what the quote is referring to, although Ellen lives a hard life and comes across many obstacles, she never gives up and in the end she is a stronger person than before. An incident that displays this is when Ellen?s mother overdoses on pills and dies. Losing your mother is an incredibly hard thing for a young child. What makes it even worse is that Ellen had nobody left due to the fact that she hated her father and he was mean to her. This would crush most children emotionally and mentally but Ellen remains strong and keeps on living her life.

Another incident is when Ellen has to live with her grandmother. It seems like her living with her grandmother would be a good thing after everything she had to go through with her father, but it turns out not being any better. Her grandmother is also very mean to her and is very strict. When Ellen is with her grandmother she hardly has a life outside of the house, on top of that her grandmother is also very prejudice. But Ellen endures it and makes the best out of it.

Another incident that displays this quote is when Ellen is kicked out of her house and abandoned. Most children wouldn?t know how to handle it. But Ellen marches right up to a women?s door and asks her if she can join the other girls in the house and live there with her. The lady told her that she would have to find out more about her and get permission to take her in. It turned out that Ellen did turn out living in the house with the woman and the other girls. This goes to show that since Ellen didn?t give up things turned out for the best.

From the start of the book until the end Ellen is constantly faced with hardships that she must deal with. Despite all of the obstacles in her way she lives her life and makes the best out of it that she can. In the end she is a much stronger person than she was before, this goes to show how very relevant the quote actually is.