There are five foster children at Ellen's new home, all
of whom Ellen likes very much. When she returns from her gallop
in the woods with Dolphin, Ellen and her new family make a terrarium together.
Afterwards, Ellen's new mama washes Ellen's hair, a practice of
which Ellen savors every moment. Ellen examines herself in the mirror
after her bath and "feels like a stranger in [her] own self."
Analysis
Although Ellen is best friends with Starletta, who is
black, she still harbors the racial biases and falsehoods that have
been taught to her, as she has been surrounded by racism all her
life. In having been raised in a racist, southern community, Ellen,
who is young and, though exceptionally headstrong, is only beginning
to form her own ideas, judges Starletta and her family as she has
been taught to judge them. She does not scorn them outwardly but
clearly thinks of them as lower than she, as is the case when she,
however politely, declines to eat with them. This is a particularly
important scene, as, later in the novel when Ellen has indeed formed
her own opinion of race, she remembers her feeling of supremacy
with absolute shame. In Chapter 6, Ellen
mentions that regardless of how fond she is of Starletta and her
family, she doesn't think she could ever "drink after them" and
examines "what Starletta leaves on the lip of a bottle." And though
she has "never seen anything with the naked eye," she thinks that
an invisible contaminant is will doubtless "get into [her] system
and do some damage." This "damage" Ellen is concerned about is her
fear that she will somehow lose the little status she has as a white
person, however poor and miserable she may be. She feels sorry for
Starletta purely because of her skin tone, though she later relents
and realizes the richness that Starletta and her family possess.
Also later, after Ellen has realized that skin color is of no real importance,
she says that she will even lick Starletta's cup to prove how much
she loves her and how sorry she is that she ever pitied her on the
basis of race alone.
Although Ellen harbors these racist misconceptions, it
is clear that she does not understand them. When she hears her grandmother
say that she would "rather some real niggers" have her mother's
clothes than those who "drink and carry on like trash," she does
not know how to interpret it, as she does not drink and will "not
even eat at a colored house." Ellen's flimsy racist values have been
taught to her by adults, though these values seem illogical to her,
because she can find no tangible evidence to support them. She does
not understand the distinction her grandmother sees in white versus
black and has no concept of how her family's destitution and low
social class fuel her grandmother's close association of them with
the people she hatefully calls "niggers."
Ellen feels that she is too old to enjoy most of Starletta's
toys, as indeed, she seems much older than any other ten-year-old
child. Ellen's days are not filled with dollhouses and crayons but,
instead, electric bills and frozen dinners. She cannot be carefree
and young to the extent that Starletta is, as she must undertake
the responsibilities of an adult. Although it is not blatantly clear,
Ellen is most definitely envious of Starletta's family, thus explaining
the overwhelming flood of emotion she feels when Starletta's parents
present her with the sweater, which Ellen notes "does not look colored
at all." It is this thought that serves as the catalyst for Ellen's
reconsideration of race relations. If the sweater, which Starletta's
parents bought at the "colored store," is not definitively or even
noticeably "colored," then why is there any difference between white
and black at all, and, more importantly, why does it matter? Eventually,
Ellen asks herself these questions and comes to the realization
that, indeed, there is none. It is also important to note that it
is not just the sweater that Ellen loves, but the warmth and affection
with which it has been given to her. Starletta's parents serve as
a source of love and care for Ellen and constantly provide refuge
from her domestic misery.
It is not made clear exactly how far her father goes in
his sexual abuse of Ellen, though it is certain that, for Ellen,
this is the final straw. During the encounter, her father calls
Ellen by another name, presumably her mother's, as Ellen shouts
at him that it "was her name ... I am Ellen!" Thus begins a thematic
issue of identity and self, which continues throughout the novel.
This theme of identity is also touched upon in Chapter 6 when
Ellen is at her new house and looks at herself in the mirror. When
she examines her reflection, she says that she "feels like a stranger
in [her] own self," having changed her life completely. This metamorphosis,
accentuated namely by Ellen's changing opinions of race, occurs
gradually throughout the course of the novel, beginning with the
death of her mother and ending with the acquisition of her beloved
new mama.
