comment on Bildungsroman

Ellen Foster is a bildungsroman, or coming-of-age novel, tracing Ellen's movement from isolation into community, from abandonment into nurturance and her own role in making this transformation occur.

Ellen learns from her experiences. Her family teaches her what she does not want in a family, and she goes on to find one in which she can succeed. Her larger world, permeated by racism, tells her she should feel superior to black people simply because she is white, but eventually she sees the error and injustice of that view. Ellen grows into a self-empowered, empathetic girl by virtue of her ability to think for herself and her will to effect change in her world.