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<title> The Steam of Courage </title>
	According to Catholic doctrine, to think evil towards others is punishable. But in Ellen's case it is quite understandable and acceptable when she produces such horrible plans about her family, relatives and even her surroundings. She did not get any moral support from her father, which was her prime protector. Nevertheless, as we go on further reading the literary history, we will encounter all sorts of actions that Ellen is bound to react emotionally and sensibly. Her ideas were gorgeous, brilliant and enormously great, that she succeeded in the end.

	Ellen Foster is from childhood surrounded and dominated by the coarse-grained dead or crazy people, but according to her she figured out that she was pretty good considering the rest of her family. Sometimes it is hard to believe that it happens to her. She is the pacifier in her family. She was very strong and determined what she wanted to do. She tried her utmost best to save her mother from taking an overdose pills. She said to her "vomit them up mama, I will stick my finger down your throat and you can vomit them up. I got her suitcase in my hand and I carry it to the bedroom. What can I do but go and reach the tall things for her. I help her get herself laid in the bed and then I slide in beside her. I will stay her with you, just for a nap. I get up and go in there and tell him (her father) to get up that folks got to come in here and do their business. (P. 5) It is really excruciating indeed on her part to take care of two old grown up people who act like children which are supposedly her mentors. But here it is the other way around. She does the chores which are meant for her parents, just to please and satisfy them.

	There has been a systematic effort and braveness in her which precisely the mechanism to remedy her turbulence life. When she lived with her grandmother she did not expect that she would be working in the field without being paid, just like the black people. But even her grandmother treated her like a slave she was not an ill-regulated little girl. She showed respect and kindness in spite of her grandmother's rudeness. She worked on the field under the heat of the sun. Al-though she gets sick from the start because she is not used to do such things when she lives together with her parents. A passage that strengthen her braveness."I had to sit down and every time I tried to stand up I just had to sit back down. I can hardly stands it my own hot self. The next morning I got straw hat out of the garden shed and wore it all day. I felt cooler all over and did not get sick anymore. While I worked I mainly counted in my head or recited the poems I knew good to myself. You can keep time with the hoe chopping around a plant. By July I was like a boy. When I started out both my hands were a red blister but then I toughened up good."

	Nevertheless, she has the courage to be funny, which maybe one of some reason why Starletta and her new mama liked her. Some passages that fortifies her funny traits. "She could not help getting sick but nobody made her marry him. You see when she was my size she had romantic fever I think it is called and since then she has not had a good heart." (p. 3) "I would go off by myself and imagine turning my buddy Starletta loose in here. She could have a rampage in one room and out the other, or maybe I will invite the whole family that eats off records. They can visit while you are at the beauty parlor I thought and I felt better to imagine it all." (p 62-3) Unconciously she thinks of funny things just to tease and let her grandmother realize that those collectibles are not so important in life. Ellen is longing for love attention and affection from her grandmother but unfortunately she did not get them.

Beyond Ellen's limitations she conquers the misty and steamy moment inher life. She coped with the unendearment sequence that made her the luminary in the atory. And considering the fact that she confines herself to such miserable surroundings still she manages to be thoughtful, affectionate and considerate her ralatives and others, like Dora, Nadine, Starletta, her new mama and her grandmother. Considerate when she assisted her sich mother, grandmother. Very thoughtful to Dora and Nadine, when she drew cats for them as christmaspresents. Very affectionate to Starletta and to her new mama. She could not hardly wait not telling her new mama about Starletta coming to visit her on weekends so that they could play and spend together. "Come on and crawl up here and rest with me for while. This is the way I always do. Well I came to your house because I like you so much." (P 124)
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