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Chapter 1
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Foster, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Family
Loss and Grief
Parenting and Judgment
Secrets and Shame
Money and Priorities
Summary
Analysis
The girl goes upstairs with Edna to take a bath. The water is hotter and deeper than it has been for any bath the girl has taken before. At home, Mary makes the girl and her siblings use as little water as possible, and they often share a bath. After the bath, the girl doesn’t have clean clothes, so Edna gives her clothes they have sitting in a drawer. Edna rolls up the sleeves of the shirt and cinches the waist of the pants with a belt so the clothes will fit the girl. Edna then asks the girl if she wants to go to the well. Something in the way Edna asks makes the girl think they aren’t supposed to go, and she asks Edna if it’s a secret. Edna says there are no secrets at this house because having a secret means having shame, and they have no need for shame here.
The novel again points out the girl’s family’s financial precarity, which causes Mary to ration the bathwater. It’s worth noting that Edna and John seem to have clothes on hand that roughly fit the girl, though it’s not entirely clear at this point where exactly those clothes came from or whose clothes they might be. Edna’s comment about shame and secrets suggests that Edna is emotionally attuned to the girl’s needs and is dedicated to ensuring that the girl feels a sense of belonging at the Kinsellas’ house.
Active
Themes
Literary Devices
Edna and the girl go to the well, and Edna asks the girl if she wants to drink some of the water. When the girl drinks it using a dipper, the water is the cleanest and coldest thing she’s ever tasted. It makes the girl think of her father leaving without saying a proper goodbye, and it makes the girl want to live as long as she can in this house without secrets or shame. The girl and Edna then fill a bucket with water and bring it back to the house. Back at the house, Edna tucks the girl into bed without making her kneel to say prayers first.
This passage helps establish the well as a symbol in the novel. In this case, drinking the well water makes the girl think of her father’s neglect and also makes her want to stay at the Kinsellas’ house forever. In that way, the passage uses the well to suggest that the girl may be uncomfortable in her own house, and she is beginning to feel a deeper sense of belonging at the Kinsellas’ house.
Active
Themes
Literary Devices
Edna then asks why the hay at the girl’s house hasn’t come in yet. The girl says they don’t have enough money to pay the man who does it. Edna asks if Mary would be offended if Edna sent her some money. The girls say Mary wouldn’t be offended, but Dan would be. After Edna leaves, the girl sees that the room is covered in wallpaper with trains on it. The girl thinks about whether Mary will have a boy or a girl, though she knows her mother wants neither. Later that night, Edna comes back into the room. The girl pretends she is asleep. Quietly, Edna says that if the girl were hers, she would never leave her in a house with strangers.
