has not learned to take the risk that is an inevitable part of loving another person.
The neglect and outright abuse she receives from her monstrous father and weak mother dominate the book and give the reader an all too clear picture of the reasons for the insecurities and fears which make love impossible for the girl.
Even when Ellen has food in her biological parents' home, it is not associated with the kind of warmth and security a healthy child needs in order to be able to develop loving relationships. When her mother goes to the hospital, for example, Ellen says that "If I did not feed us both [that is, her father and herself] we had to go into town and get take-out chicken. I myself was looking forward to something fit to eat but I was not about to say anything" (3). Perhaps Ellen does not know it, but when she says "something fit to eat" she is referring as much to the maternal and familial
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