Kaye Gibbons, the author of the novel , believes that a quote from the Emerson’s “Self Reliance” is connected with Ellen’s struggle to survive and find her way in the world. The first line of this quote says, “Cast the bantling on the rocks” is related to Ellen herself. A bantling is an abandoned child. Ellen is a bantling even though she was not abandoned, she was deprived of a normal childhood. Her life as a child was extremely hard, physically and emotionally. She never had a mother or father take care of her through her entire ....