Cindy Ellie

"Cindy Ellie" by Mary Carter Smith is about a young girl named Ellie. At the beginning of the story we know that she had a father named Sam Johnson and a mother named Lula who had died. One day Ellie’s father remarries and this woman whom he marries brings her two daughters from South Carolina. They treated her as their servant and started calling her Cindy Ellie. Her father, Sam new how her wife and two stepdaughters were treating poor Ellie but never said a word. One day the whole family was invited to the mayor’s inauguration ball. Cindy Ellie wanted to go but she had to stay home and work but with the help of her godma she was able to go. The mayor’s son, Toussaint was instantly amazed by Cindy Ellie’s beauty. He searches for her everywhere until he finds her. Cindy Ellie forgave her stepsisters and even found them husbands. So Cindy Ellie marred Toussaint and they lived happily ever after.

I really enjoyed reading this story. I liked it because it is similar to the story of Cinderella only that this is of the African American culture. I liked the end of the narrative because like all fairytales it had a happy ending.

Two new vocabulary words that I learned were kenete and Ghana. Kente is a colorful fabric of Ghanaian origin: often worn as a symbol of African-American pride. Ghana is Kingdom of, a medieval W African empire extending from near the Atlantic coast almost to Timbuktu; flourished from about the 9th to 12th centuries.