Molly Ayer is a young, teenage orphan. She, like many orphans, bounces from house to house with no priceless memories from the foster homes. To escape her sentence of juvenile detention, Molly helps a widow by the name of Vivan to clean out her many possessions stored in her beloved mansion. In Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline, Molly and Vivian find that they are not too different. “Orphan Train” is a very appropriate title for the story of two orphans connected by their lonely pasts. However, the title could also include a word or two that will make the reader quizzical and curious. Otherwise, the title could mention the second chances the two characters were given.
“Orphan Train” is a very applicable title for the novel. Molly Ayer is an orphan who does not know her place in the world. She doesn’t fit in with the strangers besting her. Although Molly is not the one riding the literal orphan train that Vivian does during the depression, it is proper to say that metaphorically,
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As the story goes on, Christina tells of the struggles Vivian and Molly encounter. Molly is facing a possible Juvenile detention sentence. Vivian grew up in a time when people only wanted to take children in if they would be extra working hands. Most orphans at her time weren’t even sent to school because they were needed around the house or in businesses. At the trains first stop in Minnesota, Vivian’s bus buddy Dutchy was handed off to a family of workers where he would probably never be treated as a son but as a hard working mule. To give more exuberance to the story, I think an option for another title would be “Bring Me Home”. I think this would also fit the story very well as it tells of orphan children’s desire be brought home, not a house but a home where there is love, food, and
The Orphan Train is a compelling story about a young girl, Molly Ayer, and an older woman, Vivian Daly. These two live two completely different yet similar lives. This book goes back and forth between the point of views of Molly and Vivian. Molly is seventeen and lives with her foster parents, Ralph and Dina, in Spruce Harbor, Maine. Vivian is a ninety-one year old widow from Ireland who moved to the United States at a young age. Molly soon gets into trouble with the law and has to do community service. Molly’s boyfriend, Jack, gets his mom to get her some service to do. Jack’s mom allows her to help Vivian clean out her attic. While Molly is getting her hours completed, Vivian explains her past to her. Vivian tells her about all the good times and bad in her life. She tells her about how she had to take a train, the orphan train, all around the country after her family died in a fire. She told her about all the families she stayed with and all the friends she made along the way, especially about Dutchy. Dutchy is a boy she met on the orphan train and lost contact with for numerous years, but then found each other again and got married and pregnant. Sadly, Dutchy died when he was away in the army shortly after Vivian got pregnant. When Vivian had her child, she decided to give her up for adoption. Molly and Vivian grew very close throughout the time they spent together. Molly knows that Dina, her foster mother, is not very fond of her and tells her to leave. Having no place to go, Vivian let her stay at her house.
My book is about a thirteen year old girl name Raspberry Hill. She is a black African American girl that lives in the projects with her mom and they don’t won’t to live there. Her mom is a hard worker. Raspberry is afraid of being homeless again. Time back, her and her mom lived on the streets, lived in family houses and got kicked out. Raspberry doesn’t wants to be on the streets any more so this is why she has her mind stayed on money. She will do anything to get her hands on money. She will get down and dirty, skip lunch, skip school, clean houses and sell nasty rotten candy to the kids in school. When she goes to school she always has candy and pencils to sell to the kids in the school. She has 3 friend’s name Zora who has a single farther name Dr.Mitchell that’s in love with Raspberry’s mother, which upsets both of them, Mia who wants to be identified as black, but has African American and Korean parents, Ja'nae who stays with her grandparents but is urgently wanting to stay with her mom.
In the novel Orphan Train, by Christina Baker Kline, we witness a relationship develop between Molly, a seventeen year old in the foster care system, and Vivian, a ninety-one year old widow that is looking to clean out her attic. As the book progresses, we see them grow closer through telling stories and bonding over their joint hardships. Kline goes out of her way to illustrate this strengthening friendship through many little hints in the novel.
The war time childhood events Penny and Primrose encounter result in psychological traumas such as parental abandonment. These two girls in particular endure psychological trauma of isolation, neglect, and displacement that begins when the two girls begin walking with the other children to climb aboard the train. The two young friends set off at the ...
The main reason for the orphan trains was not to necessarily help the children but to clean up the streets. The children were treated horrible. They were forced to join in gangs to survive and live on the streets. These children were also known as "st...
Throughout the story, the different roles and expectations placed on men and women are given the spotlight, and the coming-of-age of two children is depicted in a way that can be related to by many women looking back on their own childhood. The narrator leaves behind her title of “child” and begins to take on a new role as a young, adolescent woman.
Jeanette had somewhat of an usual childhood compared to other kids in the United States. Where most kids don’t have to worry about if there are going to school or the money problems that come up, nevertheless Jeannette has to worry. Jeannette have to deal with her self center mother , her eccentricity father , her older sister that does not protect her and her brother that give up almost everything for her. Jeannette overcome it all and become the strong woman that all reader will believe she is .
The author, Christina Baker Kline uses a variety of different writing styles in the story “The Orphan Train” there are two stories that flip back and forth which makes it a bit confusing as well as engaging. In addition, she flips between two different points of views, first person and third person. “We are headed toward the unknown, and have no choice but to sit quietly in our hard seats and let ourselves be taken there.” The first person point of view here has an intriguing effect as the author has put the reader in the character’s shoes. The other fascinating part of her writing style for this novel is how she goes from present day to the past. One telling the story of Vivian when
It was hard for her mother to have a baby at a young age herself and try to make ends meet was not easy. She needed to lean on others for help, which she thought at the time was right thing to do, but got caught up on her new family. This is why Emily had so much resentment towards her mother. This story is a great example of a dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship. The story does great job showing the mother’s anguish over her daughter, and a depressed teen that needed her mother and is struggling to overcome a very unhappy childhood.
We have all heard the African proverb that says, “It takes a village to raise a child.” The response given by Emma Donoghue’s novel Room, simply states, “If you’ve got a village. But if you don’t, then maybe it just takes two people” (Donoghue 234). For Jack, Room is where he was born and has been raised for the past five years; it is his home and his world. Jack’s “Ma” on the other hand knows that Room is not a home, in fact, it is a prison. Since Ma’s kidnapping, seven years prior, she has survived in the shed of her capturer’s backyard. This novel contains literary elements that are not only crucial to the story but give significance as well. The Point-of-view brings a powerful perspective for the audience, while the setting and atmosphere not only affect the characters but evokes emotion and gives the reader a mental picture of their lives, and the impacting theme along-side with conflict, both internal and external, are shown throughout the novel.
The narrator, Twyla, begins by recalling the time she spent with her friend, Roberta, at the St. Bonaventure orphanage. From the beginning of the story, the only fact that is confirmed by the author is that Twyla and Roberta are of a different race, saying, “they looked like salt and pepper” (Morrison, 2254). They were eight-years old. In the beginning of the story, Twyla says, “My mother danced all night and Roberta’s was sick.” This line sets the tone of the story from the start. This quote begins to separate the two girls i...
The narrative Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario, tells the true story of a young boy’s dangerous path from Mexico to the United States, in hopes of reuniting with his mother. Along Enrique’s trek he sacrifices his safety, well-being, and even the possibility of his life to be with his mother once again. Lourdes, Enrique’s mother, gives up the ultimate sacrifice of missing her children grow up, causing their love and affection they once held for their dear mother to dwindle, all of which so she can provide money and security for her family. Sacrifice is a key theme in this narrative because without the difficult decisions made and the loss the characters so tragically endured, then they would not have been able to reap the reward of a reunited,
With the main character Celie, she overcomes her hardships with her childhood and marriage to achieve complete happiness. Her childhood consists of a father that rapes her and gives her kids away. He also gives her away to a man known as Mr. ___. He too beats her and does not allow her to see her sister, Nettie. Celie falls in love with another woman who allows her to start her life over. Shug Avery gets her away from her husband, Mr. ___, and allows her to start her own financially independent life, as a pant producer. The only thing Celie lacks in order to ac...
...satisfied and comforted. People in the tail section were utterly exhausted and lost their hope after experiencing a host great turmoil. The most serious and crucial problem I found in the movie is that a manager from the head section regularly visits the rear section and take some children with her. In the latter half of the movie clearly demonstrates how the children are being ‘abused’ with several purposes. Immature children with short stature go into the engine, the heart of the train, and modulate the saw teeth not to be mingled with each other. At the place where they have to lower their heads and close their legs, the innocent children were being sacrificed for the unknown people. Children with pure spirits became the victims of the pleasure and fortune of the greatest number of people. Who on earth would pledge the rights of the children and their parents?
The Orphan Girl even finds a small wooden shack for the two to live in. The shack is decorated and furnished, however it is old and everything is breaking. The Little Tramp opens the door, and a piece of wood falls down. The Little Tramp Sits in a chair, and the chair breaks. This pattern continues and the repetition is intended to show the audience that the rigid reality these two characters face. No matter how hard they work and how much they strive for success, the dream is too far out of their reach. For the Little Tramp and the Orphan Girl its one step forward, 2 steps back. This is evidence of the inequalities that the middle and lower classes face. The American ideals that these characters strive for, such as freedom and opportunity, are not realistic. We live in a world where we should be able to gain success by working hard, but sometimes your hardest isn’t