From infancy, children depend on their parents to do for them what they cannot do for themselves. They learn to recognize the faces of loved ones from an early age, and with no one else to rely on, they trust those loved ones to keep them safe and sound. But what about the children who aren’t fortunate enough to have another human being to depend on, the children who are left to raise themselves? Furthermore, is raising oneself from an early age a possibility or do such ideas only exist in fantasy? In “Abandoned Children” Rachel Fuchs suggest that “Any child who lives beyond birth does so only through his or her dependency on another human being” (Fuchs, 6) While this has proved true, especially during the nineteenth century when the survival rate of children was only a small percentage of what it is today, it is orphans, children who are forced to stand on their own two feet in order to beat the odds constructed by society, that make for exciting adventure heroes. Although authors may choose to base their stories on orphans for a variety of reasons, this essay will attempt to understand the motives behind choosing an orphaned protagonist. Characters like Mary Lennox in Frances Hodgson Burnett’s story, “The Secret Garden” and Anne Shirley in L.M. Montgomery’s story “Anne of Green Gables” are identifiable characters and it is because of the popularity of these characters that orphans came to be a commonly used protagonist in the literary world. It is difficult to understand why such sorrowful characters would be ideal literary heroes. “Unlike orphan stories, most describe a childhood more sweet and innocent than most, if not all, children ever experience.” (Nodelman, 220) Do readers find ‘Orphan stories’ enticing simply because the...
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...e heartstrings of readers in dissimilar ways, together, they demonstrate that children, even without familial structure, can find a way of reaching self-understanding and happiness. For Montgomery and Burnett, the usage of orphaned characters may have been taken from a range of possibilities. Through their characters, they proved that self-reliance and independence are qualities that any child, despite their upbringing, is capable of demonstrating. Additionally, the authors had roles in evoking the sympathy that truly defines a tragic character, and the era during which the tragedies occurred. Anne, Mary and the orphaned protagonists in the remainder of the literary world continue to prove that children, even those entirely independent from guidance, are every bit as capable of taking on the world as adults, and it is for this trait that they are adored.
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.
The scholar, Lizzie Skurnick, states that the author of The Darkest Child, Delores Phillips, has a great plot, but it is an unoriginal story because it contains a story that has been told too many ti...
He has endured and overcame many fears and struggles, but during this section, we truly acquire an insight of what the little boy is actually like – his thoughts, his opinions, his personality. Contrary to his surroundings, the little boy is vibrant and almost the only lively thing around. I love him! He is awfully appalled by the “bad guys” and shockingly sympathetic toward dead people. For example, when the father raided a house and found food, the little boy suggested that they should thank them because even though they’re dead or gone, without them, the little boy and father would starve. My heart goes out to him because he is enduring things little boys should never go through, even if this novel is just a fictional
Despite the connection between the girls, Twyla still feels alienated by the others in the shelter. “Nobody else wanted to play with us because we weren’t real orphans with beautiful dead parents in the sky” (10). The status of “real” versus “non-real” orphan becomes surrogate racism in the shelter. The value of this new classification of the girls is elucidated by the lack of distinct race between Twyla and Roberta, as they become united in the condition of living parents. Their race falls second to whatever else is used to alienate
At the age of ten, most children are dependent on their parents for everything in their lives needing a great deal of attention and care. However, Ellen, the main character and protagonist of the novel Ellen Foster, exemplifies a substantial amount of independence and mature, rational thought as a ten-year-old girl. The recent death of her mother sends her on a quest for the ideal family, or anywhere her father, who had shown apathy to both she and her fragile mother, was not. Kaye Gibbons’ use of simple diction, unmarked dialogue, and a unique story structure in her first novel, Ellen Foster, allows the reader to explore the emotions and thoughts of this heroic, ten-year-old girl modeled after Gibbons’ own experiences as a young girl.
The thought of her brothers still being in her former home environment in Maine hurt her. She tried to think of a way to get at least one of her brothers, the sickly one, to come and be with her. She knew that her extended family was financially able to take in another child, and if she showed responsibility, there would be no problem (Wilson, 40). She found a vacant store, furnished it, and turned it into a school for children (Thinkquest, 5). At the age of seventeen, her grandmother sent her a correspondence, and requested her to come back to Boston with her brother (Thinkquest, 6).
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.
Griffith, John, and Charles Frey. Classics of Children's Literature. 6th ed. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005. 21-29, 322-374. Print.
Both of these stories served as mile markers in the history of children's literature, and marked turning points in our Society. For the first time, children were allowed to think freely, and learn. They independently formed their own thoughts on life, God, and many of the other highly regulated aspects of their society. Until this time most of the children were taught to think as their parents or feel the wrath of vengeful and often cruel God.
In a person’s lifetime childhood is a stage of exploration. Through the teachings and experience of our elders and experienced people around us, a person can learn a lot about the world around them. These influential factors help in the creation of a stronger adult in the future. In The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara and Girl by Jamaica Kincaid the characters are guided by dominant mother like figures in order to learn valuable lessons and morals that shape the children as better individuals.
In John Connolly’s novel, The Book of Lost Things, he writes, “for in every adult there dwells the child that was, and in every child there lies the adult that will be”. Does one’s childhood truly have an effect on the person one someday becomes? In Jeannette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle and Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner, this question is tackled through the recounting of Jeannette and Amir’s childhoods from the perspectives of their older, more developed selves. In the novels, an emphasis is placed on the dynamics of the relationships Jeannette and Amir have with their fathers while growing up, and the effects that these relations have on the people they each become. The environment to which they are both exposed as children is also described, and proves to have an influence on the characteristics of Jeannette and Amir’s adult personalities. Finally, through the journeys of other people in Jeannette and Amir’s lives, it is demonstrated that the sustainment of traumatic experiences as a child also has a large influence on the development of one’s character while become an adult. Therefore, through the analysis of the effects of these factors on various characters’ development, it is proven that the experiences and realities that one endures as a child ultimately shape one’s identity in the future.
... (eds), Children’s Literature Classic Text and Contemporary Trends, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan in association with Open University
Ultimately, Romanticism is responsible for transforming the purpose of children’s literature and, as a result, society's image of children. Thus, helping to establish the importance of the imagination. Through its themes of romanticism, Carroll crafts a story that is anti-didactic by its very nature. The innocence and imagination of childhood offers redemption to fallen adulthood.
Having inherited the myth of ugliness and unworthiness, the characters throughout the story, with the exception of the MacTeer family, will not only allow this to happen, but will instill this in their children to be passed on to the next generation. Beauty precedes love, the grownups seem to say, and only a few possess beauty, so they remain unloved and unworthy. Throughout the novel, the convictions of sons and daughters are the same as their fathers and mothers. Their failures and accomplishments are transferred to their children and to future generations.
Gillespie, Gerald, Manfred Engel, Bernard Dieterle, and Bettina Meibauer. "Images of Childhood in Romantic children's literature." Romantic Prose Fiction. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins Pub. Co, 2008. Web. 10 Dec. 2013.