From Folktales to Fiction: Orphan Characters in Children's Literature

Library Trends, Wntr, 1999 by Melanie A. Kimball

PUNISHMENT OF THOSE WHO OPPOSE ORPHANS

Those who oppose orphan heroes and heroines are usually punished, often by death. The death of evil-doers is generally accomplished in deus ex machina fashion, by flying rocks (Yeh-Hsien), angry cats (Yukiko and the Little Black Cat), poisonous food (The Market of the Dead), and so forth. In the Armenian stories King Zargand's Daughter and Quick-Witted, the evildoers are killed by the hero, an unusual occurrence in orphan stories. Some tales have less dire consequences for those who abuse the orphan. The step-relations in The Prince and the Orphan and The Magic Drum are reviled by their respective communities. Some stories end with the orphan interceding on behalf of those who mistreated him. Wend'Yamba returns good for evil when he is made king and brings the foster family to live with him in the palace. His stepmother, finally moved by his goodness, reforms and becomes good herself. In The Orphan Boy and the Elk Dog, Long Arrow brings horses to his tribe so that his people may prosper despite the fact that they previously made him an outcast, and, when his fortune is made, Dick Whittington gives money to everyone in the household, even the cook who treated him badly.

ORPHANS IN CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

As orphan tales passed from the oral to the written tradition, literary conventions for this type of story developed. By the nineteenth century, the orphan heroine was an established character in English and American literature (Avery, 1994), but the genre was found in other countries as well. Classic novels such as Heidi, Pollyanna, The Little Princess, The Secret Garden, and Anne of Green Gables are all examples of this type of heroine. Male orphans also had their place in the literature as exemplified by the novels of Dickens (Oliver Twist; David Copperfield; and Great Expectations) and Horatio Alger (Ragged Dick), but female orphans predominated. These heroines were usually left with relatives who did not want them, a hardhearted aunt being the favored foil, but by the end of the story the orphan heroines transformed the lives of those around them by the force of their spunky, but sweet, natures (Avery, 1994).

Orphans continue to appear as characters in children's fiction. Examples of contemporary fiction with orphan characters include Joan Aiken's (1962) The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and Midnight is a Place (1974), Joan Lowery Nixon's (1987-1989) Orphan Train series, Philip Pullman's (1982) Count Karlstein, and Geraldine McCaughrean's (1998) The Pirate's Son. The reality of orphans in society and their function as a hero type explains their presence in folktales, but the continuing use of orphan characters in literature for children indicates that they still hold great fascination for authors and have great meaning for readers.

It is from the folkloric elements previously outlined that the standard story of the orphan developed: the outcast main character; the secondary characters who affect the orphan for both good and evil; the task or quest that the orphan must perform; the usually happy resolution with the orphan finding success through marriage, wealth, and position; and the punishment of those who mistreated the orphan. Each of these elements has a parallel in literary orphan stories. Tracing the orphan hero motif in folktales makes it clear that this literary genre had its roots much further back than the sentimental novels of the eighteenth and nineteenth century. To see how these folktale patterns asserted themselves in literary orphan tales, we can turn to a comparison with a well-known children's novel.