Orphan Train : A Short Story

Orphan trains and Carlisle and the ways people from the past undermined the minorities and children of America. The film "The orphan Trains" tells us the story of children who were taken from the streets of New York City and put on trains to rural America. A traffic in immigrant children were developed and droves of them teamed the streets of New York (A People's History of the United States 1492-present, 260). The streets of NYC were dirty, overcrowded, and dangerous. Just as street gangs had female auxiliaries, they also had farm leagues for children (These are the Good Old Days, 19). During the time of the late 1800's and early 1900's many people were trying to help children. Progressive reformers, often called

Between 1854 and 1929 the United States was engaged in an ambitious, and ultimately controversial, social experiment to rescue poor and homeless children, the Orphan Train Movement. The Orphan Trains operated prior to the federal government’s involvement in child protection and child welfare. While they operated, Orphan Trains moved approximately 200,000 children from cities like New York and Boston to the American West to be adopted. Many of these

Orphan Train is a novel about Molly and Vivian who spend time together and share their life experiences. Molly is a 17 year-old girl, a Penobscot Indian who is aging out of the foster care system, and her improbable friendship with a 91-year-old woman named Vivian, an Irish immigrant child that rode an orphan train. Vivian Explains that the Nielsen family depend on her. Vivian begins to set on making make the store as lucrative as possible. Molly learns that she must depend on herself. Molly has learned not to faith in people besides herself.

“Yeah, yeah,” Charlie’s mom said quietly. She didn’t even realizing what her son just said. Of course, Charlie

In History and Society, edited by Paula S. Fass, vol. 2, Macmillan Reference USA, 2004, pp. 680-681. U.S. History in Context, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3402800328/UHIC?u=azstatelibdev&xid=698a7145. Accessed 7 Dec. 2017. Orphan Train by Christina Baker

Orphan trains is a documentary about children in New York, being sent on trains to other parts of the country, in order to find families and be taken care of. There are stories from, adults that actually rode on these trains when they were children. The Orphan Trains was started by a man named Charles Loring Brace in 1854. Brace, had traveled to New York in the early 1850’s, and was horrified at the conditions of all the children he saw on the street. Brace felt that it was a duty to help these children out, and decided that the only way to help these children was to get them away from their surroundings, and send them away to be raised in nice, Christian homes around the country. So, in 1853, Brace founded the Children’s

About thirty to forty children rode these trains with only two to three adults. They were told that they were going out west, but the children really had no idea what that meant. Most of them had never been outside of New York.

The tale of the 4 train depicts the story of the type of people that already live in Jerome Avenue, and those who don’t. As the 4 train keeps going uptown towards the Bronx, there are less white people and t people of color become the majority of the subway riders. Eventually the train makes its last stop in Manhattan when it reaches the 125th street stop, the train is then filled black and brown faces, and there aren’t any other white faces unless its game day at the Yankee Stadium. The people that are coming from one of the richest zip codes, Wall Street, and those in between are long gone; and the people that have endured the long train ride uptown are left to ride the train along Jerome Avenue. This image somehow reflects the white flight that occurred decades earlier in the Bronx, as people of color settled while white people moved out as the borough experienced urban decay. Not only did the Bronx survive, but so did the people of color that dealt and endured the harsh realities that still lingers in the Bronx in present day.

and then looked at the train out of town. They asked themselves why three in

"My parents are not here." Akki spoke lower than he originally had, lying though his teeth. The boy eyes widen realized what he had done. Dragging Akki out of the crowd, the female followed behind.

Traveling up to 60 miles per hour in a chain of iron boxes weighing several hundred tons altogether can make you feel quite small; and even smaller if you didn’t have any control of the destination. It was a tight fit in each train car due to the thirty to forty other orphans packed in together with two to three adults. There was a strain on all orphans involved in this program. The orphan trains were a bitterly imperative movement put in place to disperse the population, as well as put “future criminals” in what was supposed to be loving homes. (Web)

“The Orphan Trains were a series of social service programs the relocated poor and homeless city children” (McClure). More than 200,000 children traveled by train from the east coast to seek new homes and better lives in the almost every state in the United States. A good amount of train riders were not full orphans. Most had parents or a parent that could not afford to take care of them and gave them up to save them from poverty and to give them a better life. Most of the time the train rides lasted several days “Once they got on the train, most children never heard or saw from their birth families ever again” (McClure). The kids felt scared but knew it was for the better. Before the trains reached the cities they would put fliers all over the town they were going to, to advertise that the children were coming so the families knew. When the trains would arrive the children would stand outside in a line and the families would come look at them and inspect them from head to toe. The children would often sing songs or say poem to make them look better and more educated. The families would look at their teeth and feel their arms and legs treating them like animals, to make sure they are healthy. If a family wanted you then you would go with them. If nobody wanted you at that stop you would load back up on the train and head to the next stop. Some of the children adopted were

Some children left home. They might have wanted to not burden their families, or didn’t like their dull, poor type of living. Some left for an adventure, or they left because they didn’t like how they had to work to earn such small pay. Many of the children rode boxcars to travel. A boxcar is a section of a train.

This is developed by the constant historical information given about the life of an orphan (Vivian) that was placed on the train and what she encountered. “ People point and whisper, and I wonder if they know why we’re here. And then I spot a broadside affixed to a column. In black block letters on white papers, it reads: WANTED HOMES FOR ORPHAN CHILDREN A COMPANY OF HOMELESS CHILDREN FROM THE EAST WILL ARRIVE AT MILWAUKEE ROAD DEPOT, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18. DISTRIBUTION WILL TAKE PLACE AT 10 A.M.

“The Orphan Train,” by Christina Baker Kline, was an amazing read, and tells the stories of the two main characters, Molly and Vivian. The narration hops between these two often, moving from Molly’s story in the 2011 to 91 year old Vivian’s story back in 1926. The novel’s prologue begins in Vivian’s point of view, wherein Vivian establishes her loneliness by talking about all the people she has lost in her life. However she says that these people, her lover, her sister Maisie, and many others linger as ghosts in her life, serving to guide and help her, and also to keep her company. The novel’s prologue introduces readers to Vivian, who is discussing her life.