Orphan Train Essay

In Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline weaves a strong friendship between two characters, Vivian and Molly, despite a lengthy list of differences. The most blatant contrast, and the root cause of many other differences, is age and the separate eras both Vivian and Molly grow up in. In the span of her life, Vivian Nielsen, a ninety-one year old widow, experiences the Great Depression, World War II, and a technology boom impossible to keep up with. On the other hand, Molly Ayer is a sixteen year old tech-savvy foster child who uses “her Goth persona like armor” against an unsympathetic society (Kline 4). Another dissimilarity is ethnicity. Vivian is a first generation Irish immigrant and in being a Penobscot Native American Indian, Molly is unable to be more different than Vivian. While these differences seem apparent, the

In the middle of the trip to Aunt Ida's, Rayona wonders what will happen to her. Standing on a hill overlooking Ida's house, Christine runs and leaves Rayona. In a short lapse of time, Rayona has lost her mother and gained an unwilling caretaker. The treatment from both women causes Rayona to question her own value as a person; she finds herself of little worth. As life on the reservation slowly progresses, Father Tom befriends Rayona. While the priest's intentions are innocent, he ends up causing Rayona to feel more poorly about herself. So Rayona runs, she tries to escape from her difficulties at the reservation. At the lake, she decides to begin a new life. Several things happen to Rayona at the camp. The ways her co-workers behave toward her depress her further, and then the letter she finds causes her to want what is perceived as a normal life. Though also at the lake, begins a turning point for Ray

Her dream is to find that man and when it finally happens tragedy strikes. When Janie was young her grandmother made her marry a wealthy man that was a little older than Janie. Janie had no feelings for the man, “Please don’t make me marry Mr. Killicks (Hurston 15).” But Janie’s grandmother made her. That was not the true love that Janie wanted and ended up leaving Mr. Killicks. Then she married Jody, an entrepreneur that convinced Janie to travel with him. Jody created hit own little town that he become the governor of. At the beginning, they were both happy but as the town grew so did the responsibility. They began to nag as they got older and before long he died. Finally she met a man called Tea Cake, who took her heart. Her dream was fulfilled. But all was not happy and dandy, Tea Cake was bit by a rapid dog and started to go crazy. Janie was then forced to shoot him and away went her husband and her

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.

Starting in the 1850s, there were great increases in urbanization. Movements such as The Great Migration lead to huge populations in newly industrialized cities. In addition, there was a great increase in immigration, especially from families of eastern and southern European descent. The Orphan Train Movement’s purpose was to give the thousands of children in New York City that were left without homes due to increased urbanization and industrialization a new family out west with good living conditions and values and to increase the number of farm workers. The children mostly were placed with good families, but some children were treated as slaved by their families. Additionally, most of the children were excited to work; however, some were

The bad beginning or Orphans is a book about protecting properties and the genre of this novel is mystery, adventure, and family. The main character of this novel are three children whose name are Baudelaire Violet, Baudelaire Klaus, and Baudelaire Sunny. Violet is an older sister, she likes to skip rocks. Klaus is a middle child, he is extremely smart and he always goes to the library for reading books. Sunny is the youngest child, who likes to bite things. At the beginning, their parents die because of an unexpected fire. Therefore, they went to a man called Count Olaf’s house. Count Olaf is a stage actor, and a distant relatives of the children. Count Olaf is a horrible person, he always planned for their parent’s heritage. Few month later, Count Olaf planned to marry Violet to get their money. Before the wedding, Count Olaf catched Sunny so Violet should marry him.

Christina Baker Kline’s novel Orphan Train follows the the paths of two very similar women who are separated only by age. One of the main characters, Molly Ayer, is a seventeen-year-old high school student who has been assigned to yet another unwanted foster home. After attempting to steal a book from the local library, Molly has to help an elderly woman clean out her attic to avoid having to go to juvenile detention. The elderly woman, Vivian Daly, is the other protagonist in the story and has a past that is very similar to Molly’s. Vivian, known as Niamh Power when she was young, immigrated to America with her family from

She meets another man named Jody visiting the town where she stayed at. After two weeks with the Jody, she falls in love with him because of the promises that he told Janie and said things needed to hear. After hearing it she quickly leaves Logan thing that running away with Jody then will she accomplish her dream. She is sadly mistaken by Jody’s words and looks. She realizes that Jody is very controlling and with this trait, it would be hard for Janie to complete an aspiration of being free to say and do what she wanted. He was almost as bad as Logan was and she suffered this for twenty years until Jody was on his deathbed where she finally speaks her mind after feeling like her words have been trapped inside her all along. After Jody dies she meets her a man named Tea Cake who had what Janie needed to accomplish her dreams. Marrying Tea CAke she finds that he really is the one but he sadly passes away. Janie still accomplished her dream even though the man that made it happen.

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

Janie begins to explain her story to her best friend, Phoeby Watson. She tells of how she never met her parents; therefore, he grandmother (Nanny) raised her. It is revealed that Nanny was a slave and because of this, it is her intention to marry of Janie as soon as possible. Janie’s first marriage, set up by Nanny, is to an older gentleman named Logan Killicks. Throughout their marriage, Janie was never able to achieve happiness and later found herself running off with a charming young

It all begins when Blanche Morton, moves in with her sister, Kate Jerome’s family, as a result of her husband passing away. Instead of being an independent woman, and taking care of her family, she depends on her brother-in-law Jack for; financial support, guidance, and the nurturing of her children, as if they were his obligation. Unfortunately this situation causes a great deal of tension between

Nanny is adamant about instilling a belief that Janie’s voice matters, but misguides her and forces her into a controlling marriage. She underestimates Janie’s ability to create her own path in life, and thus acts counterproductively for her granddaughter by aiding in silencing the voice that she gave Janie as a child. Nanny’s determination that her granddaughter will be married is characteristic of an ex-slave because, to her, it is the only way that Janie can survive. Nanny and Logan Killicks’ cycle happen simultaneously; Nanny dies and she leaves her husband in search of “things sweet with [her] marriage, like when you sit under a pear tree and think” (24). She attempts to shed toxicity and acquiescence, but Janie undergoes another unhealthy marriage cycle with Joe Starks, who “[takes] the bloom out of things” before she meets the man who brings her full circle – Tea Cake Woods

Vivian is Grant’s beautiful, passionate, and smart girlfriend. She teaches at a black Catholic school in Bayonne. During the book she is married, but separated from her husband, so her relationship with Grant is kept a secret. She has two small children with her husband. Vivian loves Grant but often distrusts him because of his lack of loyalty to his people and hometown.

In Strangers on a Train, Hitchcock uses a unique combination of continuity and narration in order to create a fluid story while also drawing the spectator in with suspenseful situations. The spectator becomes immersed in the story because of how well Hitchcock uses these techniques. The spectator is given all the information throughout the story, which helps Hitchcock create suspense because the spectator worries for the characters because they know the entire situation while the characters are still figuring everything out. With these techniques, Hitchcock tells a unique story while totally engaging the audience in the story.

Throughout our lives we move from one story to the next. Whether we are listeners, readers or writers “we live our lives immersed in stories.’ From the many stories we encounter, both fiction and non-fiction, the orphan figure stands out as one of the most prominent figures in literature. Orphan figures have prevailed in the literary arena for centuries, from ancient poetry, folktales, and myths to modern day novels. This constant reoccurrence of the orphan figure in literature emphasizes the need to understand the significance attached to it. However, according to the editors of Bastardy and its Comparative History literatures great interest on the orphan figure is poorly reflected in literary criticism. It is further