Orphan Train

Redemption, a word with many meanings but few examples. People who usually think of redemption will normally think about Jesus, but few ever think of Molly Ayer and Niamh Power. Molly Ayer is a young troubled orphan teenager with a gothic persona, who desperately tried to find a family who she can call her own. Vivian is a 91-year-old women, who is more commonly known as Vivian. has agreed to help Molly complete her 50 hours of community service while Molly is on probation after she was caught steal a book. Throughout the novel Molly and Vivian will enlightened each other with their own past and their various similarities that will help them develop a closer bond with each other. In the book, “The Orphan Train” Molly Ayer and Vivian

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

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

What’s the best way to face a difficult situation? Day in and day out, life circumstances force people to live their lives differently than planned. Some struggle with this concept, never seeing the silver lining in the unexpected turn of events. Others however, live their lives as normally as they can, regardless of whatever they’re faced with. During the second world war, America was faced with the question of how to keep their country safe from enemies that might live within its borders. Although every American citizen is legally innocent until proven guilty, all’s fair in love and war. America saw no choice but to lock away immigrants and their American born children. This is detailed in The Train to Crystal City by Jan Jarboe Russell as

The Train to Crystal City, written by Jan Jarboe Russell, is a book about internment camps that were constructed in the United States during WWII to house people the U.S. government classified as “enemy aliens”. For years, these camps were home to people of various nationalities, most notably those of Japanese, German, and Italian descent. A majority of the book follows the experiences and lives of several families that were interned at these internment camps during the war.

The setting of the story being at a train station also represents how the relationship

“When a child of the streets stands before you in rags, with a tear-stained face, you cannot easily forget him. And yet, you are perplexed what to do. The human soul is difficult to interfere with. You hesitate how far you should go.” – Charles Loring Brace

The story takes place during World War II. The two main characters are two little girls Penny and Primrose. They are sent with a large number of other children to evacuate and to be sent away by train from their homes in the city. Due to the bombings by the German warplanes on the british cities. So these young children were forced to evacuate a world of war to more secure and safer locations in the countryside. All of the detail and information given in the story leads up to some really big symbolic imagery.

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

In the novel Meet Me Halfway: Milwaukee Stories by Jennifer Morales, she begins chapter six with Gloria Tibbetts, an African American mother who recently held a funeral for her deceased eighteen-year old son Johnquell, mistakenly receives some beautiful flowers in the mail that was sent to her on accident. Gloria decides to return the mail to the correct address which led to the revelation of a deep secret between her and the original receiver of the mail, Donna Tiller, an elderly caucasian stranger. Morales addresses the importance of creating a bond with a stranger by Gloria and Donna connecting with each other through their shared experiences. These experiences includes the lost of children and the sorrowful emotions that both characters

She was born about five miles east of North Star in a small cabin. She was the sixth born of all nine children and her parents were Quakers of English decent. Annie's father, who fought in the War of 1812 was caught in a deathly blizzard which resulted in his death from pneumonia at 66 years old. After her father passed away, Annie’s life, as well as her families life changed dramatically. The absence of her father being there caused the family to go into a harsh poverty state and risked to lose everything. When Annie turned 10, she was sent to work on a farm by the name of Darke Country Infirmary, where she was treated very poorly and cruel. After a short time of working for this new family that she called “the wolves” Annie ran away and was reunited with her mother and remaining family. Soon after returning home, she went to work at a local grocery store shooting game to help the income of her family. Although she had experience with hunting since she was around eight years old, her skill never became recognized until she got older. Her marksmanship was able to pay off the remaining mortgage on her mother’s house and others began appreciating her. Soon everyone would know her name and recognize her outstanding

In the book Ethan Frome and the short story “A Journey”, Edith Wharton uses the theme of trapped versus freedom. This theme is used to explore the concept of being trapped in a broken relationship and struggling to find freedom. In both “A Journey” and Ethan Frome, Wharton uses the symbol of a train, the theme of societal pressure, and the theme of death to illustrate the idea of trapped versus freedom.

“The themes of the play are Two Trains Running is a political play that makes extended reference to the black power movement and its impact on poor urban communities like the Hill District of Pittsburgh. The issue of continued white oppression of African Americans and the response of the black community during the 1960s is at the foreground of the characters ' experience. The community surrounding the restaurant is undergoing a major redevelopment, probably one which has been precipitated by the social initiatives that came in the wake of the civil rights movement. However, the legal rights and privileges that the African American community won during the 1950s and 1960s do not seem necessarily to extend to impoverished city-dwellers. An underlying sense of tragedy and hopelessness pervades even short-term victories such as the city awarding Memphis thirty-five thousand dollars, since Memphis remains estranged from his wife and has the foreboding..”

The young nameless boy in this story is in love with his friend’s sister who lives across the street. Although he has hardly spoken to the girl, he becomes so infatuated with her that he begins to watch her every move and fears that he will not build up the courage to express how he truly feels about her. He starts every day sitting in the front room of his house peeking through the blinds, so he can see her leave and quietly follow in behind her until their paths diverge and he can pass her. The young boy narrating this story can show the reader the thoughts and emotions that go through a young person’s mind when they develop their first crush. Making it a relatable story as many people find their first love at a young age and go through the ups and downs associated with young love. One day the young boy gets everything he has hoped for and is approached and spoken to by the girl. She asks him if he is planning to go to the bazaar and claims she cannot because she made to commitment for a school retreat. Being the hopeless romantic the young boy he is intoxicated with this new feeling joy and offers to bring her something back from the bazaar. The boy then spends days waiting for this bazaar, “At night in my bedroom and by day in the classroom her image came between me and the page I strove to read”. She was the center of his world at this point in the story as he explains his struggles focusing in school and everyday life until the bazaar. The first-person viewpoint works perfectly for this short story because without that viewpoint we would have no understanding of the young boy’s impressions or feelings towards the girl. Therefore, influencing the plot because our perceptions are based on the

In this strangely lonely book, where neither love or romance changes the narrative, friendship of a real and lasting