Orphan Train Quotes

The book focuses mainly on a woman named Celie, who has lived a hard life already when, at the age of 14 she begins

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

Ellen finds a woman at church that takes in orphan girls, but will there be any room for her? Will it just end up being another misunderstanding, like with her aunt, who was under the assumption that she would just be visiting for a few days. It is Ellen’s determination which eventually lands her a place in a loving home, with loving companionship.

Do you know how orphans were treated in the past? Probably not, and that’s why the book Orphan Train should be selected by the city of Ottawa Hills as a novel for the residents of all ages and backgrounds to read. Orphan Train is about two women who live similar lives. The one situation that made their lives different, was the time when they were considered orphans. Although not everyone likes the same books, Orphan Train should be selected by the city of Ottawa Hills because it is important to know how children were treated back then vs now.

The orphan trains finally stopped in 1930 for several reasons, including a decreased need for farm labor in the Midwest and increased efforts by social service agencies to keep struggling families together. The rise of the welfare system made a major difference, helping with financial support for children, who, in an earlier age, might have taken to the streets(Warren, 1998)

Joyce Carol Oates' "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" is about a young girl who is

At the age of ten, most children are reliant on their parents for everything in their lives needing a great deal of concentration and concern. However, Ellen, the main character and combatant of the novel Ellen Foster, demonstrates a significant amount of self-reliance and mature, impartial thought as a ten-year-old girl. Ellen is a bantling even though she was not deserted, she was impoverished of a normal childhood. Her life as a child was immensely hard, physically and emotionally. She never had a mother or father take care of her through her entire youth. The recent mortality of her mother sends her on a journey for the optimal family, or anywhere her father, who had shown insensitivity to both she and her frail mother, was not. Kaye Gibbons’

When one is raised in a single family, life appears simple. The person has developed an attachment to their parents. He or she is also familiar with one particular society, and the norms of that society are established in their mindset. However, when a second family from an entirely different culture enters the picture, the simple life becomes more complicated. The cultures of the two families are so different that they clash with one another, leaving the one person between it all. It is a dilemma that a six-year-old girl named Turtle Greer must experience in the novel, Pigs In Heaven, by Barbara Kingsolver. Turtle is a young girl who was adopted by a loving mother named Taylor Greer. The two had lived

This book was a very good read. It was very eye opening. More than what I expected. It was a very well written book about the hidden lives of young

Rayona and her mother Christine grew up in different worlds but they are very similar in many ways. Christine faced various problems as a young child that are now being passed down to Rayona and she is now seeing how they are being affected by them. The novel “A Yellow Raft in Blue Water” walks us through Rayona’s coming of age story and the three perspectives that it is being told in, Rayona’s, Christine’s, and Ida’s. Although Rayona and Christine are very different, they both seem to be facing similar problems; they end up helping one another find their self identity and both are finally able to appreciate and understand one another.

I read Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. This book is about a young orphan child, with a never-ending imagination, named Anne. Anne has been taken in and out of orphanages all her life. Until, one day Matthew Cuthbert and his sister, Miss Marilla Cuthbert, are interested in having a young boy to live with them. They called the orphanage and told them to send the child on the train. He goes to the train station to pick the child up, but to his surprise he found Anne. Anne tells Matthew how she imagines living there would be like. She was so set on staying that Matthew just couldn't leave her at the train station. He takes her to his house, and while on the journey, Anne is enjoying every moment of the beautiful flowered valleys.

Irvine Welsh’s novel Trainspotting centres on Mark Renton and his group of friends, who are drug addicts living in 1980s Scotland, and follows their misadventures as their lives begin to deteriorate. While the detrimental effects of heroin and other drugs are clearly displayed, the negative effects of their unhealthy friendships are less obvious but equally toxic. Friendship in Trainspotting is a destructive force because it is corrupted by selfishness; it becomes an addiction which mirrors that of drug abuse. For the characters of Trainspotting, the positive aspects of their friendships have been lost and replaced by drug use.

These constant beatings in Maggie Johnson’s home, furniture thrown from parent to parent, and every aspect of her family life as being negative, her family situation is not an extremly healthy one. But, despite her hardships, Maggie grows up to become a beautiful young lady whose romantic hopes for a more desirable life remain untarnished.

Annie John is a young girl that loves her mother dearly, but she is hurt and shocked when her mother tells that she will need to live on her own one day. She uses people and other distractions to fill in the need for her mother and to let go of childhood.

Klines states, “...more trouble than she’s worth...”  (8). Molly herself recognized that Dina and Ralph has given her with her first stable foster home. Molly utilizes food as a part of her individuality by deciding to be a vegetarian. Molly eats dinner with Dina and Ralph. Dina knows she is a vegetarian, yet she intentionally make meals that includes meat. Molly eats dinner with a smile, picking around the meat, instead of making a incident. Dina oftentimes makes racist comments, she belittles Molly’s Native American status. The families Molly was situated with were not always decent to her, in fact, some were abusive where she was hit by a spatua. Molly cooked vegetarian meals for Ralph and Dina. Dina complains about how much the food for the dinners cost and how the food is not filling. After trying to get along with her, Molly lashes out at Dina by asking what she is whining about. Dina becomes furious at this and decides to go into Molly's bedroom to see if she has any stolen items. She discovers the book Vivian has given Molly, but it has Dorothy Power written in it. Dina does not believe Molly. She commands Molly to leave the house. Molly leaves to Vivian's house. In the end, Molly has been in a dozen foster home, but she doesn't let it define