Orphan

Orphans, by Thomas Kennington

An orphan (from the Greek ὀρφανός) is a child whose natural parents are absent or dead and who are not there to bring him up. One legal definition used in the USA is someone bereft through "death or disappearance of, abandonment or desertion by, or separation or loss from, both parents".^[1] Common usage limits the term to children, (or the young of animals) who have lost both parents. On this basis half-orphans are those with one surviving parent.

In certain animal species where the father typically abandons the mother and young at or prior to birth, the young will be called orphans when the mother dies regardless of the condition of the father.

[edit] Populations

• 2001 figures from 2002 UNICEF/UNAIDS report^[2]

[edit] Orphans in literature

Mime offers food to the young Siegfried, an orphan he is raising; Illustration by Arthur Rackham to Richard Wagner's Siegfried

Orphaned characters are extremely common as literary protagonists, especially in children's and fantasy literature.^[3] The lack of parents leaves the characters to pursue more interesting and adventurous lives, by freeing them from familial obligations and controls, and depriving them of more prosaic lives. It creates characters that are self-contained and introspective and who strive for affection. Orphans can metaphorically search for self-understanding through attempting to know their roots. Parents can also be allies and sources of aid for children, and removing the parents makes the character's difficulties more severe. Parents, furthermore, can be irrelevant to the theme a writer is trying to develop, and orphaning the character frees the writer from the necessity to depict such an irrelevant relationship^{[citation needed]}; if one parent-child relationship is important, removing the other parent prevents complicating the necessary relationship. All these characteristics make orphans attractive characters for authors.

Orphans are common in fairy tales, such as some variants of Cinderella.

Many superheroes, including Superman, Batman, Robin, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Iron Man, Storm and Daredevil, are orphans.

A number of well known authors have written books featuring orphans including Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, A. J. Cronin, Roald Dahl and J.K. Rowling, as well as some less well known authors of famous orphans like Little Orphan Annie and the Baudelaire siblings of the Series of Unfortunate Events. One recurring storyline has been the relationship that the orphan can have with an adult from outside his or her immediate family. Some of the most emotive works have been those featuring the relationship between a man and a boy, particularly boys that are coming of age.

[edit] Orphans in Holy Scriptures

Many books of the Bible as well as the Quran contain the idea that helping and defending orphans is very important and God-pleasing matter.^[4] Several citations:

• "Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan." (Hebrew Bible, Exodus 22:22)
• "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." (New Testament, James 1:27)
• "Leave your orphans; I will protect their lives. Your widows too can trust in me." (Hebrew Bible, Jeremiah 49:11)

• And they feed, for the love of Allah, the indigent, the orphan, and the captive,- (The Holy Quran, Man: 8)
• Therefore, treat not the orphan with harshness, (The Holy Quran, The Morning Hours: 9)

[edit] See also

• Adoption
• Orphanage
• Orphan Train
• Street children

[edit] References