Orphaned Characters and Dysfunctional Parents in Children’s Books

Happy first day of summer, everyone! Since Father’s Day, one subject has been prominently on my mind: parents. More specifically, parents in children’s books. After all, these genres seem to treat the child/parent relationship rather…well, not always badly, but there’s almost always a hint of sadness, loss, or anger underneath it all.

Why do so many protagonists have horrible–or no–parents? Where are they? Where did they go? Why are some of them so nasty when they are around?

This phenomenon has existed since before children’s literature was children’s literature. Fairy tales and folk tales, for example, were not always meant for children. In fact, anyone who knows the original fairy tales and not just the Disney-ized versions will know they were pretty darn dark. Yet these stories are also where we get the trope of the orphaned or poorly-parented child. Look at some examples:

• Hansel and Gretel – in the original tale, their mother had died and they were, in fact, living with their father and stepmother. The stepmother forced their father to get rid of them, and it was not until the stepmother was gone that the children and their father lived happily ever after.
• Snow White – everyone knows that the stepmother is the main villain in this tale.
• Cinderella – there’s a wicked stepmother and, depending on which tale you read, her father is either dead or oddly very uninvolved.

The list goes on. Fairy tales are not the best places to be a parent. More modern children’s books are not much better:

• Anne of Green Gables – Anne is an orphan.
• The Wizard of Oz – Dorothy is an orphan who lives with her aunt and uncle.
• Harry Potter – much like Dorothy, Harry is an orphan who lives with his aunt and uncle.
• Percy Jackson – while not an orphan, Percy is the son of a god and a human; his human mother is there and his human stepfather is in the first book, but Percy’s birth father is largely absent and his stepfather is horrible, both as a parent and a human being
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe – Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are all sent off into the country because of the war, away from their mother.
• Matilda – Matilda’s parents are abusive jerks that don’t care about Matilda at all.

Clearly, the trope is prominent. But why?

One reason can be to increase the tension and emotional effects of the stories. Nothing tugs at the heartstrings quite like an orphan struggling to deal with the absence of his/her parents. An orphan or a child with bad parents can also feel isolated and lash out, which also increases the tension of a children’s book.

Another reason could be the lack of restrictions and guidance for the protagonists. They have to figure things out for themselves, at least for the most part. They must learn for themselves what’s right, what’s wrong, and what their limitations are. Some of the children have alternative adult figures to help guide them, like Harry Potter has Dumbledore and Arthur Weasley and Percy Jackson has Chiron, but room is still left for children to grow on their own.

A final reason which seems to apply more to modern children’s literature than, say, classic fairy tales is that the trope forces readers to rethink the image of the “traditional” family. When you don’t have parents or your parents are incompetent, you tend to form close bonds with “substitute parents”: grandparents, aunts and uncles, adult siblings or cousins, teachers, neighbors, adoptive parents, etc. Some children create surrogate families with other children. These bonds are no weaker than the bonds within a traditional family. Harry Potter’s bond with the Weasley family, Percy Jackson’s bond with Annabeth and Grover, Matilda’s bond with Miss Honey, none of them are “traditional” but they fulfill the children’s desire for a complete family.

The single-parent family is also put in a better light with this trope. For Percy Jackson, his life is better when only his mother is raising him without the toxic influence of his first stepfather. Hansel and Gretel live happily with their father after their stepmother is gone. Stepparents often get the short end of the stick in these stories. However, it’s worth noting that Percy’s mother adds a positive influence to his life with her new, loving boyfriend, so that’s not always the case.

As writers, we usually try to avoid using tropes. They’re seen as cliche and played-out. Regardless, there’s always a reason for their overuse. We might still need these tropes to perpetuate certain themes or we might not. The trick is, when we decide that we do need them, to present them in a way which does not seem cheesy or worn-out to the reader.

What do you think about this orphan trope? About tropes in general? What are their purposes, and do we need them anymore? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!