ANALYZING AN ORPHANED CHILDRENS 1300w

Orphaned (whether literally or figuratively) protagonists appear frequently in children’s literature, from folk tales to contemporary fiction. A valuable literary device, an orphan provokes sympathy and can generate a perceived alliance between protagonist and reader. An orphaned child protagonist can also be convenient for the author since without parents, the budding child hero has more freedom to experience the, sometimes life-threatening, adventures that encourage his maturation. This can be seen in Tom’s Midnight Garden, the 1958 winner of the Carnegie Medal, and one of the Carnegie Medal 70th Anniversary top ten (The CILIP Carnegie & Kate Greenaway Children’s Book Awards, 2017). Tom is able to visit the garden partly because of the absence of his parents – whilst he is being cared for by his aunt and uncle, it is clear from the novel that neither adult is accustomed to caring for a child, and Tom takes advantage of this to pursue his nightly visits to the garden. Whilst Tom can be considered a temporary orphan in a figurative sense, Hatty is literally an orphan, having lost both of her parents at a young age.

Their status as orphans is not the only thing that Hatty and Bod share; as Hatty grows up, she ceases to see Tom, in the same way that Bod ceases to see the residents of the graveyard. Alison Waller (2019) argues that in young adult fiction the ending is always presumed to be a realisation of adulthood and maturity. (Waller, 2019, p. 54) This idea of maturation is reminiscent of Barrie’s Peter Pan (2011) and Wendy’s realisation that she and her brothers cannot stay in Never Land, but must return home to grow-up. Humphrey Carpenter (1985) compares Tom and Peter’s attitudes to their ageing, arguing that ‘the story’s conclusion describes Tom’s acceptance of what Peter Pan can never accept: that Time must be allowed to pass, and growth and even old age must be accepted as necessary and even desirable