During this time, the children of New York City were living in terrible conditions. Most were orphans, but even the ones who had families were destitute. Unfortunately, many of these children were criminals. But whom do we place the blame on? For the children that had families, do we blame their parents? Or are they simply a product of their environment? These children grew up lying, swearing, and smoking because they were never able to learn what was right. They were forced to do whatever they could to survive – to be brave and face the world.
As I was reading this, I realized that it made sense for the character of Dick to represent these children, as they were a large part of New York’s society and deserved more attention that they had. As I learned in English class in eleventh grade, a rags to riches tale fails if there are parents. The heroic pattern needs the hero to come from a troubled background so that he can overcome adversity and grow stronger. Parents always get in the way of a child going on an adventure on their own.
“The major portion are boys rapidly preparing for the almshouse, prisons, and gallows; but hundreds are girls, who have before them the darker horror of prostitution as well as those appliances of civilization for the care or repression of the pauperism and lawlessness which it created.” (142). So what happened to all the girls? Why did Alger choose to simply cut them out of his novel? Surely if Dick were real, he would have made friends with girls on the streets as well. Was it because he knew his audience of young boys, and wrote simply to what they wanted?
As horrible as the orphan trains were, I can see the reasons behind their decisions. The government believed it was a way to get rid of the criminals on the streets to decrease the crime rate in the city. Parents sent their children as attempt to give them a better life and hope for better financial stability. While some children were afraid to leave their families, others were excited to escape the city and start new. However, the orphan trains were much worse than they first believed. If the public knew about this, would they still have been as desperate to send the children?
