In storytelling, we often learn a version of this classic narrative structure: a character who wants something faces a challenge (inciting incident), which sets them on a journey. Along the way, they encounter obstacles that block them from getting what they want. This leads to a climactic moment—at which point it seems they might never achieve their desired outcome. Then, a resolution. The happy ending.
The familiar story form taps into our empathetic neural systems. Some researchers believe it is an aspect of shared storytelling that gave us an evolutionary advantage. We want to understand how others face challenges or threats so we can prepare ourselves if we ever encounter the same.
Perhaps no other narrative trope feeds off this structure more than the “orphan story.” At its center, we find an abandoned or bereaved child who finds their way in this harsh world and makes meaning out of their journey. If the child is adopted, that adoption often becomes the catalyst for a feel-good ending.
“Once you start looking, it’s everywhere,” said Kristen Martin, author of “The Sun Won’t Come Out Tomorrow: The Dark History of American Orphanhood,” in our interview for today’s Q&A. “I’ve come to see it as a form of propaganda, one that’s emotionally satisfying, narratively useful, and totally normalized.”
Kristen, whose parents died when she was a child, begins her illuminating new book with her personal experience. From there, she blends reported essay-style moments with deep cultural and archival reporting. Kristen delves into the history of orphan trains (which took poor children and often placed them with families who needed farm labor). And she visits the former home of a boarding school notorious for tearing Native American children from their families and forcing them into assimilation. She also brings her cultural criticism lens to the page, dissecting some of the most popular orphan stories we’ve grown up with.
A prolific freelancer and book reviewer herself, Kristen also recently published a piece in The Washington Post: “Uncovering the truth about international adoption,” reviewing two new narrative nonfiction books together: “Daughters of the Bamboo Grove,” by Barbara Demick, and “A Flower Traveled in My Blood,” by Haley Cohen Gilliland, which reveal appalling adoption practices in China and Argentina (*note: both of these journalists will also be featured soon here at The Reported Essay, so stay tuned).
