Picture the scene: a grey street in Victorian London, rain pouring down, a small child in ragged clothes holding out an empty bowl to strangers, begging for food or coins… and yes, you’ve got your Orphan.
But an Orphan can be so much more than this sad cliché.
Let’s examine how.
What is the Orphan Archetype?
Mention the Orphan archetype and you’re likely imagining a parentless child character, and you’d be correct, of course.
But the Orphan archetype covers a wider range of characters than this, and not all parentless children will meet the Orphan archetype.
The Orphan archetype is a personality type, not just a mere description of a character’s age and family status.
The Orphan Archetype Personality
Let’s look at the various personality traits associated with this archetype.
As the Orphan is an archetype rather than a stock character, you’ve a fair amount of freedom in terms of which character traits you pick and choose for your Orphan, but your archetypal character should have at least some of these characteristics.
How extensively you develop your Orphan will depend on whether this character is your protagonist, antagonist, romantic interest, or side character.
- A history of childhood trauma: This is probably the most important aspect of your Orphan, who, to an extent, will always be defined by their situation and/ or backstory. Regardless of whether or not their parents were alive in childhood, they will have experienced neglect, or hardship, or abuse in their early years.
- A longing for family and belonging: Because of their lonely upbringing, the Orphan will usually be motivated by a desire to seek love and a place where they belong. They might act in an obvious way to seek this proactively and positively, or this might be a hidden desire underlying an outward yearning for status and power, which they follow through in negative ways. However, their cold childhood should greatly impact their internal goals and motivations.
- Resilience: These characters learn resilience the hard way – through continual suffering. They may be inspiringly resilient, or they may develop a hard outer shell of distance and avoidance of emotions, but either way, it’s hard not to admire the grit and determination many orphans possess. Alternatively, some orphans may develop a more negative victim mentality, and these trauma responses continually harm them until they learn better coping and growth strategies.
- Lost innocence: As a result of their difficult childhoods, many orphans develop a realistic or cynical mindset: life hasn’t given them much reason for optimism. However, this isn’t always the case, as certain famous Orphans maintain a positive outlook despite their hardships. Just think of little Orphan Annie singing her heart out for her hopes of tomorrow.
- Loyalty towards friends: Having experienced abandonment and mistreatment from a young age, many Orphans build intensely loyal relationships with friends who become their substitute family. Being betrayed by one of these friends is often the Orphan’s greatest nightmare.
The Orphan Archetype Examples in Literature
Harry Potter in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling
I’ll start with one of the most classic examples of the Orphan protagonist.
When we meet Harry, he’s experiencing the traditional orphan-fate of neglect and abuse by his aunt and uncle. He’s ready to be saved by a letter announcing his acceptance to Hogwarts.
His terrible treatment makes Harry a loyal friend, ready to die for his new ‘friend family,’ and he’s learned resilience which will stand him in good stead for the upcoming challenges.
Harry grew up with direct experience of evil, and this motivates him to fight for good.
Oryx in Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Atwood’s Maddaddam trilogy contains a wealth of characters who meet the Orphan archetype, for within this dystopian society few escape hardship and trauma in heir childhood, and few have experienced stable parenting and secure love.
Oryx underwent a particularly traumatic childhood, having experienced vile abuse from a very young age. Her childhood leads her to grow into a resilient yet hardened young adult, who seeks love yet also struggles to believe in it.
Her kindness to the genetically-engineered new race of Crakers causes them to view her as their goddess, and she forms a new kind of family with them.
Frieda and Isabel in Only Ever Yours by Louise O’Neill
Another example of a dystopian novel filled with Orphans: in this case, every single female character.
This story takes place in a world where girls are no longer born, so instead they are bred and made scientifically by men, for men. Every girl grows up in a school where they are groomed to be the ideal male companion, with no other purpose in their life.
Every girl therefore grows up without parents, without love, and with severe emotional neglect. Every girl is desperate for love, yet unable to achieve this because they are valued only for their purpose, rather than for who they actually are.
Some of these Orphans become hardened and cynical as a result, whilst others force themselves into thinking whatever they are told they should think.
Although every girl is in competition with the others, a small few still seek friendship and loyalty despite this, as they question their place in the world that created them.
The Orphan Archetype Examples in Movies
Simba in The Lion King
After witnessing the traumatic death of his father and running away in fear for his own life, Simba meets the archetypal Orphan upbringing.
Turning instead to his new family of fun-loving friends, Simba learns loyalty and resilience which give him the strength to defeat his uncle Scar and take back his kingdom.
Batman/ Bruce Wayne in any of the Batman movies
Batman is another actual Orphan, having come into his wealth in childhood following the murder of his parents, which he witnessed.
He meets the Orphan archetype as a result of his hardship leading to resilience, detachment, and a fierce sense of justice, as well as loyalty towards his friends.
Although he fights for good, to save the weak, Batman’s under no illusions about the world: he acts from a belief that the world is a dark and difficult place, and though he’ll do what he can to save people, he lost his own innocence a long time ago.
Elsa in Frozen
Elsa doesn’t just become an Orphan when her parents die; she becomes an Orphan when her parents reject her magical powers and teach her to hide away a part of herself from the world.
Although she’s the future queen, Elsa’s powers means she experiences life as an outcast, unable to belong in her world, believing that she must hide and minimize herself in order to fit in. This is traumatic for her, despite all her wealth and power, and as a result she becomes colder, harder and more detached from the world.
However, she remains loyal to her sister Anna and clear sighted in her loss of innocence: Elsa can see the true nature of Anna’s grasping, power-hungry suitor before the bright-eyed Anna herself can.
It’s only when Anna truly accepts every part of Elsa and loves her for who she is, that Elsa can begin to accept herself and grow into her full potential as Queen.
Tips for Writing the Orphan Archetype
From the examples above, we can see a few clear patterns within the Orphan archetype.
Firstly, this archetype is particularly prominent in certain genres. These include:
- Dystopian: The Orphan’s an archetype of hardship and trauma, showcasing the damage the world can do to individuals in their childhood. That makes dystopian stories, which examine the ways in which dysfunctional societies harm people, a natural homeland for the Orphan.
- Young Adult/ Middle Grade: The Orphan archetype is all about youth, and the impact childhood hardship has upon characters as they grow up. Young adult and coming-of-age stories tend to cover similar topics: how young characters can overcome the obstacles of their childhood and grow (or fail to grow) into their full potential.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t include an Orphan in another genre, such as Romance, Mystery, Thriller, etc. Orphans are adaptable characters who can be found in any genre.
But it does mean that every time you write an Orphan into your story, you reader may begin thinking about certain themes such as trauma, neglect, youth, resilience, innocence and personal growth.
Writing an Orphan archetype into your story therefore has powerful potential to open up these themes and bring them to your reader’s attention.
Let’s look at how you can write your Orphan to avoid cliché and create an interesting character filled with depth and nuance.
Create a Detailed Character Backstory
No-one wants to be defined purely by their trauma, even if it did have a major impact on their character development.
Regardless of whether your Orphan is your protagonist, your villain, romantic lead or a side-character, ensure your Orphan’s backstory contains shades of light, dark, and color amongst their hardship.
If your Orphan developed resilience and loyalty, show your reader how they developed these strengths. To see the good in the world, your Orphan must have perceived nuance and developed some faith in humanity throughout the hard times. Showing your reader how this occurred is one of the ways you can write a truly inspiring and/or complex Orphan.
Make Your Orphan Relatable
A background of adversity provides ample opportunity to make your Orphan relatable, but be wary of taking this too far and allowing your Orphan to become nothing more than an object of pity.
For example, take Latika, in the movie Slumdog Millionaire.
Latika’s life consists of extreme hardship, having been plucked off the streets of Mumbai by a gangster at a young age, and used to make profit for him in whatever way he chooses. Latika’s adversity is so extreme it could be hard to relate to her as a viewer in the developed world, and it would be easy to view her as an object of pity – allowing the viewer to objectify her in the same way her boss does.
What makes Latika a relatable character is that, as a child, she lives for pranks and humour, bravely taking risks in order to bring some lightness into her life. Through her pranks, she takes back control of her identity and stands up for herself in the only way she can.
Knowing that it’s this aspect of her personality that our hero falls for, rather than just her beautiful face, is what makes us desperate to see the romantic leads end up together.
Don’t Allow Childhood Trauma to Be a Behaviour Excuse
When an Orphan grows up to become a bad guy, it’s easy to want your reader to sympathise with them, and to excuse their nefarious behaviour through early adversity.
Be careful about confusing a cause with an excuse.
Although trauma might explain why your Orphan became villainous, choosing to take out their pain on everyone else, don’t fall into the trap of excusing this choice. Otherwise, your reader might follow your example, and side with your villain over your hero.
You should ask more of your Orphan, even if they fail to grow and become better. This way, even if your Orphan’s story is tragic, your reader learns that it is still possible to overcome childhood adversity, regardless of the choice this Orphan made.
Conclusion
Although Orphans, by nature of being an archetype, share some similar characteristics, they’ve the potential to make exceptionally complex and nuanced characters.
By engaging in depth with their individual backstory, personality, growth arcs,and the story themes which naturally arise from their presence, you’ve the potential to create rich and exciting stories.