Reimagining Orphans in Postbellum Fiction Afrin Zeenat University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

University of Arkansas, Fayetteville ScholarWorks@UARK Theses and Dissertations 7-2015 The pS ectacle of Orphanhood: Reimagining Orphans in Postbellum Fiction Afrin Zeenat University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd Part of the African American Studies Commons, American Literature Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Zeenat, Afrin, "The peS ctacle of Orphanhood: Reimagining Orphans in Postbellum Fiction" (2015). Theses and Dissertations. 1275. http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/1275 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. The Spectacle of Orphanhood: Reimagining Orphans in Postbellum Fiction A Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English by Afrin Zeenat Aligarh Muslim University Bachelor of Arts in English, 1995 University of Arkansas Master of Arts in English 2008 July 2015 University of Arkansas This thesis is approved for recommendation to the Graduate Council: ___________________________________ Dr. M. Keith Booker Thesis Director ___________________________________ Dr. Susan Marren Committee member _________________________________ Dr. Charles Adams Committee Member Abstract Orphan iconography has always been deployed in American literature and culture, but nineteenth-century American literature, fiction in particular, abounds in orphans, both real and imaginary. The orphan’s amphibious nature is hailed and demonized as the epitome of individualism and unbridled freedom, and also as the location of society’s anxiety. This complicated and conflicted construction of orphans animates the social and cultural realm in postbellum America, foregrounding issues of class, race, and gender. Acknowledgements I owe special thanks to Dr. Keith M. Booker for his valuable comments, advice and time. Without his insight this dissertation would not have materialized. Thanks also to Dr. Susan Marren and Dr. Charles H. Adams for their feedback and valuable insights. I further express gratitude to Dr. Patrick Slattery, Dr. Elias Dominguez Barajas, and Dr. Leigh Pryor for the support rendered during my research. Special thanks are due to the David Mullins library at the University of Arkansas for the exhaustive collection of books and the Interlibrary Loan Office for arranging all the books and articles that helped me conduct this research. Special thanks are due to the staff of the University of Arkansas Graduate School for their help with this dissertation. Daddy, Mummy, Abbu and Ammi-your constant support and faith always inspired me. Most importantly, I owe my heartfelt thanks to my dear husband whose sacrifice, patience and support made this dissertation possible. My daughters, Filza and Zaria, who may have had to sacrifice the most. Dedication Iqbal & Daddy Table of Contents I. Introduction 1 II. “I Knowed He Was White Inside”: Dialogism, 28 Double-consciousness, and Racial Orphans III. Creating Class-Consciousness: The “Dangerous” Foundlings 71 of Postbellum America IV. “Maybe I Am, Maybe I Ain't”: Orphans in Postbellum America 96 and the Androgynous Ideal V. Conclusion 122 VI. Reference 126 1 Introduction My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still; My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will; The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done; From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won; Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells! But I, with mournful tread, Walk the deck my captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. (Walt Whitman, “O Captain! My Captain !” Leaves of Grass ) Writing in 1865, Walt Whitman borrows orphan imagery to illustrate his sorrow at the death of Abraham Lincoln, the metaphorical father, and to emphasize the orphaned state of America following the Civil War. Although Whitman’s elegy uses the words “father” and “Captain” interchangeably to establish both a sense of intimacy and distance, the somber poem creates a sense of loss and dispossession—sentiments commonly experienced by orphan children. Orphan iconography has been indispensable to American literature and culture from the very beginning, but nineteenth-century American literature, fiction in particular, abounds in orphans, both metaphorical and real.1 Portrayals of orphans in postbellum American literature are even more noteworthy. This study examines the portrayal of orphans in American fiction and non-fiction from the postbellum to the fin de siècle (1865 to 1898) and presents them as both 1 In The American Adam, R.W.B. Lewis suggests that after the Great Revolution of 1812 “The new habits to be engendered on the new American scene were suggested by the image of a radically new personality, the hero of the new adventure: an individual emancipated from history, happily bereft of ancestry, untouched and undefiled by the usual inheritances of family and race; an individual standing alone, self-reliant and self-propelling, ready to confront whatever awaited him with the aid of his own unique and inherent resources” (5). Lewis claims that such a description of the new American Adam was replete with orphan imagery. 2 desirable and disturbing; thus, simultaneously inviting and thwarting society’s desire for their assimilation and justifying societal intervention. 2 The orphan’s amphibious nature is hailed and demonized as the epitome of individualism and unbridled freedom, and also as the location of society’s anxiety. This complicated and conflicted construction of orphans animates postbellum social and cultural realm in America, foregrounding issues of race, class, and gender. The significance of the orphan figure continues in twentieth-century America literature and results in the creation of a separate field within literature: children’s literature. In children’s literature, the central character is either a real orphan or is orphaned temporarily, offering the child reader a vicarious experience of orphanhood to prepare them for the travails of life. The word orphan has multiple connotations. Scholars frequently use the word to express metaphorical as well as real orphanhood. Adults belonging to different races, like African Americans, Native Indians, Asian Americans, and mixed blood people were metaphorical orphans in nineteenth-century America. Although metaphorical and real orphanhood overlapped, this study mostly concentrates on real orphans through the intersections of race, class, and gender. In attempting an epistemological reading of orphans, this study draws examples from fiction and non-fiction produced in postbellum America. Nineteenth-century literary texts, written by both male and female writers, document the whole range of cultural practices pertaining to orphans that were prevalent in those times. As the culture itself struggled for a 2 Lewis mentions that according to some historians there is “an inherent dualism in American intellectual thought,” and he contends that not two but three distinct voices can be identified: “American culture has traditionally consisted of the productive and lively interplay of all three…the party of Hope and the party of Memory. For the third party, there is no proper name: unless we call it the party of Irony” (7). Although there is some merit in Lewis’s claim, this research focuses on the inherent dualism. 3 definitive solution to the orphan problem, these narratives participate in and contribute to the orphan discourse through their various depictions of orphans, sometimes critiquing a particular practice or the entire practice of suppressing the orphan’s free spirit, and at other times praising other practices. Ranging from Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) to Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (1868), Little Men (1871), Eight Cousins (1875) and An Old-Fashioned Girl (1869), to Helen Hunt Jackson’s Ramona (1890) and Mrs. Amelia E. Johnson’s Clarence and Corinne, Or God’s Way (1890), postbellum writers contribute to the ongoing discourse on orphans. This study concentrates on the varied representations of orphans and the full scope of the cultural anxiety at play. In doing so, it argues that these narratives provided their contemporary readers a means to engage in a serious discussion about the orphan problem and to offer possible solutions. Orphans appear in the American literary firmament to both validate and invalidate anxieties and concerns about their assimilation and future role in society. Their ubiquity in postbellum fiction calls for an appraisal of their circumstances and role in society. The real orphans of nineteenth-century America embody not only their own real struggles in society but also of the nation at crucial moments in the country’s history. The orphan’s fate intertwined with the nation’s fate; and even though the nation’s orphan status was celebrated, the attitude towards the real orphans of the nation was a cause for concern. Although metaphorical and real orphanhood intersected, successful orphans were celebrated while the struggling orphan children living in orphan asylums were reviled.3 Explaining the presence of orphans in American 3 In her book, Orphans: Real and Imaginary, Eileen Simpson discusses the different types of orphans and relies on the words ‘real’ and ‘imaginary’ to describe the two types

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