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- For alternative meanings of the word orphan, see Orphan (disambiguation).
An orphan (from the Greek ορφανός) is a person (or animal), who has lost one or both parents, often through death. One legal definition used in the USA is someone bereft through "death or disappearance of, abandonment or desertion by, or separation or loss from, of both parents" *. Common usage limits the term to children, (or the young of animals) who have lost both parents. On this basis half-orphans are those with one surviving parent.
In certain animal species where the father typically abandons the mother and child at or prior to birth, the child will be called an orphan when the mother dies regardless of the condition of the father.
Societal treatment of orphaned children
Today, in the first world, most orphaned children are placed in foster care and then adopted with a permanent family as soon as possible.
In past times and in much of the third world, orphans often lived homeless as "street urchins", or were cared for in almshouses, orphanages, or occasionally monasteries; most modern people feel that this was a mistake, or, at the least, provided suboptimal care. In particular, almshouses were often shared with the adult homeless and the (sometimes dangerously) mentally ill in an age when many mental illnesses were untreated.
In some nations faced with war and AIDS, a significant proportion of the young population is orphaned, which is a major humanitarian crisis. In the People's Republic of China, infant daughters are sometimes abandoned due to the one child policy, which also creates a significant number of effective orphans.
Orphans typically suffer from adjustment problems related to identity, according to studies.
Charities that help orphans
SOS Children's Villages is the world's largest non-governmental, non-denominational child welfare organization whose mission is to provide stable homes and loving families for orphaned and abandoned children around the world.
Prior to the establishment of state care for orphans in First World countries, many charities such as Dr Barnardo's Homes (now simply Barnardo's) existed to take care of destitute orphans.
Orphans in literature
Orphaned characters are extremely common as literary protagonists, especially in children's and fantasy literature. The lack of parents leaves the characters to pursue more interesting and adventurous lives, by freeing them from familial obligations and controls, and depriving them of more prosaic lives. It creates characters that are self-contained and introspective and who strive for affection. Orphans can metaphorically search for self-understanding through attempting to know their roots. Parents can also be allies and sources of aid for children, and removing the parents makes the character's difficulties more severe. Parents, furthermore, can be irrelevant to the theme a writer is trying to develop, and orphaning the character frees the writer from the necessity to depict such an irrelevant relationship; if one parent-child relationship is important, removing the other parent prevents complicating the necessary relationship. All these characteristics make orphans attractive characters for authors.
Many orphans are also foundlings, and many foundlings are effective orphans, and their search may include attempts to find their parents, or other relatives. Even if the parents are dead, the foundling orphan, like Oliver Twist, may learn who they were.
See also
- Adoption
- Orphanage
- Single parent
- Owen and Mzee, an orphan hippopotamus that befriended a giant tortoise
"Orphan"