Abandonment in Children's Literature

The presence of characters in children's literature who experience abandonment or grow up in a broken family has become more and more prominent in recent years. This growing trend, according to Marilyn Apseloff, is because society has shifted from familism to individualism. Because of this shift, there has been less focus on stabilizing and nurturing the family and more focus on satisfying the personal desires of the individual. Examples of children's literature that illustrate this shift include The Tale of Despereaux, Peter Pan, and The Boy on the Porch. While the authors of the first two works listed, Kate DiCamillo and J. M. Barrie, reflect their own personal experiences in their works, the author of the latter, Sharon Creech, imagines the experience of the abandoned child. The overarching theme present when considering the influx of broken families and abandonment in children's literature is as follows: literature reflects life.