Analysis: The City Of Orphans

Bruno, a character from the City of Orphans, sat in the grime of New York City’s streets and thought to himself how he “can’t remember when he wasn’t by himself, finding ways to live on his own. Now like always, he’ll have to take care of himself.” (Avi, 304) This child represents the children who resorted to crime during the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century of New York City. Times were hard during this moment of history to the point that many children needed to work in order to survive. Some became factory workers and newspaper boys. Others ended up committing crimes and joining gangs. The City of Orphans perfectly captures the aspects which may of resulted in an adolescent's life becoming dedicated to crime: the opportunity …show more content…
As stated before, gangs plagued New York City for a long time. It became less and less safe to walk the streets as “ a well-dressed man venturing into the district was commonly set upon and murdered or robbed, or both, before he had gone a block.” (Span, 110) Having this much power had a huge influence on city life. One case is the Bowery Boys, who had an influence on politics by intimidating voters so “the gang’s home district would receive money and preferential treatment once the politician was in office.” (Andrews, 1) This is tough for a child living alone on the street since there is no one to protect them. By joining a gang you would not cross their line of fire. The effects gangs can have on civilians are shown through the newsies. Despite not being targeted directly, Bruno’s gang still attacks them so the paper they are selling “will stop headlining that Gorker Guy.” (Avi, 141) They also show the power of numbers gangs have when Maks led the newsies to fight the Plug Uglies. They succeed as during the fight the Plug Uglies were “just trying to get out and away.” (Avi, 298) Thus, the newsies showed gangs can be dangerous, but at the same time the power a large group of people had against