Parental Abandonment/Literature: Difference between revisions

* In [[Lewis Carroll]]'s ''[[Sylvie and Bruno]]'', their mother is never mentioned, and their father has to travel.

* Burke, the [[Villain Protagonist]] [[Private Detective]] from the novels by [[Andrew Vachss]], was dumped on the state foster care system by his underage mother (assumed to be a prostitute), for which he holds a great deal of bitterness.

* Appears a lot in [[P. G. Wodehouse|PG Wodehouse]] books. [[Jeeves and Wooster (novel)|Bertie]] is an orphan who seems to have been largely raised by his aunts, and many of his friends seem to be in a similar situation. {{spoiler|[[Psmith]]'s father apparently died between books, leaving quite a few characters in the lurch financially speaking.}} Because it's Wodehouse, it's never really made angsty, though.

* Very, very common in the works of [[Diana Wynne Jones]]: in the ''[[Chrestomanci]]'' books, Cat and Gwendolyn's parents are dead, Christopher's tend to ignore him, Conrad's mother is too busy writing to pay attention, and half the children in ''Witch Week'' have had one or both parents executed (and those that haven't have been sent away to boarding school because they are 'problem children'). In the ''[[The Dalemark Quartet|Dalemark]]'' books, Tanaqui and her siblings are left to fend for themselves, as are the children in ''Cart and Cwidder''. Luke in ''[[Eight Days of Luke]]'' is brought up by distant relatives, Mig's father in ''[[Black Maria]]'' has {{spoiler|apparently}} been murdered, Polly's parents in ''[[Fire and Hemlock]]'' divorce and toss her around between them until her grandmother takes her in, Kathleen in ''[[Dogsbody]]'' is living with her aunt because her father is in prison and Hailey's parents in ''The Game'' are presumed dead. Maree and Nick in ''[[The Magids|Deep Secret]]'' are {{spoiler|half-siblings and children of the Emperor, but both are brought up away from him, as are all his children. Nick lives with his real mother, but she is killed at the end of the book, leaving him with his (thankfully not at all wicked) stepfather}}, and Abdullah in ''[[Castle in the Air]]'' dislikes his family and daydreams about finding that he is not really their child. This tendency becomes a little unnerving once you learn how neglectful Diana Wynne Jones' parents were - the family in ''[[The Time of the Ghost]]'' is closely based on her own.