![]() “She had common sense, knew how to take care of herself. In 1924, comic artist Harold Gray was reminded of this potential when he ran into a ragamuffin girl named Annie while scouring the streets of Chicago for story ideas. Orphans are also a boon for authors-they come with lots of baggage, but few family ties. She is a survivor, “the primary metaphor for the dispossessed, detached self,” a self we all embody as members of a disconnected, ahistorical world. ![]() As Nina Auerbach argues in “ Incarnations of the Orphan,” the orphan is one of those rare creatures that belongs only to herself. A fictitious orphan’s appeal is easy to grasp: mysterious in origin and open to limitless potential, an orphan could do, be, or mean anything. But though the film’s protagonist, played by Quvenzhané Wallis, represents an update of the unstoppable comic-to-musical franchise, she’s still Little Orphan Annie-another in a seemingly endless sequence of pop culture foundlings given a chance to sing and dance their way out of the institution and into our collective consciousness.Īt first glimpse, there are plenty of upsides to orphans. When Will Smith and Jay Z’s film adaptation of Annie premiered in 2014, the musical was brought into the 21st century, complete with smartphones, updated characters, and even references to Twilight and Avatar.
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