Editing Child abandonment (section)

==In literature==
<!-- This section is linked from [[Self-fulfilling prophecy]] -->
Foundlings, who may be [[Orphan#In literature|orphans]], can combine many advantages to a plot: mysterious antecedents, leading to plots to discover them; high birth and lowly upbringing. Foundlings have appeared in literature in some of the oldest known tales.<ref>[[Northrop Frye]], ''[[Anatomy of Criticism]],'' p. 198. {{ISBN|0-691-01298-9}}.</ref> The most common reasons for abandoning children in literature are [[Self-fulfilling prophecy#Literature, media, and the arts|oracles]] that the child will cause harm; the mother's desire to conceal her illegitimate child, often after rape by a god; or spite on the part of people other than the parents, such as sisters and mothers-in-law in such [[fairy tale]]s as ''[[The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird]].'' In some [[chivalric romance]]s, such as ''[[Le Fresne (lai)|Le Fresne]]'' and ''[[Knight of the Swan|the Swan-Children]],'' in the variant ''Beatrix,'' some children of a multiple birth are abandoned after the heroine has taunted another woman with a claim that such a birth is proof of adultery and then suffered such a birth of her own.<ref>Laura A. Hibbard (1963). ''Medieval Romance in England,'' p. 242. New York: Burt Franklin{{ISBN?}}</ref> Poverty usually features as a cause only with the case of older children, who can survive on their own. Indeed, most such individuals are of royal or noble birth; their abandonment means they grow up in ignorance of their true social status.<ref>[[Josepha Sherman]], ''Once upon a Galaxy,'' pp. 55–56. {{ISBN|0-87483-387-6}}.</ref>

===Abandonment===
One of the earliest surviving examples of child abandonment in literature is that of [[Oedipus]], who is left to die as a baby in the hills by a herdsman ordered to kill the baby, but is found and grows up to unwittingly marry [[Jocasta|his biological mother]].

In a common variant on the abandonment and rediscovery of an infant, the biblical story of [[Moses]] describes how the Jewish infant is abandoned by his mother and set to float in the Nile in a reed basket, in hopes that he will be found and nurtured; as planned, [[Finding of Moses|the child is discovered]] and adopted by the queen of Egypt, thus gaining a higher social status and better education, as well as a more powerful position than his birth family could have given him. A similar story is told of other heroes who eventually learn about their true origins only as adults, when they find they are able to save their original parents or family by wielding power from their adoptive status, while making use of an education that sets them apart from their peers. The theme is also carried through in the case of many modern superheroes, most famously Superman (see Modern Media below). Mark Twain tweaks the traditional "upgrading" of the foundling's social status by having the child's twin, who is powerful by birth, experience the "downgrading " of his position in a switch planned by the two children, in "The Prince and the Pauper".

In many tales, such as ''[[Snow White]],'' the child is actually abandoned by a servant who had been given orders to put the child to death. Other tales such as [[Hansel and Gretel]] has children reluctantly abandoned in the forest by their parents since they were no longer able to feed them.

Children are often abandoned with birth tokens, which act as [[plot device]]s to ensure that the child can be identified. This theme is a main element in [[Angelo F. Coniglio]]'s historical fiction novella ''[[The Lady of the Wheel]],'' in which the title refers to a "receiver of foundlings" who were placed in a device called a "foundling wheel", in the wall of a church or hospital.<ref name=Amazon.com>{{cite web|last=Cipolla|first=Gaetano|title=The Lady of the Wheel (La Ruotaia)|url=https://www.amazon.com/Angelo-F.-Coniglio/e/B007SIMK6E|publisher=Legas}}</ref>

In Shakespeare's ''[[The Winter's Tale]],'' a recognition scene in the final act reveals by these that [[Perdita (The Winter's Tale)|Perdita]] is a king's daughter rather than a shepherdess, and so suitable for her prince lover.<ref>Northrop Frye, "Recognition in ''The Winter's Tale,"'' pp. 108–109 of ''Fables of Identity: Studies in Poetic Mythology.'' {{ISBN|0-15-629730-2}}.</ref> Similarly, when the heroine of ''[[Le Fresne (lai)|Le Fresne]]'' reveals the brocade and the ring she was abandoned with, her mother and sister recognize her; this makes her a suitable bride for the man whose mistress she had been.<ref>[[Francis James Child]], ''The English and Scottish Popular Ballads,'' v. 2, p. 68. Dover Publications, New York, 1965.</ref>
[[File:Princess Belle-Etoile 2 - illustration by Walter Crane - Project Gutenberg eText 18344.jpg|right|thumb|The children of Queen Blondine and of her sister, Princess Brunette, picked up by a Corsair after seven days at sea; illustration by [[Walter Crane]] to the fairy tale ''[[Princess Belle-Etoile]].'']]

From Oedipus onward, Greek and Roman tales are filled with exposed children who escaped death to be reunited with their families—usually, as in [[Longus]]' ''Daphnis and Chloe,'' more happily than in Oedipus' case. Grown children, having been taken up by strangers, were usually recognized by tokens that had been left with the exposed baby: In [[Euripides]]'s ''[[Ion (play)|Ion]],'' [[Creüsa]] is about to kill [[Ion (mythology)|Ion]], believing him to be her husband's illegitimate child, when a priestess reveals the birth-tokens that show that Ion is her own, abandoned infant.

This may reflect the widespread practice of child abandonment in their cultures. On the other hand, the motif is continued through literature where the practice is not widespread. [[William Shakespeare]] used the abandonment and discovery of Perdita in ''The Winter's Tale,'' as noted above, and [[Edmund Spenser]] reveals in the last Canto of Book 6 of ''[[The Faerie Queene]]'' that the character Pastorella, raised by shepherds, is in fact of noble birth. [[Henry Fielding]], in one of the first novels recognized as such, recounted ''[[The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling]].'' In the case of [[Quasimodo]], the eponymous character in [[Victor Hugo]]'s ''[[The Hunchback of Notre-Dame]]'', the disfigured child is abandoned at the cathedral's foundling's bed, made available for the leaving of unwanted infants. Ruth Benedict, in studying the Zuni, found that the practice of child abandonment was unknown, but featured heavily in their folktales.<ref>Maria Tatar, ''The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales,'' p. 60. {{ISBN|0-691-06722-8}}.</ref>

Still, even cultures that do not practice it may reflect older customs; in medieval literature, such as ''[[Sir Degaré]]'' and ''[[Le Fresne (lai)|Le Fresne]],'' the child is abandoned immediately after birth, which may reflect pre-Christian practices, both Scandavian and Roman, that the newborn would not be raised without the father's decision to do so.<ref>Barbara A. Hanawalt, ''The Ties That Bound: Peasant Families in Medieval England,'' p. 172. {{ISBN|0-19-504564-5}}.</ref>

===Upbringing===
The strangers who take up the child are often shepherds or other herdsmen. This befell not only Oedipus, but also [[Cyrus the Great|Cyrus II]] [[Achaemenid Empire|of Persia]], [[Amphion and Zethus]] and several of the characters listed above. [[Romulus and Remus]] were suckled by a wolf in the wilderness, but afterward, again found by a shepherd. This ties this motif in with the genre of the [[pastoral]]. This can imply or outright state that the child benefits by this pure upbringing by unspoiled people, as opposed to the corruption that surrounded his birth family.

Often, the child is aided by animals before being found; [[Artemis]] sent a bear to nurse the abandoned [[Atalanta]], and [[Paris (mythology)|Paris]] was also nursed by a bear before being found.<ref>Jane Yolen, ''Touch Magic,'' p. 73. {{ISBN|0-87483-591-7}}.</ref> In some cases, the child is depicted as being [[Feral children in mythology and fiction|raised by animals]]; however, in actuality, feral children have proven to be incapable of speech.<ref>Jane Yolen, ''Touch Magic,'' p. 74. {{ISBN|0-87483-591-7}}.</ref>

The theme of young boys being raised by leading women of the early [[Mongol Empire]] is prominent in sources such as the ''[[Secret History of the Mongols]]''. For example, the young [[Shigi Qutuqu]] was found wandering a destroyed [[Tatars|Tatar]] camp, he was taken to either [[Genghis Khan]]'s wife Börte or mother [[Hoelun]] to be raised.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ratchnevsky |first=Paul |chapter=Sigi Qutuqu (c. 1180–c. 1260)|date=1993 |title=In the Service of the Khan: Eminent Personalities of the Early Mongol-Yüan Period (1200–1300) |publisher=[[Harrassowitz Verlag]] |location=[[Wiesbaden]] |editor-last=de Rachewiltz |editor-first=Igor |editor-link=Igor de Rachewiltz |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kG45gi7E3hsC |pages=75–77|isbn=9783447033398 }}</ref>

===In adulthood===
The pattern of a child remaining with its adoptive parents is less common than the reverse, but it occurs. In the [[India]]n epic ''[[Mahabharata]],'' [[Karna]] is never reconciled with his mother, and dies in battle with her legitimate son. In the Grimm fairy tale ''[[Foundling-Bird]],'' Foundling Bird never learns of, least of all reunites with, his parents. [[George Eliot]] depicted the abandonment of the character Eppie in ''[[Silas Marner]];'' despite learning her true father at the end of the book, she refuses to leave Silas Marner, who had actually reared her.

When the cause of the abandonment is a prophecy, the abandonment is usually instrumental in causing the prophecy to be fulfilled. Besides Oedipus, Greek legends also included [[Telephus]], who was prophesied to kill his uncle; his ignorance of his parentage, stemming from his abandonment, caused his uncle to jeer at him and him to kill the uncle in anger.

===Older children===
When older children are abandoned in fairy tales, while poverty may be cited as a cause, as in ''[[Hop o' My Thumb]],'' also called ''Thumbelina,'' the most common effect is when poverty is combined with a [[Stepfamily#In fiction|stepmother]]'s malice, as in ''[[Hansel and Gretel]]'' (or sometimes, a [[Mother|mother's]] malice). The stepmother's wishes may be the sole cause, as in ''[[Father Frost (fairy tale)|Father Frost]].'' In these stories, the children seldom find adoptive parents, but malicious monsters, such as ogres and witches;<ref>Jack Zipes, ''The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm,'' p. 474. {{ISBN|0-393-97636-X}}.</ref> outwitting them, they find treasure enough to solve their poverty. The stepmother may die coincidentally, or be driven out by the father when he hears, so that the reunited family can live happily in her absence.

In a grimmer variation, the tale ''[[Babes in the Wood]]'' features a wicked uncle in the role of the wicked stepmother, who gives an order for the children to be killed. However, although the servants scruple to obey him, and the children are abandoned in the woods, the tale ends tragically: the children die, and their bodies are covered with leaves by [[European robin|robins]].

===In modern media===
Foundlings still appear in modern literature; this is a partial list of examples:
*In [[George Bernard Shaw]]'s stage play ''Major Barbara,'' industrialist Andrew Undershaft, a foundling himself, intently searches for a foundling to assume the family business.
*[[Superman]] may be seen as a continuation of the foundling tradition, the lone survivor of an advanced (but almost-completely extinct) civilization who is found and raised by [[Kansas]] farmers in a pastoral setting, and later discovers his alien origins and uses his powers for good.<ref>Josepha Sherman, ''Once upon a Galaxy,'' p. 55. {{ISBN|0-87483-387-6}}.</ref>
*[[Charlie Chaplin]]'s movie ''[[The Kid (1921 film)|The Kid]]'' revolves about the Tramp's efforts to raise an abandoned child.
*In the graphic novel ''Aqua Leung'', the main protagonist is a prince who is whisked out of a castle under attack in a basket-like device and then found by a couple and raised on land so that his father's enemies do not find him. He returns to the seas to fulfill the prophecy thought to be his father's but that was actually his.
*[[Elora Danan]], in the film ''[[Willow (1988 film)|Willow]],'' and Lir, in the novel ''[[The Last Unicorn]],'' both continue the tradition of foundlings abandoned because of prophecies, and who fulfil the prophecies because of their abandonment. 
*In the last book of ''[[The Chronicles of Prydain]],'' [[Dallben]] reveals to the hero [[Taran (character)|Taran]] that he is a foundling; in a story set in the same world, "The Foundling," Dallben himself proves to be a foundling as well.
*The protagonist Thorby of [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s 1957 novel [[Citizen of the Galaxy]] is a foundling sold as a slave on a remote planet.  He is bought and freed by a beggar who educates and inspires him, then learns from multiple kind foster families.  He later discovers that his parents were killed for opposing slavery in the galactic conglomerate that they owned and that he inherits, and he carries on their work.
*The character [[Leela (Futurama)|Leela]] from ''[[Futurama]]'' was a foundling, given to the Ophanarium and a note in an alien language to make people believe that she was an alien rather than a mutant; she would have been forced, in the latter case, to live in the sewers with the other mutants.
*Several foundlings appear in [[Terry Pratchett|Terry Pratchett's]] ''[[Discworld]]:'' most notably [[Captain Carrot Ironfoundersson]], who was found, as a toddler, among the ruins of a caravan party that had been attacked by bandits, and was then surrounded by the bodies of the adults.
*The character of Mozzie, from ''[[White Collar (TV series)|White Collar]],'' is a foundling, left in a basket with only a [[bear]].
*In some cartoons, wily characters may disguise themselves as foundlings. This may be accomplished by the character dressing as a baby and lying in a bassinet or basket on a doorstep, perhaps with a note adding to the ruse. This was parodied in the 2006 movie ''[[Little Man (2006 film)|Little Man]].''
*In ''[[The Flintstones]],'' [[Bamm-Bamm]] was abandoned on the Rubbles's doorstep and eventually adopted by them.