Little Orphant Annie is a quite an emotional yet cheerfully philosophical poem that centers an orphaned girl named Annie.
The first para begins with an introduction to Annie as a small girl who lived in the Riley home. She did all the household chores like picking up the garbage, cleaning the household, washing the utensils, making the fire and various other tasks desired out of a helper or servant.
The next para suggests a mood of excitement that was set in the house with all children gathering out of curiosity to listen to Annie’s stories. The stories told by Annie carried a moral for the children to take with them. She would tell story of a bad or spoilt child who did something wrong and was snatched away by the goblins to never come back. Although, the stories were scary but Annie was a child with a good intuition and could distinguish the good from the bad. So she meant to preach the children that one must avoid doing bad things or else the goblins would eat them.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
In every story she told, the bad child did a mischievous or unkind thing which hurt someone. The punishment received was that the goblins would take the child away from the house. In one instance a child didn’t obey his parents and the next morning that child was not found by the parents in any corner of the house. In yet another story, there was a little girl who mocked at the old people and teased all his relatives and kin. She did not bother about not hurting them and continued this ungenerous behavior of troubling them. One fine day when she was hiding after making fun and creating some trouble, she was taken away by the two black things which were the goblins through the ceiling. She didn’t get a chance to save herself.
The poet has created the presence of ugly powers in a horrifying set up where the Annie was finally trying to give an advice to the children. She said that when the wick of the lamp sputters and the moon is gray in color and the wind is blowing with a woo sound, you must be careful. You must have enough sense to respect your parents and your teachers. You should admire your loved ones and the kin, and be careful to help an orphan who needs you. You should help the poor and the needy without minding anything. She gave the moral or intended meaning behind the stories that she told to the children. It was that all children must have good moral values and respect for one and all. If they did not behave so, the goblins would eat them away.
Thus, the poem describes how a little orphan has such strong moral values and she knew the way she could imbibe them in the other children of the Riley house. She knew that children would learn and grow better in their moral values with the help of goblin stories.