A little late coming in, but Madeline wasn't poor or an orphan. Her parents were very rich. In the very first book, which was turned into a cartoon movie, when Madeline was sick her father came to the hospital and then bought her a room full of toys.
shareIn the original Madeline it seems she was meant just to be at a boarding school, sent by her parents (at least father) – and was not meant to be an orphan.
This is the “visiting the hospital part” from the original 1939 Madeline:
VISITORS FROM TWO TO FOUR
read a sign outside her door.
Tiptoeing with solemn face,
with some flowers and a vase,
in they walked and then said, "Ahhh,"
when they saw the toys and candy
and the dollhouse from Papa.
But the biggest surprise by far-
on her stomach
was a scar!
"Good-by," they said, "we'll come again,"
and the little girls left in the rain.
http://public.clunet.edu/~crowe/Reading/lessons/madeline.html
Take care, all Madeline lovers!
I love Madeline so much. Now I have to watch the cartoon movie again.
shareI don't remember Madeline's mum ever being metioned, but I do remember her dad being mentioned several times. I think the reason why she had no parents in the film was to add a bit of drama. If the school closed, all the other kids could go home, but where would Madeline go?
shareWithout reading anyone's comments my guess was that her parents were killed during the war...
By looking at the automobiles the film was set in the mid 1950's so perhaps they were killed towards the end of the war, similar to the child in the 1947 version of Miracle on 34th Street, who's parents were apparently also killed in the war and the child was brought to an American foster home.
My sister and I met a young woman in 1962 who was in a similar situation - she was a child in a concentration camp and came to America with her parents after the war ended. In reality there were many children like that in the 1950s - millions were killed in Europe during the war and because of that many orphans needed foster homes or became wards of the Church (or state, here in the USA) and remained that way until they were adults, so I'm guessing that the writer of the storybook might have thought along those lines when he wrote the story.
P.S. One of my favorite grade school stories - though Miss Clavel always scared me a bit because she was drawn so tall and thin (lol), but that's all right I liked it anyway, and still do...
Vite Vite!
P.S. After writing this I paused the film when Miss Clavel was protesting the painting over of the girl's heights, and sure enough they were dated 1953...