39 pages • 1 hour read
Elvira WoodruffThe Orphan of Ellis Island
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1997A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Dominic Cantori is in the fifth grade. He is an orphan who has spent his life bouncing from one foster family to the next. With each new family and school, Dominic struggles to make connections and friendships. On a school field trip to Ellis Island, Dominic learns that many Americans can trace their family’s history to immigration through Ellis Island. However, Dominic’s only knowledge about his family is the dull gold key inherited from his dead parents, with the initials “S.C.” for his father.
Chapter 2 Summary
The park ranger at Ellis Island asks Dominic’s class about their family tree project. Dominic is nervous to respond because he hasn’t told anyone at his new school about being an orphan because “[t]he idea of revealing the truth that he was alone in the world, abandoned and unwanted, filled him with such a dread that he would do anything to keep it hidden” (10). When it’s Dominic’s turn to share, he holds his key for strength and luck.
Chapter 3 Summary
Dominic tells the park ranger and the class that his great-grandfather was from Italy even though he is unsure. The park ranger tells the kids about The American Immigrant Wall of Honor. Dominic wants to fit in with the other kids, so he lies and claims that his family name will be on that wall. When the kids get to the wall on their tour, Dominic sneaks away. He falls asleep in a janitor’s closet.
Chapter 4 Summary
When Dominic wakes up, he contacts his social worker, Dave Santos, for help finding a new family and school.
Dominic notes that the hallway lights are dimmer and that he is alone. He tries all the hallway doors and realizes he’s locked inside. Dominic gets frightened.
Chapter 5 Summary
Dominic has no choice but to stay overnight in the museum on Ellis Island. He peruses the photograph displays. His favorite is of an Italian family. He listens to the audio narratives in the museum, and “he began to pretend that he was actually having conversations with the voices. They were mostly old people, grandmothers and grandfathers, he guessed. He pretended they were his. Soon he began to feel less lonely” (23). The last audio interview is the story of Francesco Candiano, who immigrated through Ellis Island from Italy as a boy. Dominic pleads with the voice to help him, and incredibly, the voice responds directly to Dominic, assuring him that he’s listening.
Chapter 6 Summary
Dominic tearfully reveals to Francesco the full extent of his loneliness and how he has no family. Francesco assures him that many people, including himself, felt his loneliness when they first arrived. He encourages Dominic to see himself as brave. Francesco tells Dominic about his beautiful home, Avaletto, in Italy and explains that he had to leave in 1908 due to dire poverty. Dominic gets inexplicably sleepy and is overwhelmed by fatigue. Francesco encourages him to go to sleep and to open his heart.
Chapter 7 Summary
Dominic wakes in a cliffside meadow. He smells fresh lemons and doesn’t know where he is. Looking over the cliff, he sees a picturesque village with red-tiled roofs and wildflowers.
Chapter 8 Summary
A voice behind Dominic warns him not to go further toward the cliff. Dominic recognizes the language as Italian but can understand every word. He turns around and meets three boys around his age. The boys ask Dominic where he’s from, but they don’t recognize Brooklyn. Dominic explains that he has no family. The boys introduce themselves as Antonio, age seven, Salvatore, age 10, and Francesco Candiano.
Chapters 1-8 Analysis
In the first chapters of The Orphan of Ellis Island, Woodruff uses symbolism and characterization to establish Dominic as the main character on a journey of self-discovery.
The school field trip to Ellis Island opens questions about family that trigger Dominic’s loneliness. As an orphan, Dominic doesn’t know what having a family is like. The other students made family trees, which symbolize their families, support systems, and histories. The many branches of a family tree represent layers of identity formation and family legacies that help the kids know who they are. Dominic doesn’t have a family tree, so he feels adrift and unrooted to anyone. This rootlessness introduces the theme of The Importance of Family.
Ellis Island is both a setting and a symbol of The Immigrant Experience. The history of Ellis Island is, in its way, the history of America; millions of people have immigrated to the US throughout the centuries, and Ellis Island preserves that history. Just as a family tree tells the story of an individual’s past, Ellis Island presents the story of a nation’s past. Ellis Island reminds us that we are a nation of immigrants, even if individual stories have been lost. Immigrants coming through Ellis Island experienced loss and loneliness because they often left family behind to find a better life in a new country. Dominic begins the story feeling lonely and disconnected from a family history. On Ellis Island, he travels back to 1908 Italy and finds a rich family history and people sympathetic to his situation.
Both the symbols of Ellis Island and the family tree emphasize Dominic’s sense of isolation. Surrounded by kids with stable families and friendships, “Dominic bit down on his lower lip. How he wished he could share his funny thoughts and laugh with someone. But he just didn’t know how” (6). Because Dominic has been moved from foster home to foster home since infancy, he hasn’t learned to form deep and meaningful connections with others. Still, he longs for love and connection. He’s never been at a school long enough to make friends, and he’s awkward around others. Dominic internalizes this awkwardness and is embarrassed by being an orphan and a foster kid. He has no one to confide in and feels very different from the other kids on the field trip.
The only tangible link between Dominic and his family is the key inherited from his parents: “The key’s history, like Dominic’s, was a mystery. He had no idea what it was meant to open, but it was the only thing left from his family, something he could touch, something solid” (3). The key is proof that Dominic’s family legacy does exist; he just doesn’t know the story. The key is Dominic’s one connection to his parents, so he cherishes it. Even though he’s alone, it reminds him that there’s hope he might one day learn about his family. The key represents his desire for connection and belonging.
The first chapters describe the time travel that sends Dominic to Italy in 1908. His mysterious transportation to Italy suggests the beginning of a hero’s journey, where the hero leaves home and everything familiar to learn more about himself before returning home transformed. The time travel is also poignant because Dominic’s teacher left him behind; he was forgotten in his real world but heard and validated by someone in an alternate world.
