In this article, American writer Kristen Martin questions the iconic status of Little Orphan Annie.

Little Orphan Annie began as a comic strip in 1924 but is better known through the 1977 Broadway musical and the 1982 film adaptation.

The narrative of Little Orphan Annie, says Martin, is “plain weird” for several reasons, including the maltreatment of children being “played for laughs” and the tragedy of the death of Annie’s parents being treated as a good thing.

Harold Gray, author of the original comic strip, was no Charles Dickens concludes Kristen Martin. He wasn’t exposing social conditions so much as insistently that victims are responsible for repairing the harm done to them.