Added: 11/22/2007 |
A New Report Forecasts Changes In Adoption NumbersThe writer of the following article takes pride in mentioning the numbers of books written by James Michener. The writer graduated from the same high school that Michener once attended. Because James Michener was an adopted child, his name belongs in the following essay. His interesting and productive life has given one writer a new way to look at adopted names.
That report, issued by the U.S. Census Bureau, gave the ten most common names found among the families of the United States. The name Smith was at the top of the list. An adopted child in the U.S. stands an excellent chance of becoming a Smith.
While the name “Smith” appears on the mail received by a large number of American families, other names appear with a frequency that almost matches the number of Smiths. The U.S. continues to have large numbers of families with the last name of “Miller,” “Brown,” “Jones,” “Johnson,” or “Williams.”
This year two new names showed-up among the top 10 names of American families. Those were the names “Rodriguez” and “Garcia.” An analysis of the numbers indicated that an adopted child could easily go through life with the name of Rodriguez or Garcia. Those numbers reflected the fact that a growing proportion of American citizens have a Spanish surname.
Of course, adoption should not be seen as just the taking of a name. When an adopted child receives a family’s name, then that does not dictate the future of that child’s life. Even Hollywood no longer contains only movie stars with very common names.
An adopted child should not concern himself or herself with the name of the family in which he or she is raised. An adopted child should enjoy his or her childhood. A young boy adopted by a Pennsylvania family did enjoy his childhood on a farm in Bucks County. He imagined all sorts of stories, as he played in and around the family barn.
Later that boy, by then an adult, recorded a large number of stories. Those stories became part of a long list of novels. That adopted boy was James Michener. He became a famous writer.
Booksellers have sold huge numbers of books written by James Michener. One might find that a large number of those readers do not realize that James Michener has an adopted name. Most readers would agree that the works penned by James Michener could be created by a skilled writer with any name.
James Michener grew up in a Jewish family. He did a wonderful job of recording the history of Jewish persecution in The Source, a novel that began at an archeological dig. He also did an excellent job of describing the beauty and excitement of Spain in his book Iberia.
Would he have written a less poignant account of Jewish persecution if his name had been “Garcia”? Would he have written a much finer text about Spain if his last name had been “Rodriguez”? Since he also wrote books about the South Pacific, Hawaii, Hungary, American History and even Space, one could hardly think that his name had directed his choice of topic in each case.
A child adopted by a family with the name of “Smith” could become whatever he or she wanted to be. So too could a child adopted by a family with the name “Garcia.”
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