Question

I have an awful time trying to understand poems and stories before the 1900's, so i need assistance understanding one of the possible answers in this question i was given.
"Which trait is common to the narrators in these excerpts?"

The first story that is given is called "Captain Singleton" By Daniel Dafoe

"At this juncture comes by one of those sort of people who, it seems, made it their business to spirit away little children. This was a hellish trade in those days, and chiefly practised where they found little children very well dressed, or for bigger children, to sell them to the plantations.

The woman, pretending to take me up in her arms and kiss me, and play with me, draws the girl a good way from the house, till at last she makes a fine story to the girl, and bids her go back to the maid, and tell her where she was with the child; that a gentlewoman had taken a fancy to the child, and was kissing of it, but she should not be frighted, or to that purpose; for they were but just there; and so, while the girl went, she carries me quite away."

The second story is called "Moll Flanders", also by Daniel Dafoe

"However it was, this they all agree in, that my mother pleaded her belly, and being found quick with child, she was respited for about seven months; in which time having brought me into the world, and being about again, she was called down, as they term it, to her former judgment, but obtained the favour of being transported to the plantations, and left me about half a year old; and in bad hands, you may be sure.

This is too near the first hours of my life for me to relate anything of myself but by hearsay; it is enough to mention, that as I was born in such an unhappy place, I had no parish to have recourse to for my nourishment in my infancy; nor can I give the least account how I was kept alive, other than that, as I have been told, some relation of my mother's took me away for a while as a nurse, but at whose expense, or by whose direction, I know nothing at all of it."

Now, i can't find which of these answers would best fit the question, because i get so easily lost in the writing style.

Available Answers (They allow me to only pick one by the way.):

-The narrators were born in poverty.
-The narrators were separated from their birth parents.
-The narrators grew up to be criminals.
-The narrators worked hard in life to improve their social status.
-The narrators blamed themselves for their misfortunes.

Answer 1

The narrators were separated from their birth parents

The first passage starts with the narrator's opinion of selling children. That gives us an idea of what the second paragraph is about. The sentence where it said the woman pretending to take me in her arms, indicates that the woman is not the narrator's mother but she acts like it. A child would not call his/her mother a woman.

The second passage is clearer with this fact. "and left me about half a year old, and in bad hands". This indicates that the narrator was left with someone besides his/her parents. The "her" the narrator mentions in this passage his/her mother, and when it states that she was transported to the plantation it is inferred that the narrator did not go with her, as it said he/she was left.

Hope this helps :D