Oliver Twist By Charles Dickens

Reviewed by Aiden Behrmann

Charles Dickens wrote the novel Oliver Twist during the time when England was expanding and becoming more powerful in the world. It was a time when some people were getting ahead and becoming very rich while others were becoming very poor and jobs were hard to find on the farms where machines were taking their place. Many people moved to the cities to look for work. For those with no work and no money there were few places they could go to get help; and those places were not very caring. Oliver Twist was born at this time in the middle of winter in a workhouse. His father was unknown and his mother died in childbirth; he was alone in the world with no money or hope.
The way Dickens describes the first nine years of Oliver’s life highlights how little value was placed upon poor children at that time. There was very little help for the poor and the people who were supposed to care for them, often abused them.
Oliver grew up in the workhouse under the “care” of Mrs. Mann and the man in charge Mr. Bumble. He was mistreated and unloved and was forced to work long hours for very little food. At age nine, thin and undernourished, Oliver drew the short straw and was sent by the other starving boys to ask Mr. Bumble for a second helping of food. Shaking from fear, Oliver uttered his famous line, “Please, sir, I want some more." Deemed to be ungrateful, Oliver was apprenticed to Mr. Sowerberry, the undertaker, who treats him cruelly. As a result, Oliver ran away towards London.
In London Oliver meets a boy named Jack Dawkins or The Artful Dodger who says that Oliver can live with him at a gentleman’s place where he will be well taken care of. The old gentleman, Fagin, is a notorious criminal who trains young boys to become pickpockets. Oliver, in his innocence, is grateful to join this gang where he feels welcome.
When Oliver is sent out with the Artful Dodger and Charley Bates to pick pockets, he is shocked to learn what is really going on and he is caught and brought before the magistrate who convicts him and sentences him to jail. What happens next makes Oliver happy for the first time in his life, but how long will this last?
After reading the novel Oliver Twist, things that I once took for granted, such as my education and my freedom, I now treasure. I learnt from this book about the lower class, and their resentment and jealousy of the upper class, the upper class, and how most of them took things for granted and how the authorities favoured the upper class.
Oliver Twist is a great and sad story, with a happy ending. It showed that without love, affection, mercy and benevolence, children can not grow up properly, but with that, they can. Dickens knowledge of the times is great; especially how the different classes of people viewed each other and how children can not grow up into proud and successful people without love and someone to care for them.