Book Review on Oliver Twist
Book Review on Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Young Oliver is born in a workhouse, and although his single mother dies in childbirth and leaves him with no one to give him true care or attention, Oliver thrives, in a certain sense. He grows up in this workhouse, and the horrors of his childhood can seem all the worse because of the light comic tone of the narration. Charles Dickens is always a wonderful author for pointing out hypocrisy, cruelty, and social injustices, but though it's good to be made aware of the evils of the day, it can still be hard to read about children starving and being beaten. 9-year-old Oliver's situation is so dire, it's a relief when he escapes to London and finds himself trapped in a life of crime! At least when he's with the criminal gang of pickpockets, he gets to eat.
Notes on Oliver: I notice that Oliver speaks just a tad on the aristocratic side, when compared with the other boys in the book. He just doesn't have the same penchant for slang and sauciness as his peers. On this read-through, I also perceive for the first time that Oliver himself isn't all that interesting. He's 100% sympathetic--you want to save him and nurture him, but aside from his general goodness, he's a bit of a blank canvas. He's so incorruptibly pure, it's like it doesn't occur to him that anyone could possibly be deceptive or dishonest, which is why he's no good at thievery even after receiving some training.
Social/Historical context: Dickens’s writings are always political and social commentaries. They provide a powerful insight into the social injustices and the political oppressions that the poor people were subjected to in the England of the nineteenth century. Oliver Twist began to be published in a magazine in the year 1837 under Dickens’s pseudonym, Boz. It was the author’s second novel. It is a vehement protest against the Poor Law of 1834 – the main function of this law was to punish the poor for being poor and ensure that they never could
Young Oliver is born in a workhouse, and although his single mother dies in childbirth and leaves him with no one to give him true care or attention, Oliver thrives, in a certain sense. He grows up in this workhouse, and the horrors of his childhood can seem all the worse because of the light comic tone of the narration. Charles Dickens is always a wonderful author for pointing out hypocrisy, cruelty, and social injustices, but though it's good to be made aware of the evils of the day, it can still be hard to read about children starving and being beaten. 9-year-old Oliver's situation is so dire, it's a relief when he escapes to London and finds himself trapped in a life of crime! At least when he's with the criminal gang of pickpockets, he gets to eat.
Notes on Oliver: I notice that Oliver speaks just a tad on the aristocratic side, when compared with the other boys in the book. He just doesn't have the same penchant for slang and sauciness as his peers. On this read-through, I also perceive for the first time that Oliver himself isn't all that interesting. He's 100% sympathetic--you want to save him and nurture him, but aside from his general goodness, he's a bit of a blank canvas. He's so incorruptibly pure, it's like it doesn't occur to him that anyone could possibly be deceptive or dishonest, which is why he's no good at thievery even after receiving some training.
Social/Historical context: Dickens’s writings are always political and social commentaries. They provide a powerful insight into the social injustices and the political oppressions that the poor people were subjected to in the England of the nineteenth century. Oliver Twist began to be published in a magazine in the year 1837 under Dickens’s pseudonym, Boz. It was the author’s second novel. It is a vehement protest against the Poor Law of 1834 – the main function of this law was to punish the poor for being poor and ensure that they never could