SRG,+Oliver+Twist

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=//Oliver Twist//, by Charles Dickens.=

Wiki by Saunder G. = = "Please sir, I want some more."(38) is one of the most famous quotes of this book. Many people falsely say the quote is "Please sir can I have some more?" But it seems little Oliver isn't quite so polite as that, for he says he "wants some more." Not "can I have some more." The picture above dictates this famous scene in //Oliver Twist.// Here is a link to this scene from the movie //Oliver Twist// by Roman Polanski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr4WxEQHiCE

Author Bio
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was born in a tumultuous period of history on February 7, 1812. His parents were John and Elizabeth Dickens. He was the second of seven children. At this time in British history they were evolving from an Agrarian economy to an Industrial economy. This period of history was called the Industrial Revolution. Oliver Twist's childhood was very depressing. In 1824 because of his father's poor financial decisions he and his family were forced to work at Warren's Blacking Factory, where Charles was psychologically scarred because of the harsh conditions of a factory and its impact upon a 12-year-old boy. By 1827 his father was out of debt and Charles was a full time pupil at a school in London. He started writing in 1834 by adopting the famous pseudonym known as Boz, when he wrote the //Sketches By Boz.// Then he was hired to write a series of short texts called the //Pickwick Papers.// This was his first big success and his writing career took off. He started writing Oliver Twist in 1837 through monthly installments until it was finished in 1839. He married Catherine Hogarth in 1836 and they had ten children. He and Catherine divorced in 1858. He then continued to write until he died on June 9th, 1870. His final book was //Mystery of Edwin Drood.//

Short Plot Synopsis

 * Oliver Twist starts off with Oliver being born. It was a struggle when Oliver was born; he hung between life and death. But he did live through the birth. His mother, however, unfortunately did not live through the ordeal. He was then sent to a workhouse for orphan children. In the book Dickens called it a Parish. He was then treated to the normal conditions of such workhouses at that time, meaning starvation. Oliver had two chances to leave this place. The first time a rather horrible chimney sweep wanted to take him in but Oliver luckily wasn't given to him based on circumstances that you must read the book to find out. He then was taken in by a man called Mr. Sowerberry who worked in the funeral business; Oliver was an apprentice to him. Oliver worked there as a greeter, as people walked into the funeral Oliver would just stand there and, you guessed it, greet them. The problem with this apprenticeship however was that a boy named Noah Claypole bullied him repeatedly. This bullying continued until Oliver punched Noah for insulting his Mother. Noah then proceeded to shout that Oliver was trying to murder him, so Mrs. Sowerberry and Charlotte came and the three of them beat Oliver. Oliver was then locked away and Mrs. Sowerberry told Mr. Sowerberry that Oliver had attempted to murder Noah and that he should be punished. So Mr. Sowerberry had no choice but to beat Oliver. Oliver was then locked away until he ran away the following morning.

Oliver kept on walking toward London, which he thought was the best place for him to go. The problem was he had no food so he was getting tired and very hungry. It seemed hopeless until he reached a strange fellow who called himself the Artful Dodger. The Artful Dodger fed him and brought him to his, I suppose hideout would be the best word for the place he lives. This is where Oliver meets the dreadful Fagin. Fagin and his crew are pickpockets; they steal handkerchiefs and other things to sell them to make money. Oliver has no idea of their profession so thinks no bad thoughts of them. This is until Oliver, The Artful (for short), and Jack Dawkins go to town and they show Oliver what they do for a living. Oliver is absolutely horrified when they steal from an old gentleman and runs away as quick as he can. The old gentleman turns around and thinks Oliver stole it when in fact it was the Dodger who was the culprit. So the Old Gentleman gives chase to Oliver and soon a mob of people chase down Oliver and he is arrested. When Oliver is put on trial the old Gentleman does not want to press charges but the person who owns the bookstore saw the whole things and proves Oliver is innocent. So the old Gentleman actually takes in Oliver who fainted during the trial because of a fever. Oliver is then taken care of by the old Gentleman, who is called Mr. Brownlow. The kind old Gentleman feels sorry for Oliver and they develop a connection and are friends. Oliver is later on then sent to the bookstore to return some books. There he is met by Nancy and possibly the greatest villain of all time, Bill Sikes. They forcibly take him back to Fagin, who didn't want Oliver telling the police about him and his associates. This youtube clip is the movie version of this scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIbe8MOFKUw

So what will happen to Oliver now that he has been captured by Fagin?

What happened to the rest of Oliver's family?

All these questions will be answered and more when you read ** **// Oliver Twist //// by Charles Dickens. //**

Literary Information
Well this book is obviously a work of fiction. The genre is mystery or perhaps a detective novel. Even though there are no literal detectives throughout the story, we wonder about Oliver's family and who they are. It is all written in the past tense and the point of view is third person omniscient. We know the narrator is omniscient because he/she, well, knows everything. We know the characters' thoughts the narrator already knows what is going to happen in the story; that's why it is written in past tense. The theme of the story is purity among corruption, meaning that Oliver is pure, he is good and the villains are the corrupt. Another possible theme is that society itself is corrupt. The protagonist of the story is Oliver Twist and the Antagonists are the environment Oliver grew up in, Fagin, and Bill Sikes. The style in Oliver Twist changes when the narrator talks about each character. When the narrator speaks of Oliver he sounds sympathetic, when he speaks of almost every other character he usually sounds sarcastic or is putting that character in a bad light. Then the mood throughout the book is dark, but then at times it is also happy.

Literary Analysis
One way Charles Dickens shows the horrible environment Oliver lives in and the dark mood of this book is from this quote, "Everybody knows he story of another experimental philosopher who had a great theory about a horse being able to live without eating, and who demonstrated is so well, that he got his own horse down to a straw a day, and would unquestionably have rendered him a very spirited and rampacious animal on nothing at all, if he had not died, four-and-twenty hours before he was to have had his first comfortable bait of air."(29) This is the philosophy applied to orphan children at the workhouse. Now, a way he shows Oliver in a good light is from this quote, "He had listened to their taunts with a look of contempt; he had borne the lash without a cry; for he felt that pride swelling in his heart which would have kept down a shriek to the last, though they had roasted him alive."(82) This was when Oliver had suffered one of his beatings; this quote shows that the narrator sees Oliver as a good and brave boy. Dickens uses social satire throughout this book, making fun of society at that time and pointing out its many flaws, this is what he did in all of his books. An example of him using social satire is "I hope you say your prayers every night, said another gentleman in a gruff voice; and pray for the people who feed you, and take care of you-like a Christian."(35) What Dickens is saying there is that these adults who created the workhouses and came up with this policy of starvation and forcing the orphans to live in squalor and filth, that they thought they were doing good.

The mood throughout the entire book, as I said in the Literary Information section, is dark. Dickens does this by describing the squalid conditions in which Oliver lives in. For example: "Upon this, the parish authorities magnanimously and humanely resolved, that Oliver should be farmed, or, in other words, that he should be dispatched to a branch-workhouse some three miles off, where twenty or thirty other juvenile offenders against the poor-laws, rolled about the floor all day, without the inconvenience of too much food or too much clothing, under the parental superintendence of an elderly female." (28) This quote describes the conditions in which Oliver lives in, starvation and almost no possessions. Note the sarcasm Dickens uses while describing other characters and the situation Oliver finds himself in. That would be when he says that they are not inconvenienced by food or clothing, which is of course sarcastic for humans need food and clothes. The mood is happy when Oliver is with Mr. Brownlow, in fact that is the only time in which the mood is happy. This is an example of the happy mood, "Here, a bed was prepared, without loss of time, in which Mr. Brownlow saw his young charge was carefully and comfortably deposited; and here, he was tended with a kindness and solicitude that knew no bounds." (115) This was when Oliver was just put on trial and proved innocent, and so Mr. Brownlow took him in and cured him of his fever. In this scene Oliver is experiencing kindness for the first time in his entire life, this is of course a very important scene for that reason. And the mood is obviously happy.

Criticism

 * I really enjoyed the social satire throughout this book, it was very entertaining and the dark humor of some of his sarcastic jokes made me burst out laughing. But I must say even with all the satire it was pretty tough to get through this book. I say that because Charles Dickens has a habit of rambling on and on and having run on sentences. He has comma after comma and almost no periods. I think he needs to get to his point much faster, there is important information going on in these run on sentences but they could be said in a much "cleaner" and quicker way. I also enjoyed the fact that he played with the reader's emotions so well! I felt like ripping my hair out on the multiple injustices done upon Oliver. I felt myself feeling so bad towards Oliver and I felt hatred toward the villains in the story who were abusing Oliver so much. I remember the first time I experienced this story, I went to my sister Greta's middle school play of Oliver Twist. I remember thinking how great that play was, so when I saw this book was on the A.P. reading list I jumped at the chance to read it. I loved this book and I would recommend it to anyone, but they must have patience when reading this, for it takes a long time to get to the good parts.[[image:criticism.jpg align="right" caption="criticism" link="http://metavideogame.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/criticism.jpg"]]

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Links
If you enjoy this wiki presentation, or if you read and enjoyed //Oliver Twist//, then you shall enjoy these other books, (click on the books to go to the wiki page). And here is the list of all the other wiki's: http://whshonors9.wikispaces.com/Book+Index