Oliver Twist

For my novel I began reading "The Age of Innocence" but decided it was very dry and I did not necessarily want to read something that I personally did not find interesting. So, I chose "Oliver Twist" and actually have found that I am enjoying it. For those who have not read the book, it is about a boy born into an orphanage in a poor workhouse where his mother dies shortly after his birth. He is born into the car of an extremely unpleasant and greedy woman, Mrs. Mann, whose name represents the predominant male figure although she is a female character in the book. She continues her persona of being the over-dominant male presence by beating the children when they disobey her orders and frequently cuts back on rations so she can obtain more capital gains.  Oliver soon begins to question why the other orphans and himself are being deprived of food, so a few of his friends nominate Oliver to ask for more. He soon does and the overseers are so appalled by his request that they offer to sell him for 3 pounds. Oliver is soon taken to court to finalize the offer of his sale to a cruel man who has a history of killing the children he cares for. Oliver breaks down in the courtroom and begs not be sold to the cruel man. The court magistrate sees the desperate look in the poor boy's eyes and refuse to sell him. As a result, one of the undertakers (burial coordinator/mortician) of the workhouse decides to make Oliver his apprentice in hopes of giving the young boy a slightly less bleak future.

Oliver begins his work as an undertaker grudgingly, but realizes that he could have been dead had he been sold to the other man so continues his work. An epidemic breaks out which causes many deaths so Oliver begins to excel at his profession. One of the other apprentice boys that works with Oliver soon begins to become jealous of the attention that Oliver is receiving so the boy makes a comment about Oliver's mother, which causes the two to get into a fight. The man that Oliver was apprenticing for decides to kick him out because of the disagreement and Oliver is forced into a cellar and is beaten. In the morning, he decides to run away and try to start a new life for himself. This point in the book is where the reader begins to see a change in Oliver's behavior. He symbolically runs away from the poverty and hunger to try and make a better life for himself.

He runs away to London, a 70 mile walk and finds a boy roughly his age who is sharply dressed. The boy offers to take him to his house for the night until he can contact a friend who has a place Oliver can stay. Oliver goes with the other boy, a sort of savior in his eyes, to a somewhat dirty den with a few other people. After staying with the new people he has met for a few days, Oliver realizes that they are in fact a band of pickpockets. He gets arrested after running away from an attempted robbery involving two of the other people that live in the den. When he is taken to court the man that was robbed realized that it was not in fact Oliver that robbed him, but the other two boys. The man decides to take Oliver under his wing and have him work as a servant in his house.

Oliver represents the poor society and his struggle to do everything in his power to escape its clutches. He is tempted by several sins along the way but that in another way can be related to modern society. But in risk of this sounding like just another essay, Oliver gives us all the incentive to strive for what we want in life. I am only about halfway through the book but I can assume that he will eventually become wealthy enough to save the other children born into poverty from the fate he narrowly escaped.

Kevin W.