Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist, published by Richard Bentley in 1838, is the second novel by English author Charles Dickens. Charles Dickens (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870), was the foremost English novelist of the Victorian era, as well as a vigorous social campaigner. When he was a child,his father was heavily in debt.The only education he received was two years of schooling at a school for poor children.At the age of 12,he had to work first as a worker and then became a reporter for a newspaper.In 1837,his novel,The Pickwick Papers,made him the most famous of his time in England.I think it was this experience as a child laborer that contributed to the story development of Oliver Twist.
Oliver is an orphan whose mother gave birth to him and died, and he is brought up in the parish. He runs away from the workhouse only to be taken in by a den of thieves, shocked me a lot when I read it. Dickens created an entirely new kind of fiction, scathing in its indictment of a cruel society, and pervaded by an unforgettable sense of threat and mystery. In the novel, Oliver has met a lot of different people like Fagin, the artful Dodger, the menacing Bill Sikes and the prostitute Nancy and so on. I think the purpose of Dickens to describe the suffering of Oliver is to show the principle of Good surviving through every adverse circumstance and triumphing at last.
During reading the novel, I was sympathetic to Oliver for his sufferings and eagered to read what happened to him in the following. I think that Oliver is one in a series of recurrent figures in the Dickens world. He is a symbol of the “the principle of Good” sent into the world on a journey of suffering. When facing these misfortunes, I was surprised that he is never rebellious for more than a few minutes and seldom even angry. I think that Oliver is not a figure of strong imposing will because he doesn’t struggle against the evil. It seems that he is easily to accept whatever burden the world imposes on him....