Realism
Realism in literature is when a writer, as for example Charles Dickens in Oliver Twist, writes in a way that reflects real life without idealizing it, meaning that you don’t leave out parts that could seem cruel or harsh, instead writing the cold hart truth that is in everyday life for some.
This kind of writing became a trend in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, beinning in France, and the novel Middlemarch by George Eliot, an English novelist, brought realism to a wider audience and made it spread throughout the world.
In the extract from Oliver Twist, realism shows itself in the way Charles Dickens describes the Jew as this greedy old man who gives homeless children a place to stay, in return for their loyalty to him and that they become what you would call pickpocketers.
In my opinion this is not a good example of realism as I’ve understood it. What I mean is that from what I’ve read about the term, and other extracts that I’ve come across with, realism texts are supposed to render society without own opinions and beliefs, which in my mind is the case of the extract because I think that Charles Dickens writes about Jews as he himself thinks of them, as greedy and somewhat evil. Although I think that the way he describes the homeless, or poor kids, as ones who would go far for food and shelter is probably the case since he himself grew up in poor conditions he probably has own experience from similar situations.
I think what inspired Dickens to write realistic novels was the fact that he grew up in a poor family and thanks to this he had an insight on how the lower classes of society had to struggle to get by. Having experienced these situations and managing to cope and get through being poor I think he felt the need to inspire people in the same situations as he himself had went through and at the same time let people from higher classes of society get an insight in how others had it.
I think Dickens novels opened up a...