Compare and contrast the situations that Oliver Twist and Tom Sawyer are in.
Tom and Oliver are two boys at the same age. Both had lost their mothers very early in their lives. Oliver lived his first 9 years in an orphanage and was then moved to a workhouse for adults. There he suffers from hunger and bad living conditions together with other boys. He has no family and no real friends. Tom on the other hand was taken care of by his aunt and lives with her and Tom’s half brother Sid in a small province town. He has friends, a home and he gets to go to school.
In the extract from ”Oliver Twist” we found Oliver in the situation where, because of slow starvation over a longer period, the boy with the hungry eye threatens to eat one of the other boys. Living by such conditions they raise no doubt that he will do what he says. The boys cast lots and it falls to Oliver to ask for more supper that evening. After he’s finished the gruel he approaches the master and says: ”Please, sir, I want some more.” The reaction was as feared. Oliver was marked as a rebel and the board offers a five-pound reward to anyone who takes him on as an apprentice.
Tom Sawyer is late for school as usual. He had stopped to talk with Huckleberry Finn, an orphan and an outsider in the town. After he arrives the master asks him to explain why he’s late again. He is about to tell a lie when he notices a new girl and that the only vacant place on the girls’ side is beside her. Knowing what will follow he answers; ”I stopped to talk with Huckleberry Finn!” He gets a beating and is seated with the girls as a punishment and ends up exactly where he wanted to be. He makes friends with that new girl named Becky Thatcher. They are having fun drawing and whispering when Tom feels a grip around his ear. The master stands over him and he is refuted back to his own place.
The similarity in those two situations is that Oliver and Tom are telling the truth to their masters. Both boys get punished...