Literature Analysis # 3

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

1. A young boy by the name of Oliver, becomes an orphan after his mom dies. He gets shuffled around from place to place, getting exploited wherever possible. He end up getting in with the wrong crowd, a gang of petty thieves, and doing some things which he knows that he shouldn't. It ends on a positive note with Oliver finding happiness under the care of a law-abiding, wealthy family.
Charles Dicken's purpose is portrayed through the fact that he was a young boy in a very similar situation growing up, and Oliver was able to show people in the upper class that he and so many others in similar situations were suffering terribly.


2. The theme that clearly stands out to me is within all this corruptness there is a spec of purity that grows and is able grow stronger than the corruptness.

3. The author's tone is depressing yet optimistic.
“It is because I think so much of warm and sensitive hearts, that I would spare them from being wounded.”
“For the rest of his life, Oliver Twist remembers a single word of blessing spoken to him by another child because this word stood out so strikingly from the consistent discouragement around him.”
“It opens the lungs, washes the countenance, exercises the eyes, and softens down the temper, said Mr. Bumble. So cry away.”

4. foreshadowing: The truth about Oliver’s parentage is foreshadowed by the portrait in Mr. Brownlow’s house, by the locket that old Sally has stolen, and by Monks’s pursuit of Oliver.
major conflict: Although Oliver is fundamentally righteous, the social environment in which he is raised encourages thievery and prostitution. Oliver struggles to find his identity and rise above the abject conditions of the lower class.
rising action: Oliver is taken care of by a gang of London thieves, but refuses to participate in their thievery. An upper-class family takes him in, but the thieves and a mysterious character, Monks, continue to pursue him.
climax: This is when Nancy is murdered for disclosing Monks’s plans to Oliver’s guardians and Mr. Brownlow gets the full story of Oliver’s origins from Monks.
falling action: Fagin is executed and Sikes dies; Oliver and his new family live out their days in happiness.
setting: the english countryside
protagonist: Oliver
symbols: the character's names definitely, and Bull's-eye
metaphor: the London Bridge representing the division among social classes.

Character Indirect: the response other characters have to Oliver's appearance when the author describes what he looks like.
Direct: when the author is discussing how the Artful Dodger is a young thief.
To show both how the author directly describes the character and show the reactions of the other characters in response to one's actions which does leave an impression for the reader by giving them a better visual.

2. When one of the characters from the upper class of the time is speaking you can see a more proper sophisticated use of syntax and diction, whereas when someone like Oliver is speaking the syntax and diction is the complete opposite and sounds very uneducated.

3. Oliver is a dynamic and round character because he starts off as an innocent push over kind of character, but then learns to fight for himself and rise above his situation.

4. Oh I definitely felt like I had personally been right alongside Oliver in his journey and it literally started from when he first said "please sir, may I have some more?" I automatically have this visual of this frail little boy dying to get something else in his empty stomach, but feeling bad fro him because he picked the shortest straw and was forced to ask this question. I really just wanted to give the little boy a hug!