The Book Review of “Oliver Twist”

Today, we will discuss about the reasons leading to the whole ending. “Oliver Twist”, one of the most famous works of Charles Dickens, is a novel reflecting the tragic fact of the life in Britain in 18th century. It is the story of a young orphan named Oliver Twist whose mother died while giving birth in an old workhouse. He has moved around through different orphanages and finally run away to London. On the way to London, he meets a nice boy named Jack Dawkins, also known as the Dager who gave the poor orphan a place to stay and something to eat. However, Oliver found out that his new “friends” were thieves and they forced Oliver to help them with a robbery. Then,Oliver is rescued by the intervention of a benefactor - Mr Brownlow - but the mysterious Monks gets the gang to kidnap the boy again.

Through the novel, Dickens confronts the question of the terrible environment he depicts have the power to “blacken the soul and change its for ever.” By examining the fates of most of the characters, we can assume that the answer is that they do not.Certainly characters like Sikes and Fagin seem to have sustained permanent damage to their moral sensibilities. Yet even Sikes has a conscience, which manifests itself in the apparition of Nancyˊs eyes that hunts him after he murders her. Charley Bates maintains enough of a sense of decency to try to capture Sikes. Of course, Oliver is above any corruption, though the novel

removes him from unhealthy environments relatively early in his life. Most telling of all is Nancy, who, though she considers herself “lost almost beyond redemption,” ends up making the ultimate sacrifice for a child she hardly knows. In contrast, Monks, perhaps the novelˊs most inhuman villain, was brought up amid wealth and comfort.

The whole story contributes to reviving peopleˊs exhausted souls that have already been covered by cruelty and selfishness of the secular world for a long time. There four main reasons to explain the ending.

Author

The story cannot be talked about without referring its author who himself was also born in a poor family. Charles Dickens wrote this novel in his twenties with a view to reveal the ugly masks of those cruel capitalists. He also meant to expose the horror and violence hidden underneath the narrow and dirty streets in London. Charles Dickens said “love makes world go around.” These immortal words have inspired and keep on inspiring people to chant the melody of love and novel, it was friendliness and kindness of many strangers that made the ending of the story perfect.

Human nature-kindness

Throughout the story, pure strangers mostly treated Oliver nicely. Even thought the young man that Oliver met on the way to London turn out to be a thief and recruited Oliver as a pickpocket, he was still very

kind. He provided food and shelter Oliver without wondering for reward. Later, the owners of the house which Oliver was forced to break into accepted him and took care of him. They nursed him to optimum health and they also educated him. At the same time, Oliver helped them a lot in return. They also spent a full day driving Oliver to Mr.Brownˊs

(Oliverˊs old friend) living place simply gathering them together. Nancy tried to give Oliver a hand. She warned his friend of Mr.Brownˊs plan. Unfortunately Bill Sikes founded out it and killed her. “It was a gasty figure to look upon.” The murder staggering backward to the wall, and shutting out the sign with his hand, seized a heavy club and struck her down.” Oliver was a very luck boy to have so many strangers willing to him.

Kindness is one of the most necessary characters of a person. He who is without goodness is an utterly worthless person. On the contrary, as the famous saying goes“The fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the nose. Kind people are undoubtedly happy and useful.” That is the reason why Oliver can be innocent and pure inside his heart. What is more, it is the kindness that contributes to the happy ending.

Francis Bacon said in his essay “Goodness of the virtue and dignities of the mind, is the greatest, being the character of Desty, and without it, man is busy, mischievous thing, no better than a kind of vermin.” That is to say, a person without goodness is destined to lose everything.

Friends

Another element which leads to the ending is friends. In this book, Jack Dawkins who seemed to be a nice boy offered Oliver some food and place to stay. Oliver got to be friends with Jack and his friend, Charles Bates. Not until they were going to work did they were found to be thieves. That is to say, if Oliver had not met Jack and Bates, he would not face so many troubles, difficulties and darkness in the society. Oliver would neither be a thief, nor would he do anything against the law. However it also means that he would never have the opportunity to know Mr.Brown,his uncle. Therefore friends have a good effect on his fate.

Here is a good example for the friend. One day, Mr.Brown had one of his watch stolen by two skilled teenager thieves, Doggers and Bates, and thought naturally it was Oliver who was an orphan an forced to live with a gang of thieves, that had done it because it was the only one near by after the theft had taken place. Being wrathful he caught Oliver ,and sent him to police station where the ill—tempered unfair magistrotes worked. Fortunately for him, Oliver was proved innocent by one onlooker afterwards. With sympathy, Mr,brown took the injured, poor Oliver his own house. There Oliver lived freely and gleefully for some months as if he was Mr.Brownˊs own son. One day, Oliver was asked to return some books to the sellers and to send the money for the new books that he had already collected. The thief Oliver once stayed with kidnapped him.

After that he disappeared in Mr.Brownˊs life. After searching for a while, Mr.Brown had to believe the fact that Oliver had run away with his money. But dramatically came across each other again a few years later. Without any hesitation, Mr.Brown took Oliver home for the second time not caring if he had done something evil.

This is what shines brightly in the book-- Mr.Brownˊs love and forgiveness. What is more, it also impressed others: Nancy, Mr.Rose, Oliver and so on. As we can seem, when Oliver could have intended a lot of fortune, he refused and offered half to his evil brother, who even wanted to killed Oliver. This is just the love and forgiveness which learned from Mr.Brown works. The two things keep the little Oliver pure both physically and mentally.

Perhaps most of us would feel confused about Mr.Brownˊs reaction. But as a matter of fact, this is just the lesson we should learned from him. Jesus said in the Bible “forgive not seven times, but seventy times seven.” Why is that? Because forgiveness is our ability to remove negative thoughts and neutralize them, so our energy may be spent on doing what we came here for we cannot move forward in our future if past issues cloud our thinking.

Background

Much of the first part of Oliver Twist challenges the organizations

of charity run by the church and the government in Dickensˊtime. The system Dickens describes was put into place by the poor law of 1834, which stipulated that the poor could only receive government assistance if they moved into government work houses. Residents of those work house—essentially immates whose rights were severely curtailed—were subject to a host of onerous regulations. Labor was required, families were almost separated, and rations of food and clothing were meager. The idea upon which the workhouse were founded was that poverty was the consequence of laziness and that dreadful conditions in the workhouse would inspire the poor to better their own circumstance. Yet the economic dislocation of the Industrial Revolution made it impossible for many to do so, and the workhouse did not provide any means for social or economic betterment. Furthermore, as Dickens points out, the officials who run the workhouse blatantly violated the values they preached to the poor. Dickens describes with great sarcasm the greed, laziness and arrogance of charitable workers like Mr.Bamble and Mrs.Mann. In general, charitable institutions only reproduced the awful conditions in which the poor would live anyway.

As Dickens puts it, the poor choose between “being starved by a gradual process in the house, or by a quick one out of it.”

In our opnion,It is just the goodness that eventually conquered devil and Oilver lived a happy life in the end. The nature of goodness

makes the little boy who had already suffered oppressive affection remain pure in body and mind.

I do not think goodness can overcome everything, yet I believe that those who are kind minded live more happily than those who are evil minded.

As prancis bacon said in his essay, Goodness, of all vitures and dignities of the mind, is the greatest, being the character of the beity and without it, man is a busy, mischievous thing, no better than a kind of vermin.

Above is what the novel Oliver twist teaches me.