Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

 The first book I choose to read is "Oliver Twist". (孤雛淚)  

Book intro

It's written by Charles Dickens, and it's his second novel. Dickens is a British author and critic. He usually uses his novel to express his view about the society. This book revealed the miserable life of orphans in London that time. The story is about an orphan called Oliver Twist, his tragic life story. Fortunately, he still had a good ending in the book.

Reflection

Actually, I've read it before when I'm in the high school. But I like the story very much, so I decide to read it again. Also the deadline this time is short, I don't have much time to think about what to read. There's a famous line in the story which is "Please, sir. I want some more.", as you can see the cover page of the book. Oliver and other kids in the workhouse are always starving because they don't have enough food to eat. They only have a bowl of thin soup and a piece of bread on Sundays. After three months of slow starvation, the kids decide to ask for more food, and Oliver was chosen. The famous line is what he said to the master. Of course, hearing the request from Oliver, the master fly into a rage. He punished Oliver by hitting him. When I read this, I can even imagine the face and tone when Oliver was asking. He must be very terrified of it. How pitiful those little kids are! From this, I can realize that orphans were under such unfair treatment then. And they don't have any rights, I think this is a big problem. Until today, there are also lots of orphan and child abuse problem exists. 

In the middle of the story, Oliver escaped from the undertaker, and went to London alone. His journey was very hard; I was wondering how can a little boy go to London on foot? It is seventy miles away from his place. I admire his courage and independence. Reading the book makes me try to think about what should I do when these happened? If I were Oliver, I may choose to end my life rather than suffering for a long time. I don't have the perseverance like Oliver. I tend to give up when I encounter these things, even though I know it's a wrong decision. While I was reading this book, my thought is gradually become negative. XD Why there are always unfortunate events occurred on Oliver? Although there are lots of sad events happened on him, an old gentleman called Mr. Brownlow, took him home and take care of him in the end. I feel very happy and satisfied with this ending. I think "poor" is the main topic author wanted to discuss in the novel, Dickens described it in detail. Also wanted the readers know that how the social status impacted a person's whole life. The author satirized the upper class people and make it a big contrast to the lower class people.