Post 2 Oliver Twist - Royce Le

I praise Oliver Twist to have the courage to escape the situation he is in, to be different and be a renegade such as Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King Jr. I respect him for that and I hope to have the courage to be my own individual like him, to stand up for what morals are right to me. “One timid look around – one moment’s pause of hesitation – he had closed it behind him, and was in the open street” (p. 45). So far in the novel, I can pull out common themes such as individualism represented through Oliver and the environment he lives in, and another theme is corruption not only in the society, but as individuals. Seeing how ugly, ignorant, and hateful humans are represented through Noah, Mrs. Sowerberry, and Mr. Bumble, it makes me think that the world is truly going to end, not because of supernatural or astronomical events, but because of the human race destroying one another and the Earth.  When reading the book, I feel as if the environment and the world children live in today are not the same, thus many readers cannot relate. “In some villages, large painted boards were fixed up: warning all persons who begged within the district, that they would be sent to jail” (p. 48). Moving along in the book, I start to get a feeling that one aspect of the book could have been majorly offensive to a majority of readers, thus making Oliver Twist a banned book. I researched a little and connecting what I found in the text, Charles Dickens’ reference to a “villainous-looking and repulsive” Jew by the name of “Fagin” could play a major role in offending readers that are Jews (p. 54). Personally, I don’t like this part of the book either because I feel as though Charles Dickens has put his own thoughts and opinions about Jews in this book that weren’t very decent or courteous. I had an impression that Charles Dickens was a bit discriminatory to the Jews, saying that Fagin is “villainous-looking and repulsive” (p. 54). As a wrap up, situations are starting to look up; since Oliver has accidently joined a banned of pickpockets, which resulted in him going to jail, a mistaken identity for a crime of pickpocketing a “respectable-looking personage” has lead Mr. Fang, the judge, to drop all charges and presented him to Mr. Brownlow, the respectable-looking personage, to feel sympathy for Oliver and bring him home. "'I have this unhappy book still! Jump in. Poor fellow! There’s no time to lose.' The bookstall keeper got into the coach; and away they drove" (p. 73).