Notes about Oliver Wants Some More 2 (9/5/12)

The extract is taken from Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist. The title is a typical title referring to children: Oliver Twist is a child who lives in a workhouse.
The narrator is a third person omniscient narrator, who exploits some categories to make the character believable and to create pathos. The reader knows Oliver's age and throughout this category he is provided with his physical appearance. The aim of the skatch is to focuse reader's attention on unhealthy condition, suggested by definite language choices. An example of Mr Dickens use of language is the use of the adverb "decidedly", that does not leave the reader any space to have a different idea. Whatever the reader thinks is totally filtered by the narrator. The narrator uses the technique of telling: writer guides reader's opinion. The reader must not indeed forget the aim of the Victorian novel is to teach.
In addiction Mr Dickens provides a useful example of the influence of Darwinism in the way of thinking of Victorian society. The use of language "nature or inheritance had implanted" underlines (in the language) the effect of the natural selection. Oliver's breast, which is simply a part of his body, is described as if it were a room. In this he provides an example of exaggeration in the result of the grotesque. There is the denounce of a problem: the novelist criticizes the institution that offers a shelter to the child. The opposition between the verb "to expand" and the adjective "spare" referred to diet adds to the grotesque.
The narrator also exploits irony to the precarious condition of the child in the sentence "his having any ninth birth-day at all". The narrator's attention now shifts to the place where Oliver finds himself: a close space, in a cellar which is a coal cellar. The word "coal" immediately reminds to the Industrial Revolution. He is not alone: he is with some of his mates and they have been loocked because they complained because they were hungry. Mr Dickens is creating effect.
Education was a form to repress aggression because school masters where afraid of a possible reaction. Fear leads to violence and aggression. The narrator's attention now again shifts to a large stone hall where children are having lunch. Everything in the extract is centered on food.