Textuality » 5ASA Interacting

GPommella-oliver wants some more
by GPommella - (2018-01-31)
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The text is an extract from Dickens' novel "Oliver Twist". The protagonist is a poor boy, hosted in a warehouse.

The text is characterized by two narrative strategy: the first part the reader can see the Telling, where there's the mediation of the narrator; while in the second part the reader can see the Showing, where the idea isn't subject to the narrator.

The narrator is a third person omniscient narrator.

Right from the start the boys aren’t considered as active person, there were three adults that assisted the master, this create asymmetric conditions between the boys and the adults.

The impression that the reader receive is somebody from higher position decide how much decides how much the children should eat.

In line 8, the reader can see that the copper is more important than the boys. The insistence on using irony underlines the emphatic use of the language of the narrator.

The intelligent reader can also see this when the narrator compares the children with animals, underlined by the verb devour, voracious and expressions like “He had a wild, hungry eye.” (Line 17-18).

Dickens uses also exaggeration when he describes the master. Immediately this make the reader laugh, but the second reaction creates sadness.

The intelligent use of lexis underlines the asymmetrical position between the master (with uniform) and the others. This convays the idea of hierarchy from the child, to the servants and at the end, the master.

The narrator uses body language in order to make the reader understand that the children were not allowed to talk each other directly.

In this case, the narrator is using irony another time: Oliver asks for one more cup of soup, he seems like a small rebel against the enemy.