The text “Oliver wants some more” is the second chapter of “Oliver Twist”, a novel written by Charles Dickens.

Just reading the title, the intelligent reader understands that Oliver, the main character of the novel, is experiencing a difficult moment and he wants to reach something that can make him happier. The fact that Oliver is the protagonist of the story is given also from novel’s title “Oliver Twist”.

Watching the structure, the reader notes that the story is developed into three parts: narration, description and dialogue. His expectations are that novelist presents the context of the events in the first two parts, and in the last one he represents the fight between Oliver and some other charatecters.

After a careful reading, the intelligent reader understands that the second chapter is dedicated to describe social problems of Dickens’ times. The text can be divided into three parts: the introduction (vv 1-22), the fact (vv 23-39) and the reaction (vv 40-67). The introduction describes the condition of Oliver and his friends, obliged to suffer a slow starvation for three months. One night, one boy threatened to eat the boy who slept next him, because he was so hungry. A council was held: someone had to ask for more food. Oliver Twist had to do it. The second part is described in a very precise way: Dickens describes the moment of the dinner, each character and his role, and then describes the Oliver’s felling. The last part of chapter is highlighted by the sentence “Child as he was, he was desperate with hunger, and reckless with misery”. It represents the third part, and so the reaction. The request made by Oliver has shocked the master and paralyzed the assistants. At the end the director of the workhouse, Mr. Limbkins, decided to offer a reward of five pounds to “anybody who would take Oliver Twist off the hands of parish.”

Analyzing the characterization, the reader understands that Dickens wants to put in evidence the terrible condition of life that the boys of the workhouses live. Indeed, he makes a very detailed description of them, in particular for the hunger boy and Oliver. His intentions are so to criticize high classes of society and, at the same time, convict poor children’s conditions. As a result, the narrator, in his description, is pity for the children, and he mocks the adults’ reaction. Indeed, for a simple request of a hungry child, they assembled a “solemn conclave” and Oliver had been offered to anybody who wants to take him.

Focalizing on narrative techniques, the reader notes that Dickens uses the external and omniscient narrator, in accord to the role of commenting the story events. The novelist had to be external to the story to have the possibility to judge each happening and decide if it is “wrong” or “good”.

Concluding, the overall effect provided by the text is to convict life conditions of children that lived in workhouses. Dickens criticizes high classes of society and puts in evidence its contradictions and banality. Indeed, they do not spend any money for children’s food, but, at the same time, they create expansive celebrations for useless things.