The following paragraphs have the aim to provide a possible interpretation of an extract drawn from Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist. In order to provide a complete analysis I will consider the title, the structure and the content of the extract, the narrative techniques adopted with direct references to the text.

First of all, I will start considering the title: Oliver Twist. Right from the title, the intelligent reader can suppose who can be the protagonist of the novel. 

For what concerns the structure, the novel can be divided into three main sections. The first one shows a description of the room where boys were used to have meals that makes the reader immediately understand the level of degradation of the place. The second part concerns the episode when Oliver is called to demand for more food. The third and last section refers to the consequences of Oliver’s gesture.

Charles Dickens adopted a third person external and omniscient narrator. Moreover, rhetorical language is used in order to manipulate and persuade the reader. Irony and exaggeration are employed too. Here some examples: festive composition to define the meal they were used to have everyday except on occasion of great public rejoicing; he was afraid he might some night happen to eat the boy who slept next him because he was starving. Bowls that never wanted washing and boys that clean them with their spoons till they shone again reveal the great starvation of the boys. Interesting to note is the use of the verb to polish to describe how children clean their bowls; usually it is a verb referring to something shiny and refined. Therefore, it is a rhetorical choice in order to make the reader understand the unwealthy conditions that boys were living. In addition, it is relevant to say that all the boys were physically weak, however Oliver shows mental strength and courage to ask for more food.