The text is an extract from Oliver Twist, a novel by Charles Dickens.

It speaks about the adventures of Oliver Twist, an orphan, who is forced to work in a workhouse where he suffers starvation and ill-treatments.

One evening during the dinner, Oliver asks the master for more gruel because he and his companions were gnawed by hungry. Oliver's request appear to the master impudent and provokes astonishment in the room. The boy is punished.
In the text there are many aspects being taken from real life: the description is realistic because the novelist reports a lot of details. By these the reader can understand condition in which children are forced and the workhouse's habits.
The writer is critic towards adults and he describes them with irony: he sides with children and the reader can't form another point of view. The adults represent the oppressor while the boys embody innocence: they are victims.
Dickens describe a tragic situation inserting a ironic tone. The effect is possible thanks to exaggerations used to convey the reactions in front of Oliver request. He ridicules what he intends criticize.