Comprehension

1.     The scene is set in a room of a dining hall and the boys are waiting for the ordinary meal.

2.     When the children have finished eating, they "admire" the soup plate because they are still hungry. They are not happy with their food because it was very poor.

3.     It is the reason why the children decide to draw the one who has to ask the master for having more food and the boy chosen was Oliver. So Oliver goes to the master and asks him more food.

4.     The master immediately becomes angry; he gazed in stupefied astonishment on the small rebel for some seconds and then clung for support to the copper.

Interpretation

1.   While I am reading the story, I feel bored because it does not draw my attention. In my opinion the story is a
common story of  an orphanage.

2.   Contrasts:

Sad details: the image of famine vs comic: the boy who says he will eat his mates.

Sad details: the master is described as a majestic man vs comic: he is dressed in an apron

Sad details: Oliver who asks for more food vs comic: the board were sitting in solemn conlcave.

Hyperboles:

A large stone hall, a copper, with their spoons till they shone again,

     Repetition:

     Boys, bowls, spoons, master

3.   The author sympathize with the boys because he uses irony in speaking about the master and it seems as if the author makes him ridiculous.

4.   The narrator is a third person imited and omniscient narrator.

5.   The effect is that these scenes seem lmost journalistic because Dickens backs off and is more objective.

6.   The author's serious aim is to put nto evidence some social problems of the 19th Century: child labour, child nrolment for criminal purposes and the town's degrade.