“Oliver wants some more”- Charles Dickens

This extract is taken from the Chapter II of the novel “Oliver Twist” written by Charles Dickens between 1837 and 1839. The story is about an orphan, Oliver Twist, who endures a miserable existence in a workhouse and then is placed with an undertaker. He escapes and travels to London where he meets the Artful Dodger, leader of a gang of juvenile pickpockets. Naïvely unaware of their unlawful activities, Oliver is led to the lair of their elderly criminal trainer Fagin.

The novel is narrated with a third person omniscient narrator, and reveals Dickens’ s awareness of the social problems of his times.

The title of the extract “Oliver wants some more” refers to the main character, a poor child who lives in a workhouse and almost dying of starvation. The extract is set in a workhouse, where Oliver Twist is living. The extract can be divided into two sequences: the first one is made up by 18 lines and contains some narrative and describing sequences; the second one contains a dialogue in which is expressed the core point of the extract and the conclusion.

The first sequence starts with a detailed descriptive sequence in which the narrator describes the room where the children used to have supper in the workhouse. The lack of food provided to the children, expressed by the narrator using irony (“The bowls never wanted washing. The boys polished them with their spoons till they shone again”, “with such eager eyes, as if they could have devoured the very bricks of which it was composed”), shows their poor conditions and their hungry, underlined by the sight of desire that they throw towards the cauldron.

The narrator reveals that they have been being so hungry since three months so children decide to ask for more food and the boy chosen to ask more is Oliver Twist. Here starts the second sequence, which is characterized by a dialogue between Oliver Twist and his master. After dinner that evening Oliver goes to the master and asks him for more food (“please sir, I want some more”). No one had ever dared to ask for more food to master. Mr Brumble, after being surprised, reacts with violence, hitting the child with the ladle and holding him with his strong arm. In conclusion Mr. Bumble goes to Mr. Limbkins and he underlines again the danger of Oliver Twist’s action. Someone says that Oliver will be hanged because rebels are condemned to be hanged in this period. At the end the council stated that the orphanage must expel him, offering 5 pounds to “anybody who would take Oliver Twist off the hands of the parish”.

In this sequence, there is also the description of the master (“was a fat and healthy man”) that contrasts the image of children representing the misery of the lower social classes.

In conclusion, in the extract the novelist wants to show the conditions of the middle and lower middle class during that period, stressing the terrible conditions of children who live in workhouses.

“Rosso Malpelo”- Giovanni Verga

The extract is taken from the novel “Rosso Malpelo”. Rosso Malpelo is a short story written by Giovanni Verga (In 1880, Rosso Malpelo is published in a collection of other works "Vita dei Campi").

The story, written in 1878 is set in Verga's native Sicily and reflects the social and economic conditions endured by the poor working classes in Southern Italy at the time. This extract is the last part of “Rosso Mapelo”, where after his father’s and his only friend’s death (Ranocchio), the protagonist decided to visit an unexplored part of the pit, from which he never comes back. The text is entirely a narrative sequence where firstly there is the anticipation and comparison between Malpelo and his father’s death. After that, there is the explication of Malpelo choice to go in that part of the cave and his condition: no one wanted to risk or lose someone of the family, but Malpelo had no one.

Malpelo’s death is compared to the one of his father: both were died in the cave but in a different way and for different reasons.

Malpelo is aware that he is going against death exploring that part of the pit. For this reason he brings with him his father’s tools, the only person he cared beyond his dead friend Ranocchio.

“Né più si seppe nulla di lui”, these words, written in the last few lines of the extract, make the reader aware of Malpelo’s death but also of his dematerialization, nobody had ever found his body. This fact also underlines his solitude.

This extract deals with children’s exploitation and can be compared to the extract of Oliver Twist.

In fact, both novelist decided to use the technique of realism, in Italian Verismo, in which they put the reader attention of children’s condition during the time in which they lived and narrate the poor condition of the society.

“The definition of a horse”- Charles Dickens

This extract is taken from the chapter II of the novel “Hard Times” written by Charles Dickens, first published in 1854. The book appraises English society and is aimed at highlighting the social and economic pressures of the times. The novel follows a classical tripartite structure, and the titles of each book are : Book I "Sowing", Book II "Reaping", and the third is "Garnering."

The extract begins with a descriptive sequence in which there is the introduction of Thomas Gradgrind, "a man of realities, facts and calculations." He always introduces himself as Mr. Gradgrind. His job is to remove "fancy" and "imagination" from the minds of the children. They learn that it is nonsense to decorate a room with representations of horses because horses do not walk up and down the sides of rooms in reality. His primary job in these preparatory lessons is to find "Fancy" in the minds of the children and eradicate it. Thomas Gradgrind, is a hard educator who grinds his students through a factory-like process, hoping to produce graduates (grads). Depersonalisation of the students continues in the second sequence, which is a dialogue between Mr. Gradgrind and “girl number twenty”. The teacher asks to the girl the definition of horse and she doesn’t answer, so the definition is asked to another student. Bitzer (who has a name of an horse), reply with a mechanical answer, like a machine, not like a human.

In the third sequence there is a description of the class composed by “two compact bodies”, males and females. Moreover this sequence emphasizes the concepts expressed in the first two sequences so, the concept belonging to the typical society of the period.

Dickens argues against this typical features of the time, a mode of factory-style, mind-numbing, grad-grinding production that takes the fun out of life.