Charles Dickens’ Phenomenal Satire Book : Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens is probably one of my favorite books of all time. People who are interested in societal justice will most likely be interested in reading this book.
Oliver Twist features the story of an orphan named Oliver who is living under the pressure of poverty and violent social crime. This is such a heart-rending yet captivating classic book that contains a lot of morals and a wholesome story.
The story begins with Oliver who flees to London and meets two men, members of a teenage pickpocket and their leader named Artful Dodger where both men change Oliver's life. Then, he was adopted by a man named Mr. Brownlow and also met other people who helped him to uncover the evil treatment of criminals towards the many orphans in London. There, Oliver lives amidst the harshness of life and social pressure and crime in 19th century London. He was dragged into a dark and picturesque world that shocked him. No matter how harsh his surroundings turned Oliver into a bad person, he was still a good innocent boy, who knew where he was, and who he really was.
The whole story is basically a character development process as well as Oliver's self-maturity process, how he faces reality and his life's struggles to find true happiness after going through various kinds of people and difficulties in his life. The essence of this book for me is that the story tells us about the true meaning of sadness, longing, depression and hopelessness. It makes us realize that these things are normal elements that are part of our lives. Besides that, another essence of this story is that it is very important to humanize humans in any possible way, place and time. We can bravely take a great step to find our true identity, to survive and to help others no matter how bad our environment pressures us.
Some people may not be interested as the story is rather depressing and uses Victorian era London as the background, so the casual reader may not know about some of the places and terms mentioned in this book. But this book is very lovely and highly recommended to read. The plot keeps going and thriving on every page hence the book can keep the reader interested the whole way through. The book is also well written and printed on high quality paper with some beautiful illustrations and an attractive cover. There is also a glossary at the end of the chapter to help readers with some words that may be difficult to understand. Last but not least this book is certainly worth reading, I rate this book 8.5/10.