Oliver Twist
By Charles Dickens
and
Dodger
By Terry Pratchett
Gretchen S.
Brittney W.
Major Characters
Oliver Twist: the novel’s protagonist. He
was born into nothing but still is a great kid,
and many people like him.
Fagin: criminal that takes in children so he
can make them do his bidding; he never
commits his own crimes.
Nancy: prostitute, but like Oliver is a good
person despite the situation that she is in.
Mr. Brownlow: 1st friend and mentor, a loyal
and not cynical man despite what he went
through.
Major Characters
The Artful Dodger: comic relief in the novel,
a young boy that acts like an old man, but
speaks entirely in thief slang.
Bill Sikes: Nancy’s pimp. He commits the
worst crime in the novel, the murder of
Nancy.
Mrs. Maylie: loving mother that adopts
orphans, coincidently from the same family.
Plot Summary
Oliver was born to a mother that died
shortly after.
He is sent to live in bad orphanages
for 9 years then starts to work in an
adult workhouse.
There he is sold and eventually
becomes the apprentice for an
undertaker.
Plot Summary
Oliver runs away to London, where he
gets involved in a gang and is taken
in by Mr. Brownlow.
Through a string of events, Oliver
finds out he has a half brother, an
aunt, and an inheritance from his
father.
Mr. Brownlow adopts Oliver, and they
all live happily ever after.
Major Conflicts and
Themes
Good vs. Evil
Society vs. Class
Understanding society
Overcoming adversity
Discovering who you are and what
you are capable of
Discovering the value of family
Anticipating adulthood
Additional Pieces
Boy Called Twist
Twisted: Gay adaptation
Twist: Gay adaptation
The musical Oliver.
Scholarly Reviews
“The Survival of Engaged Reading in the Internet
Age: New Media, Old Media, and the Book” by
Margaret Mackey published in Children’s
Literature in Education
The article talks about the trans-mediation of
Pratchett’s series Discworld.
“This article explores questions of paratext and
spin-off text through an investigation of websites
and other forms of satellite texts relating to…
Discworld novels of Terry Pratchett.”
“the Discworld books have… have led to the
broadest range of offshoots.”
Scholarly Reviews
"The Boys are Pickpockets, and the Girl is a Prostitute":
Gender and Juvenile Criminality in Early Victorian England
from Oliver Twist to London Labour” from New Literary
History, Volume 27
"Dickens leaves a lot for his readers to determine -- by
"inference"--especially concerning what exactly is "most
debased and vicious" in the world of his criminal characters.
The game of guessing the crime becomes a detective joke
between Dickens and the reader, from the first time that
Fagin plays his own game of picking pockets with the boys -and only Oliver is innocent enough not to understand that
they are practicing theft. This contrived collusion with the
detective readers, underlined by Oliver's innocence and
ignorance, allows Dickens to help them to the unavoidable
inferences, "that the boys are pickpockets, and the girl is a
prostitute."
Dodger Reviews
“Dodger himself is nothing like the sharp-eyed
original from Oliver Twist. Instead he is a basically
noble young gentleman of the London rookeries,
effortlessly competent in everything from thieving
to outwitting villains, with an ability to come out on
top that verges on the supernatural.” -Nicholas
Tucker
Dodger finds ways to put all that goodness to use.
By turning this talented urchin into one young
woman's "knight in soaking armor" (to use
Dickens' description), Pratchett provides a focus
for Dodger's better qualities. –Tasha Robinson
About the Author
Book trailer: Book Trailer – YouTube
Sir Terry: “In all, he is the author of
fifty bestselling books. His novels
have been widely adapted for stage
and screen”