S5D – Ting Sin Ching & Li Oi Fan
Book Review – Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
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Oliver: ‘Please, sir, I want some more!’
The master: ‘What did you say, boy?”
Oliver: ‘Please sir, I want some more,’
The master became very angry. He hit Oliver on the head with his large spoon. Then he
held Oliver tightly and shouted for Mr. Bumble,
The master: ‘Sir, sir,’ ‘Oliver Twist has asked for more!’
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A: The boy must be very hungry.
B: I think so. I also think the master was rather unkind.
A: This is a scene taken from a famous classic story book – Oliver Twist.
B: Oliver was an orphan.
A: Yes, his mother died after he was born. And nobody knew who his father was. Since he
had no relative to take care of him, he lived in a workhouse with other orphans.
B:
Oliver could not get any care from there. He had to work very hard with other orphans. But
they never had a full meal. That meant they never had enough food. Since he was always
hungry, he could not stand the difficult life there, eventually he escaped.
A: After that, he worked in a shop, which sold coffins. Coffin is a long box which keeps the
dead body. (You can see it from the picture.) The shopkeeper of the coffin shop was a cruel
man. He gave a lot of work to Oliver. It was too hard for him to do the work from day till
night. He determined to escape again. Luckily, he succeeded.
B: But evil still followed Oliver. He was cheated by a bad guy and joined a thief organization.
He became a thief. Although he was unwilling, he still had to steal from people. He would
be beaten if he could not bring back any stolen goods to the gang leader.
A: One day, he met an old man, Mr. Brownlow. This was a turning point in his life. The old
man found Oliver ill and miserable. So he took Oliver to his house. He gave what Oliver
needed. How about the head of the thief organization?
B: Of course, he looked for Oliver and captured him again. But there were some arguments
between the thieves. One of the thieves, Nancy, helped Oliver to escape from the
organization. Nancy was killed by other gang members because they found out that she
helped Oliver to escape.
A: On the other hand, Mr. Brownlow, found out that Oliver was his grandson whom he had
been searching for a long time. At last, Oliver was united with his grandfather and they
lived happily together.
B: In the story, Nancy helped Oliver escaping from the thieves at the expense of her life. It is
really breaking my heart to see Nancy lose her life.
A: The writer of this story is Charles Dickens. He wrote this book because he wanted to reflect
the 19th century of England, his own country. At that time there were many children who
could not go to school and they had to work in the workhouse in order to live. The
workhouse was run by charity institutions which treated the poor as if poverty was a crime.
Dickens exposed how they got rid of poverty by starving the poor children. In fact many
people faced the problems of hunger and death as Oliver.
B:
Reading this book in today’s world is really uncomfortable. It is a moving and touching
story. In Hong Kong, there are also some orphans. But the number is very low. I believe
that most of the orphans are being well taking care of in Hong Kong. No matter how good
the orphans are being taken care of, there is nothing to replace the love and care of parent.
Children must treasure this. It is a blessing to have parents.