Close Analysis Oliver Twist

After reading Dickens’ Oliver Twist, I was impressed with how Dickens was able to establish the background of Twist’s life early on in the novel and establish a sense of progression early on before the stories began. I enjoyed the book and I wanted to focus on the turning point, in my opinion, of Oliver’s life at a young age that would define the rest of the novel. Early on in Chapter 2, we find Oliver at a workhouse after being taken away from Mrs. Mann’s house by Mr. Bumble. Oliver works as an oakum picker alongside many other boys who are also starving and are given very little for food. The boys decide to draw straws to see which one of them will ask for more food. Oliver draws the shortest one and is the lucky one to ask for more food. Oliver approached the master and asked for more food.

“The evening arrived; the boys took their places. The master, in his cook’s uniform, stationed himself at the copper; his pauper assistants ranged themselves behind him; the gruel was served out; and a long grace was said over the short commons. The gruel disappeared; the boys whispered each other, and winked at Oliver, while his next neighbors nudged him. Child as he was, he was desperate with hunger, and reckless with misery. He rose from the table; and advancing to the master, basin and spoon in hand, said: somewhat alarmed at his own temerity: “Please, sir, I want some more.”
The master was a fat, healthy man; but he turned very pale. He gazed in stupefied astonishment on the small rebel for some seconds, and then clung for support to the copper. The assistants were paralysed with wonder; the boys with fear.
“What!” said the master at length, in a faint voice.
“Please, sir,” replied Oliver, “I want some more.”
The master aimed a blow at Oliver’s head with the ladle; pinioned him in his arms; and shrieked aloud for the beadle.” (Oliver Twist 38)

In the novel, Dickens describes the master as being astonished and shocked that one of the boys would ask for more food. We as the readers eventually find out that this infamous short straw that Oliver picked was also the last straw that broke the camels back. Oliver is locked away and the parish board offers a reward for anyone to take Oliver away from them. After reading the journey that Oliver endured bouncing from location to location, it all leads back to Oliver’s young life at age nine when he drew the shortest straw and asked the master at the workhouse he was a part of for more food. The novel focuses and branches off of this one scene where Twist simply asked for some more food. It is quite intriguing to realize at the end of the novel that Oliver had endured all of the forced crime and work and conditions he faced because of this one scene where he was forced to ask for more food for himself and the rest of the boys he worked with.