OLIVER TWIST by Charles Dickens

CATEGORY: Books

GENRE: Children's Books

RATING: 4 Stars

When I was in High School, I can freshly remember that we were obliged to read any of the titles my English teacher wrote on the board and eventually write a book review following a given format. 

It was a long list of classical novels of English and American authorship and, as we were informed, they were the best of their time. I never really gave any effort at selecting which among them would trully fit my interest unlike my classmates, who at once know what they would read. I knew nobody from those authors back then because our English class isn't really similar compared to those in other schools. Long story.  

Instead, when I paid a visit to our local bookstore, I picked up the first title that I saw which is included in the list. And guess what, I purchased Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. I wasn't really a book enthusiast that time and my bank of english words is so pitiful to brag about. That's particularly the reason why by the time I took a peek at the first page of the novel, I eventually gave up the hope of submitting a good review. I hardly understood anything Dickens have written. I felt so dumb in English that I lost the confidence in the subject. 

It was not until two years later that I learned to polish my English by reading basically anything that would quench my thirst for more English terms and ideas. Three years later, after losing the first Charles Dickens book I bought for that project in High School, I gave it another shot through Oliver Twist. 

Only then did I discover why Charles Dickens is revered to be the best story teller in literary history. Oliver Twist is a subtle reminder of Dickens' lasting legacy as he presented the plot in a way where you'll be mesmerized by its unfolding.  

**SPOILER ALERT**  

It's true that it contained scenes, sometime irrelevant and could have otherwise been deleted without affecting the flow, but more than anything else is how you could vividly picture the whole scenario he's talking about through his long narratives chronicling to the reader the life of an orphan who, at a premature age, experienced the cruelty of a society characterized by inequality and rampant criminal acts.  

Oliver is a boy who was housed together with other orphans in a parochial house after his poor mother died after giving him birth. Deprived of the food little boys needed to grow up healthy, he was tasked one day to ask for more helpings of the same food given to them every day.  

"Please sir, I want more," begged poor Oliver. But this did not lead to anything good as he was dispatched to become a servant-apprentice to a funeral parlor at a meager price.  

Due to their heartlessness, he escaped to London by foot for several days amidst the cruel roads and weather. 

In London, he was offered a place to stay by a bunch of robbers who trained him to be like them but never thought that the innocence and goodwill of the boy could never be bent.  

As the story progressed, the curious reader becomes aware that Oliver's plight as a robber was all plotted by a half-brother unknown to him. This, however, was not shown in the movie and the musical.  

When Oliver was finally saved after an unsuccessful robbery lead by the notorious Bill Sikes from these disdainful people by another orphaned girl who was adopted by a rich family and who later discovered that they were family, they soon learned the reason behind Oliver's mishaps - his brother, Edward Leeford who fashioned himself another name - Monks, as he hated his name which was the same with his father.  

It turned out that his father left both of them a considerable amount of money which they should both share unless Oliver was found to be an insolent young man. He and his mother, when the old lady was alive, planned to destroy every possible evidence that would lead to make Oliver 3000 pounds richer or even those which could show his attachment to the old Edward Leeford. 

Thanks to Nancy, the live-in partner of Bill Sikes who could never bear to see Fagin and his gang cut loose the bright future of another person, which, in this case is Oliver, and which these people have already done to her life. Unluckily, because of the kindness she never admitted, she was inhumanely killed by Sikes.  

The story ended with Fagin being sentenced to death, with Bill accidentally killing himself and with Oliver, becoming relieved of a kind of life and family he never once imagined he has.  

Anyone would probably feel sorry if he sees someone, especially a child already deprived of a better life at a very young age and worse planted in a soil that hardly grows healthy crops. Take this as a background and stuff it with ingenuity through words and expressions of unparalleled depth and wit and you would end up with a literary classic anyone would find completely wonderful to read at any given time. That's what true literary genius is, already exemplified by Charles Dickens in a novel I would never forget, Oliver Twist.

SEE ALSO the movie version of Oliver Twist and it's musical version.

A White Fall: The End of the White Men's Ascendancy in the US

 

Obama's acceptance speech highlights @ Yahoo! Video

VIEW THE COMPLETE SPEECH

It's amazing how a speech delivered with so much heart and sincerity could summon the tears from a person's eye to fall even without actually having personal attachment with the person giving the speech.

This was what I felt while I was watching USA's President-Elect Barack Obama delivering his acceptance speech in Chicago after I opened my internet browser's homepage (which had strictly yahooed every significant details of the US Presidential Election on their page), not intending to keep abreast with the political hubbubs happening on the other side of the globe. He, indeed, from the very first time I have learned that this man of negro descent is the Democrat's fish for the highly-revered seat at the White House, is the most worthy successor of the highest position in the world's most powerful country.

I must admit that I share the same sentiments with the "people with colored skins" in the US for being maltreated and inhumanely prejudiced by some of the white men before, or probably even until now, who think of themselves as the only people who deserve the land for which, in the first place, no one but the native Americans, who by nature are one of those "colored" people, truly deserve.

Even until now, most oftenly not in the United States though, the white men still highly consider themselves as if they were the only race who were blessed for being so wealthy, healthy and mighty, or so they think, and that people of colored skin are inferior to their direful beings. 

If you haven't heard yet of the case of a Pinoy celebrity who, although was born to a father belonging to a white race in a powerful country in Europe, still experienced discriminatory acts from people around him, which he could have probably treated as good friends, then I might say you're oblivious of this fact. Even more, and which is much obvious among us, the whites imposed upon us the false belief that a white skin spells beauty, wealth, sophistication, cleanliness and acceptance while a brown or black one is a dire remonstration of the "good" things brought about by being white. How disgusting!

Going back to the case in the US, apart from the native Americans who should have been the sole owners of the American soil, the African Americans, who endured centuries of slavery and discrimination, have long clamored for a country which truly embody the ideals of the forefathers of the US - peace, justice, equality, liberty and all other terms which sum up a unified and democratic nation.

Sadly, for centuries, these were only good in paper and were not actualized even under the influence of a religion which teaches its people to consider their neigbor as his brother or sister, much like being a people who share the same flesh and blood but devoid of color, race, language, culture and creed.

Time has witnessed the violence and inhumane treatment of the whites among the "colored" ones, specifically the descendants of the American slaves. History books have exceedingly chronicled these dark ages in the American history, which somehow, indirectly affected other people around the globe. I guess now, it's payback time - not in the same way the whites did those wrongs before though, but in a way where these kinds of people would learn to reflect on their cruelty by way of showing them how good things written on paper which is enforced to realization could create a dynamic, peaceful and loving people, which is somehow reflected on Obama's acceptance speech as the leader of the most powerful and influential country on the face of the planet. Jiayou, President Obama!