Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens seems to have influenced this text. For those of you who haven't read it, Oliver Twist is an orphan who gets caught up by a gang, Fagin and his gang, who steal and pickpocket for a living. Although Oliver Twist is being influenced by bad all around him, he has good morals and WANTS to do good, despite everything going on around him. Oliver Twist's life is threatened several times and is cared for by good people, for example, Mr. Brownlow. At the end of the book, Fagin and his gang die and Oliver Twist gets adopted by Mr. Brownlow, who cares for him as his own. Does this not sound like Wart/King Arthur???? He is an orphan. Merlin becomes his tutor, and he seems to love him, well that's how I view it. He overcomes battles of evil/darkness. Of course, it's not an ever after ending, but we all know he becomes a truly great and wonderful king, who is waiting in Avalon to come back and rule again.
The first picture above is a famous scene of Oliver Twist. At this point in the novel, Oliver Twist is living in a sort of foster home for boys, except, they have to work hard each day in a factory and get only one bowl of gruel, which is mostly water, than anything else. He is then punished because he asked for some more food. The two pictures of Oliver Twist and King Arthur favor one another. They both have a dirty blondish, light brownish hair color and they are both small and have skinny physiques that look like they need to eat a lot. They also both have some air of innocence about them.
The reason I said the text reminds me of Oliver Twist instead of Oliver Twist is similar to this story is because Charles Dickens wrote Oliver Twist in the 1800's. It came out in a serialized form in 1837-1839. After a very quick comment to our Professor, Dr. MB told me that he, Charles Dickens, influenced a lot of writers. I can see that in the text that we're reading now. Can You?
Absolutely. Dickens confronted some bleak social issues. His writings surely shaped people's thinking and eventual social reforms. Lacking child labor laws and social services, orphaned children did not tend to fare well in Dickens time or the early part of the 1900. My father was orphaned in early childhood; I grew under the canopy of his sorrow.
ReplyDeleteI like the connection you made between these two stories! We do see a lot of similarities between the two and Oliver Twist is a tale of perseverance through hard times, in Dickens' novel we are subjected to the harsh work environment of a factory at a very young age with virtually no safety precautions. We see many writers from the 1900's and even to this day influenced by Dickens and his works.
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