Saturday, May 31, 2014
Oliver's Birth
The birth of Oliver Twist is definitely a peculiar one, being born with no one near him besides him mom, a parish surgeon, and a drunken nurse. It reveals that Oliver was born a bastard because of the absence of the ring on her finger, but then that makes me question "What happened to the father?" Also, why would there be a drunken nurse and parish surgeon attending the birth of Oliver? A drunken nurse and a parish surgeon (similar to a christian doctor) don't really seem like a good match especially when handling something as important as the birth of a premature baby. There is also question as to why Oliver's mother was found lying on the street the night before. Despite all of these problems, it is still amazing how Oliver Twist was still able to be born. Even though he was a premature baby in the womb of a woman left on the street with no support from the father and was given medical treatment from an amateur doctor and drunken nurse, he was still able to be born as a normal boy. This could perhaps be even a miracle just like Reuben's birth in Peace like a River. However unlike Reuben, Oliver was born alone with nothing...so sad :,(.
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I definitely agree that his birth was pretty miraculous. I think that Dickens did a good job choosing the birth as the beginning of the novel because such a strange situation caught my attention. I was pretty amazed as well that characters like a parish doctor and drunk nurse were on hand. I also thought it was pretty interesting that his mother just made it into the hands of these too; perhaps it's fate. His amazing birth also leads into his life story, which ends up pretty unusual itself.
ReplyDeleteThe connection to Peace Like a River makes me think that Leif Enger referenced Oliver Twist for certain scenes. PLaR has many allusions in it, so it wouldn't be surprising if Reuben's birth referenced Oliver's. If the allusion is there, it could be foreshadowing all of the bad events in Reubens life, since Oliver had so many.
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