Private charities, such as the philanthropists who begged Mr. Scrooge for donations in one of Dickens' other novels, a Christmas Carol, could, quite simply, not keep up with the demand for charity.
The more effective solution Victorian England found to the problem of child hunger was linked with education -- namely that of the school lunch. In the 1870s, local philanthropic school meals services began to emerge in Britain. "By promising a scientific mechanism for identifying hungry children and calculating the minimum quantities of food required to satiate them, social and nutritional scientists provided ways of translating and depoliticizing the new social ethics of hunger into practical administrative techniques for the provision of school meals by the state"(Vernon 3). The institution of the school lunch effectively linked social betterment with good nutrition, acknowledging that a hungry child was more likely to commit crimes, while a better-fed child was less likely…...
mlaWorks Cited
Banerjee, Jacqueline. "Ideas of Childhood in Victorian Children's Fiction: Orphans, Outcasts and Rebels." The Victorian Web. 22 Aug 2007. 14 Apr 2008. http://www.victorianweb.org/genre/childlit/childhood4.html
Lankford, William T. "The Parish Boy's Progress": The Evolving Form of Oliver Twist
PMLA. 93. 1. Jan., 1978. pp. 20-32. URL:
ith Nancy, Dickens provides us answer. Nancy, the harlot, might be perceived as a weak character but something about her emerges strong and indelible. She is like Laura in the Glass Menagerie, who appears to be the weakest character only to materialize as one with superior strength. Nancy makes the greatest sacrifice yet she does give herself enough credit. She is convinced her fate is sealed. hen the gentleman at London Bridge offers her any help, she refuses, stating she is "chained to my own life. I loathe and hate it now, but I cannot leave it" (Dickens 406). Nancy buys into the belief that she cannot change but this does not prevent her from making moral decisions. She accepts the concept that people cannot rise above their environment while she masterfully illustrates it is not true. Her sacrifice remains the true testament to this. att writes Nancy challenges…...
mlaWorks Cited
Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist. New Jersey: Watermill Press. 1983.
Watt, George. "Nancy." The "Fallen Woman" in the Nineteenth Century English Novel. Gale 2008. Literature Resource Center. Web. 20 Feb. 2010.
Victorian Literature: omen's Nature In Oliver Twist
Martyrs and whores: omen's true nature in Oliver Twist
The women of Oliver Twist play an important function in the novel, both symbolically as well as in terms of the plot. The novel begins with the title boy being given birth to by a women in poverty and is subsequently consigned to a workhouse. Later, as a result of a series of strange circumstances, he is found to be of noble birth. Nancy, a 'whore with a heart of gold' sacrifices herself so Oliver can move on to a new life. omen in the novel are primarily seen as nurturers, and that nurturing function enables Oliver to survive. hen that nurturing function is perverted, as in the case of prostitution or the scheming Mrs. Mann, Dickens uses this as evidence of the corruption of larger society. Similarly, when male figures like Fagin attempt to taken…...
mlaWork Cited
Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist. Online Literature Library. Web. 7 Dec 2014.
people of different social classes are viewed in each novel, how they treat one another, what assumptions they make about their worth, how they view themselves, and how Dickens's view changed between one novel and the other
Both stories, Great Expectations and Oliver Twist, are one of escape for their characters. For Oliver, it is escape form his starvation and bondage. For Pip is it escape from his poverty and illiteracy. Both escape into another world. The world of an 'upper class'. Each has a huge number of similitudes as they have dissimilarity. Their greatest similarity is that both describe the miseries of the abused orphaned penniless waif growing up in poor surrounding, Oliver more than Pip. The distinction between both is that whilst Oliver is a description and rendering o poverty and the abuse of societal class discrimination at its worst, Great Expectations journeys beyond that and has the…...
mlaSources
Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. New York: The Heritage Club, 1939.
Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist. New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1949.
If the villain of Oliver Twist is the meta-character of urban setting, then the protagonist must be the meta-character of country setting, of which Oliver is as much a chief as Fagin is of the urban setting. The principle characteristic of the country setting is its goodness, in direct opposition to the corruption of the urban setting. The incorruptible goodness, which Oliver bears, is that which permits him to remain unchanged and moral despite his deep immersion in the urban setting.
In many ways Oliver Twist might be read as a refutation of Dickens's contemporary, Leo Tolstoy, who asserted that destiny is the product of historical forces driving each from his birthing station to an unavoidable end. Oliver Twist, rather, presumes that despite the terrible circumstances in which Oliver is reared, goodness prevails in his character and actions. So can we read the character of Nancy, who though corrupted by her…...
mlaBibliography
1. Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist. New York: Marboro Books Corp. 1992. Print
2. Bloom, Harold. How to Read and Why. New York: Touchstone, 2000. Print
3. Campbell, Joseph. The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology. New York: Penguin Group, 1987. Print
4. Driver, Felix. Power and Pauperism: The Workhouse System, 1834-1884. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Print
Charles Dickens
As the Child Is Brought Up
Charles Dickens wrote tens of thousands of words in his life on a handful of subjects, returning again and again to the questions that first compelled him to write. These subjects -- primarily poverty and the ways in which its tentacles spread injustice through all levels of society -- are taken up in both Oliver Twist and Great Expectations. The two novels run in parallel lines in terms of theme and symbolism, but diverge as well in terms of their structure and some of the more technical devices. The overall effect of this combination of similarity and dissimilarity leave the reader with the sense of having read the same tale told in two distinct dialects.
As is the case in every novel written by Dickens, the plot of Oliver Twist is so highly complex that any summary of it is (to reference another British writer)…...
omen's Nature In Oliver Twist
hen assessing women's original nature and how it is manifested and displayed in Oliver Twist, it becomes clear that the three main female characters all portray a different version of how women can be perceived and render themselves. Rose, Agnes and Nancy. However, the exploration of women's nature and how it was defined in the Victorian age need not be limited to those three. It is illuminating and revealing how Dickens poses and presents the women of Oliver Twist and the reactions that tend to be elicited by those that read and review this work. On the whole, it is obvious and clear that Dickens levied a full-frontal assault against the system and regimentation that were held against women, the poor and the ruffians of society. As it pertains to women, this obviously included the concept and idea that woman that keep themselves virginal, prim and…...
mlaWorks Cited
Dickens, Charles. "The Adventures of Oliver Twist." Google Books. N.p., 1 Jan. 1986. Web. 16
Oct. 2014. .
Oliver went home with the elderly gentleman and his family and for the first time in his life, Oliver found himself in a situation where someone cared for him.
Oliver's moral character was somewhat better than Moll's. Despite the fact that he had no moral guidance, he recognized that stealing was wrong. Dickens writes,
hat was Oliver's horror and alarm as he stood a few paces off, looking on with his eyelids as wide open as they would possibly go, to see the Dodger plunge his hand into the old gentleman's pocket, and draw from thence a handkerchief…in an instant, the whole mystery of the handkerchief, and the watches, and the jewels, and the Jew, rushed upon the boy's mind (82).
Moll, on the other hand, turned to theft deliberately when she was too old to turn the heads of men. Unlike the young Oliver who was too young to contemplate the…...
mlaWorks Cited
Defoe, Daniel. Moll Flanders. New York: Penguin Group, 1996. Print.
Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist. New York: Peebles Press International, n/d. Print.
Fielding, Henry. Joseph Andrews. United States: Martin C. Battestin, 1961. Print.
Gast, M.A. Nicole. Marriages and the Alternatives in Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice.' 2005. Web. 20 Apr. 2010.
One cannot build the right sort of house -- the houses are not really adequate, "Blinds, shutter, curtains, awnings, were all closed and drawn to keep out the star. Grant it but a chink or keyhole, and it shot in like a white-hot arrow." The stare here is the metonymic device -- we assume it is stranger, the outside vs. The inside, but for some reason, it is also the authority involved, and one that is able to ensure adequacy. In a similar vein, the "churches were freest from it," but they offer only an homage' to safety, and use their power to shut people out from the light that "made the eyes ache" and had been inhumanly oppressive. The prison, though, is "so repulsive a place that even the obtrusive star blinked at it and left it to such refuse of reflected light as could find." The stare…...
mlaLabor in Little Dorrit." Journal of the Novel. 31 (1) 21+.
Young, Arlene. (1996). "Virtue Domesticated: Dickens and the Lower Middle
Class." Victorian Studies. 39 (4): 483+.
(Eliot, 1971).
The Subjective over the Objective
Modernism was a reaction against Realism and its focus on objective depiction of life as it was actually lived. Modernist writers derived little artistic pleasure from describing the concrete details of the material world and the various human doings in it. They derived only a little more pleasure from describing the thoughts of those humans inhabiting the material world. Their greatest pleasure, however, was in expressing the angst, confusion, and frustration of the individual who has to live in that world. (Merriam-Webster, p. 1236).
Modernist writers used novel means for expressing these newly intense emotions. They did not always express the individual's confusion and frustration by relating the inner discourse of the individual. Instead, they manipulated the structure, style, and content of their works to cultivate a certain effect on the reader. (aym, Vol. D, p. 17). They wanted to convey the experience of the…...
mlaBibliography
1. Snow, C. (1968). The Realists: Portraits of Eight Novelists. New York: Macmillan.
2. Fried, M. (1997). Realism, Writing, Disfiguration: On Thomas Eakins and Stephen Crane. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
3. Wilson, E., & Reill, P. (2004). Encyclopedia of the enlightenment. New York, NY: Facts on File.
4. Zafirovski, M. (2011). The Enlightenment and Its Effects on Modern Society. New York: Springer.
ight to Privacy, 1st Amendment
The parameters of one's right to privacy have long been a subject of controversy and while the Constitution does not expressly guarantee one's right to privacy, there are several amendments that were designed to protect specific, private rights of citizens. One of the amendments that seek to protect the private rights of citizens is the First Amendment. However, controversies have arisen that have required the Supreme Court to impose limitations on an individual who is exercising his or her rights under the First Amendment.
The First Amendment states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances" (U.S. Const. amend. I). As stated in the First Amendment, one is given the…...
mlaReferences
Hustler Magazine v. Falwell. (1988). The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago -- Kent College of Law.
Retrieved 7 July 2012, from http://www.oyez.org/cases/1980-1989/1987/1987_86_1278/
Notable First Amendment Court Cases. (2012). American Library Association. Retrieved 7 July
2012, from http://www.ala.org/offices/oif/firstamendment/courtcases/courtcases
Thus, though she must perform a "masculine" role in order to be successful, she must perform it in a "feminine" way, and thus disrupt the idea of gender.
This also ties in quite nicely with Cullen's assertion that the modern individual is defined by love and connection with their family, rather than by their place in society. The very fact that meg is the one to save Charles allace is a further affirmation of the willingness -- on the part of both Meg and L'Engle -- to buck the societal roles that have been laid out for women and instead to embrace their own identity based on their love for others, and to a greater or lesser degree the love that others bear them. Of course, the romance that is still blossoming between Meg and Calvin still entrenches this novel somewhat in the old mentality of romance and love, but…...
mlaWorks Cited
Culler, Jonathan. Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction.
L'Engle, Madeleine. A Wrinkle in Time. New York: Yearling, 1973.
San Francisco is a place of greater opportunity than anywhere in the South offered her; there are fewer freedoms than she discovered in Mexico or in the junkyard, perhaps, but these restrictions are attendant on the opportunities afforded her. Angelou's ability to imagine those opportunities carried on the sea breeze or just over the crest of each successive hill of the San Francisco marks her successful journey in the book to a woman of confidence.
Conclusion
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings tells a true tale, but it does so in such a way that each of the elements is just as important as they would be in a work of fiction. The setting of each scene in Angelou's life story neatly matches the plot points and the character development, not through literary contrivance but through necessity -- it is how the story happened. Had her story unfolded in different…...
mlaReferences
Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. New York: Random House, 2009.
Boyatzis, Chris. "Let the Caged Bird Sing: Using Literature to teach Developmental Psychology." Teaching of psychology 19(4), pp. 221-2.
Ingman, Heather. Mothers and Daughters in the Twentieth Century. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999.
Walker, Pierre. "Racial Protest, Identity, Words, and Form in Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." College Literature 22(3), pp. 91-108.
6). Beattie, like anyone else, was a product of her times.
She is also, again like anyone else, a product of her own individual circumstances. A further interpretation of the bowl as a symbol of the feminine finds a deeper connection between the circumstances of the fictional Andrea and the real-life Ann Beattie. Though she is not especially forthcoming with personal details, there are some facts with which a correlation can be drawn.
Though (presumably) happily married for many years, Ann Beattie and her husband have no children (Frost, par. 1). Again, she has not shared the reasons for this, nor would it be a reasonable question to pose to her. It is a significant fact to note, however, given the resemblance of the bowl to the female womb. Henningfield suggests an interpretation of the bowl, especially of the husband's turning away from it and Andrea's refusal to let him put…...
mlaWorks Cited
Beattie, Ann. "Janus." The Norton Introduction to Literature. Ed. Allison Booth, J. Paul Hunter, Kelly J. Mays. New York: Norton, 2005. 280-283.
Brent, Liz. "Overview of 'Janus.'" Short Stories for Students, Vol. 9, the Gale Group, 2000.
Frost, Adam. "Beattie, Ann." Literature Online bibliography. Cambridge, 2002. ProQuest Information and Learning Company. 12 Mar. 2009. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl-ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&xri:pqil:res_ver=0.2&res_id=xri:lion-us&rft_id=xri:lion:ft:ref:BIO006220:0
Henningfield, Diane Andrews. "Overview of 'Janus.'" Short Stories for Students, Vol. 9, the Gale Group, 2000.
Lesson plans should closely follow the IEP goals.
Disabilities should be an essential part of any curriculum discussion because it can impact a student's ability to learn certain material. Dylexic students for instance will have a fundamentally harder time with reading comprehension and writing than other students. Therefore, their IEP will factor in their learning disability in order to allow them to reach their own goals in terms of education level and standards. Without such a criteria certain students will become frustrated and oftentimes underperform.
eading Levels
eading level refers to ability of students to read and comprehend instructional material. It is critical to understand that students' reading levels might be higher or lower than their grade level. A fifth grader might enjoy reading books with a 6.0 to 6.9 reading level, which would be appropriate for the average sixth grader.
By using assessments that indicate a student's reading level, teachers can select…...
mlaReference
Burns, M., VanDerHeyden, a., Jiban, C. (2007). Assessing the instructional level for mathematics: A comparison of methods. School Psychology Review. Retrieved June 20, 2007 at http://www.nasponline.org/publications/spr/sprsupplement5.aspx
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now