You know the line even if you haven't read Charles Dickens' classic Oliver Twist. The thin porridge has had a bad reputation ever since. After taking these initial photographs -- Oliver Twist (gruel), The Catcher in the Rye (a cheese sandwich and a malted milk), Moby-Dick (clam chowder), Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (tea) and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (an open-faced sandwich and coffee) -- I was totally hooked, and wanted to do more. Oliver Twist Questions & Answers Question 15: How did the boys react to the meal served to them? The protagonist of Dickens's novel ends up in such a workhouse as a child. Oliver has been in the parish orphanage all his short life, a place overcrowded and constantly short of food. Oliver Twist. Unfortunatly, Dickens and his ilk often used gruel as a metephor for cruelty. "Oliver Twist" was published at a time when many of Dickens' countrymen were living in great poverty. CHAPTER II: TREATS OF OLIVER TWIST’S GROWTH, EDUCATION, AND BOARD The room in which the boys were fed, was a large stone hall, with a copper at one end: out of which the master, dressed in an apron for the purpose, and assisted by one or two women, ladled the gruel at meal-times. The plot of this novel centres around and follows the journey of the parish boy "Oliver Twist." Like any novelist, Dickens didn’t hesitate to play with the truth a bit. Start your 48-hour free trial to unlock this Oliver Twist study guide. Oliver Twist’s gruel. The Dickensian delights of the Victorian workhouse, immortalised in the moment when a starving Gruel was served to orphans as an economic necessity. Photograph from matsuyuki on Flickr "Please, sir, can I have some more?" You certainly couldn't feed hundreds of children steak and eggs on city funds. When Oliver has the temerity to ask for more after the evening meal of gruel he astonishes and horrifies the parish board and the parish beadle. 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