Oliver Twist

Oliver Twist is the first novel I look at, where the food the children are made to eat isn't particularly pleasant. (To say the least!) It was published in 1838 and is the earliest children's novel I will be looking at.

Just a quick synopsis of Oliver Twist in case you've never heard of it (I'd be surprised if you hadn't though)It is a novel about an orphan who grows up in a workhouse with only the option of gruel to eat. He nearly gets sent off to work as a chimney sweeper for a horrid man when he asks for more gruel! Oliver flies into a rage when the a boy named Noah insults Oliver's biological mother. Oliver runs away to London where he meets the Artful Dodger who picks pockets under the watchful eye of Fagin. Oliver gets into all sorts of trouble hanging around with Fagin and the rest of his crew. In the end Mr Brownlow a kind gentleman that Oliver attempts to pick pocket takes Oliver under his wing and decides to take care of him.

The orphans had to eat gruel day in day out, only on special occasions they were allowed it with a bit of bread. When researching what gruel actually consisted of I found that the ingredients were pretty simple and a lot of people actually enjoyed eating it! I still believe however if a bowl of gruel was given to a child today in the UK they would most likely not come away with a smile on their face.

The way it is described does not make it appear to be the most appetizing of dishes (a dish mainly made up of water... YUCK) and looking at the film adaptation of the book, the appearance of gruel looks pretty dire and the song the orphans sing show their distaste for it. They long for “Hot sausage and mustard!”