31 a child hero’s journey
By Rachel Sexton Oliver Twist
shipped off to apprentice at an undertaker‟s. There, Mr. Sowerberry, and his wife do little to effect any change in Oliver‟s luck with adults but the real problem at this new place is a fellow apprentice; Noah Claypoole provokes Oliver into a fight and gets him a whipping. To carry this over to the other examples mentioned earlier, Harry‟s aunt and uncle Dursley on Privet Drive make his entrance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry feel like an escape. Luke, in contrast, is well treated by his Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru but they are killed early on by Stormtroopers, foot soldiers for the tyrannical Galactic Empire. After his punishment at
the undertaker‟s, Oliver takes a step that is another feature of the hero‟s journey—the actual journey itself. He runs away to London. The distance can vary but the hero usually travels from the place he knows to another, totally unfamiliar one. In our other examples, Harry goes a long way to reach Hogwarts but feels like he‟s going home and Luke ends up crisscrossing the galaxy
during all his adventures. Different events confront
each hero along his path but in each case he survives and reaches the resolution of his emotional and physical trials. Oliver‟s conflict arrives in the form of more adults who behave despicably. First,
cohort Bill Sykes, a depraved man who would murder a child without thinking twice. For Harry and Luke, the oppositions on the way to their hero‟s ending takes up seven books and three films! This story archetype is
about a hero, which means
usually does his bidding but comes through in doing the right thing when it counts. Fagin and Bill continue to
put obstacles in the way of Oliver staying with his grandfather but the positive resolution for the put-upon orphan is already on its way. The criminals meet their deserved fates at the hands of the law and Oliver gets to go to a warm, affectionate, and affluent home. Harry and Luke also achieve their goals of defeating the evil villains in their own stories for good. The framework of Oliver
after being recruited by the Artful Dodger, Oliver meets Fagin, the aging leader of a band of pick-pocketing street urchins. Dickens makes the reader cringe a bit with his stereotype but Jewish Fagin‟s greed is all-consuming. Even worse is Fagin‟s criminal
the lead character is one of the good guys. And their moral strength is rewarded in the end. Good luck blesses Oliver with a series of events that puts him in the way of his maternal grandfather, Mr. Brownlow. Also, Bill Sykes‟ significant other, Nancy,
Twist may be a classic hero‟s journey but Dickens is able to put his own imprint on the familiar form so the result is both timeless and relevant to his era. The novel has had many adaptations over the years with directors David Lean in 1948 and Roman Polanski in 2005 being the most notable. Interestingly, Fagin in Lean‟s version is played under heavy makeup by Alec Guinness, who was Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars. That being another hero‟s journey, the actor must have felt at home. ♥
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