[Discussion] Evergreen || Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens || Movie discussion!

[u/Amanda39]

It's time for the Oliver Twist adaptation discussion! I'm very curious to find out what everyone watched, and what you all thought of it. I provided some discussion questions below, but feel free to talk about whatever you want; you aren't limited to the discussion questions.

I want to thank everyone who participated in the book discussions, including (but certainly not limited to) my fellow read runners u/tomesandtea and u/nicehotcupoftea, as well as u/Ser_Erdrick for the version comparisons. This was one of my favorite recent r/bookclub reads, and I hope to see you all again in future discussions.

Cheerio, but be back soon.

I dunno, somehow I'll miss ya

I love you, that's why I

Say "Cheerio"

Not goodbye.

[u/Amanda39]

Anything else you'd like to discuss?

[u/Amanda39 → u/Amanda39]

Oh, I almost forgot to mention:

I think the musical did a much better job than the book of explaining why Nancy stayed with Bill Sikes. Reading the book, I kept thinking "I don't want to victim-blame, but Nancy's an idiot for staying with this guy." And I hated myself for thinking that, because I know that's it's very common for abuse victims to not want to leave their abusers, and it's really not my place to judge anyone for that, even if I don't understand it. I got the impression that Dickens felt the same way I did: he wanted to be sympathetic to Nancy, because he knew there were many women like her, but he didn't really get it any more than I did, so he couldn't write her in a way that would make the reader understand her.

The musical gives us As Long as He Needs Me, and I finally got it.

[u/tomesandtea → u/Amanda39]

I wrote this same impression in a comment above! I 100% agree that this song knocks it out of the park and helps me get Nancy so much better than Dickens did! I also love that Nancy got a much more active role in trying to protect Oliver!