By Girish Shukla

Copyright timesnownews

When we think of childhood, it is tempting to imagine it as a time of laughter, play, and freedom from responsibility. Society often paints it as the one stage of life untouched by hardship, a season of innocence before the burdens of adulthood arrive. Yet literature has long revealed that childhood is far more complex, and perhaps no book makes this clearer than Charles Dickens’s ‘Oliver Twist.’ Also Read: This Classic Book Predicted Burnout Culture Long Before We Had a Word for It First published in serial form between 1837 and 1839, ‘Oliver Twist’ is much more than a Victorian melodrama. It is a searing portrait of what happens when a child is born into a world where innocence offers no protection. Dickens used the story of Oliver not simply to entertain, but to shine a glaring light on the cruelties faced by the poor, particularly children, in nineteenth-century London. What he exposed remains unsettling today, because it forces us to admit that childhood is often shaped by circumstances beyond a child’s control. From the very beginning, Oliver’s life is defined by deprivation. He was born in a workhouse, his mother dying almost immediately after his birth. There is no warm welcome, no soft cradle of security, only the cold reality of institutional care. The workhouse system itself becomes a symbol of how society neglects its most vulnerable. Children are seen less as individuals with needs and feelings than as problems to be managed cheaply. Dickens spares no detail in showing how these systems strip children of dignity, painting an early picture of childhood as fragile and easily tainted by the adult world’s harshness. One of the most famous scenes in the novel, Oliver’s timid request for more food, has become iconic in literature. On the surface, it can appear almost comical, yet beneath it lies desperation. The child’s simple plea represents the failure of an entire system that denies basic nourishment. Here, Dickens presents childhood not as carefree but as marked by hunger and survival. Innocence exists, but it is not powerful enough to shield Oliver from suffering. As the story progresses, Oliver’s experiences continue to undermine the idea that children live in a bubble of innocence. His escape to London brings him into contact with Fagin and his gang of child pickpockets. These boys, far from playing games, are already part of a criminal underworld. What is most disturbing is not their behaviour but the way adults exploit their vulnerability. Dickens highlights how easily children can be manipulated when desperation leaves them with no choice. Childhood is revealed not as free and joyful but as a stage where exploitation thrives if society allows it. And yet, Dickens does not strip Oliver entirely of his innocence. In fact, what makes the novel so powerful is the tension between Oliver’s innate goodness and the corruption surrounding him. Despite abuse, hunger, and cruelty, Oliver retains a core of decency that others often try to crush. It is precisely because Oliver clings to innocence that his story resonates. Dickens shows us that while innocence may survive, it does so against all odds, and that survival is itself an act of resistance. What makes ‘Oliver Twist’ timeless is the way it forces readers to confront uncomfortable truths. Childhood is not a sanctuary guaranteed by age. It is shaped by social conditions, by family, by poverty, and by the structures built or neglected by adults. Dickens wrote in the nineteenth century, but his critique still speaks loudly. Even today, children across the world live lives defined more by survival than play. Poverty, neglect, and exploitation remain with us, reminding us that innocence is fragile and often conditional. The genius of Dickens lies not just in his social critique but in his ability to make Oliver’s story personal for readers. We are not simply asked to pity Oliver, but to see the systems and structures that create his suffering. By doing so, Dickens shifts the focus from an individual child to society’s responsibility. Childhood, the novel suggests, is not inherently innocent or protected. It is what adults make of it. Also Read: This Classic Book About Grief Will Break You Open and Put You Back Together In the end, ‘Oliver Twist’ remains a book that unsettles because it strips away comforting illusions. It reveals that innocence does not always shield children from hunger, exploitation, or neglect. Instead, it calls upon us to face an uncomfortable reality: that a society’s treatment of its children reflects its deepest values. Dickens forces us to see childhood not as a universal sanctuary, but as a fragile state that must be actively protected. To read ‘Oliver Twist’ today is to be reminded that innocence cannot thrive on its own. It requires care, compassion, and responsibility from the adults and the systems that surround a child. Without them, childhood becomes what Dickens portrayed with such urgency: a stage already shaped by pain and struggle.