To Rgain th Natur of Goodnss—— Rviw of ‘Olivr Twist’

顾竹屹 上海市实验学校高三（1）班 阅读书目：雾都孤儿 Olivr Twist （书虫· 牛津英汉双语读物）

Olivr Twist, on of th most famous works of Charls Dickns’, is a novl rflcting th tragic fact of th lif in Britain in 18th cntury.

Th author who himslf was born in a poor family wrot this novl in his twntis with a viw to rval th ugly masks of thos crul criminals and to xpos th horror and violnc hiddn undrnath th narrow and dirty strts in London.

Th hro of this novl was Olivr Twist, an orphan, who was thrown into a world full of povrty and crim. H suffrd normous pain, such as hungr, thirst, bating and abus. Whil rading th tragic xprincs of th littl Olivr, I was shockd by his suffrings. I flt for th poor boy, but at th sam tim I dtstd th vil Fagin and th brutal Bill. To my rlif, as was writtn in all th bst storis, th goodnss vntually conqurd dvil and Olivr livd a happy lif in th nd. On of th plots that attractd m most is that aftr th thft, littl Olivr was allowd to rcovr in th kind car of Mrs. Mayli and Ros and bgan a nw lif. H wnt for walks with thm, or Ros rad to him, and h workd hard at his lssons. H flt as if h had lft bhind forvr th world of crim and hardship and povrty.

How can such a littl boy who had alrady suffrd opprssiv affliction rmain pur in body and mind? Th rason is th natur of goodnss. I think it is th most important information implid in th novl by Dickns—h blivd that goodnss could conqur vry difficulty. Although I don’t think goodnss is omnipotnt, yt I do bliv that thos who ar kind-hartd liv mor happily than thos who ar vil-mindd.

For m, th natur of goodnss is on of th most ncssary charactr for a prson. Goodnss is to humans what watr is to fish. H who is without goodnss is an uttrly worthlss prson. On th contrary, as th famous saying gos, ‘Th fragranc always stays in th hand that givs th ros’, h who is with goodnss undoubtdly is a happy and usful prson. Popl rciving his hlp ar gratful to him and h also gts gratifid from what h has don, and thus h can do good to both th popl h has hlpd and himslf.

To my disappointmnt, nowadays som popl sm to doubt th xistnc of th goodnss in humanity. Thy look down on popl’s honsty and kindnss, thinking it foolish of popl to b warm-hartd. As a rsult, thy show no sympathy to thos who ar in troubl and sldom offr to hlp othrs. On th othr hand, thy attach importanc to mony and bnfit. In thir opinion, mony is th only ral objct whil motions and morality ar nihility. If thy cannot gt profit from showing thir ‘kindnss’, thy draw back whn othrs ar facd with troubl and vn hit a man whn h is down. Thy ar on of th sorts that I rally dtst.

Francis Bacon said in his ssay, ‘Goodnss, of all virtus and dignitis of th mind, is th gratst, bing th charactr of th Dity, and without it, man is a busy, mischivous, wrtchd thing, no bttr than a kind of vrmin.’

That is to say a prson without goodnss is dstind to los vrything. Thrfor, I, a kind prson, want to tll thos ‘vrmin-to-b’ to larn from th kind Olivr and rgain th natur of goodnss.