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1-Page Summary of Oliver Twist

Oliver Twist was born in a workhouse. His mother, whose name is unknown, died shortly after his birth. Oliver spent the first nine years of his life at a badly run orphanage and then was transferred to an adult workhouse because he had been bullied by other boys there. One day, Mr. Bumble offered five pounds to anyone who would take Oliver away from the workhouse; however, another boy decided not to accept it and tried to convince Oliver that this offer wasn’t good enough for him either. This boy knew about orphanages where they beat children with whips or chains if they didn’t behave properly. As a result of these comments from the other apprentice Noah Claypole, Oliver attacked him and received punishment from Mr. Sowerberry’s wife instead of Mr. Sowerberry himself as she thought that her husband might be too soft on Oliver since he felt sorry for him being an orphan without any parents or relatives at all (and no one ever came looking for him). The next morning, when everyone else in the household was still asleep except Mrs. Sowerberry who always woke up very early but never got out of bed before noon unless she wanted something special like coffee which happened only once every two weeks (or so), Oliver left their house while it was still dark outside and went towards London where he hoped to find better conditions than those in the town where he lived until now…

Oliver, a young orphan boy in London, meets another orphan named Jack. Jack takes Oliver to the home of his benefactor, Fagin. It turns out that Fagin is a criminal who trains boys to pick pockets for him. The next day, Oliver goes on a pickpocketing mission with two other boys and sees them steal from an old man’s pocket handkerchief. Oliver runs away because he thinks stealing is wrong and doesn’t want to be part of it anymore. He gets caught but narrowly escapes being convicted of theft thanks to Mr. Brownlow taking him in after seeing how sick he was at the time when he stole the handkerchief (and also because there were no witnesses). Mr Brownlow gives Oliver food and shelter until he recovers from his sickness; while staying with Mr Brownlow, Oliver notices that one of the portraits hanging on the walls looks like him—Mr Brownlow explains that this portrait belongs to someone else whose name just happens to be “Oliver Twist”. A few days later Bill Sikes (a member of Fagin’s gang) comes back for Oliver; they take him back home where Nancy threatens him into going along as their apprentice thief again by telling her she’ll give evidence against Bill if she ever catches them together again or something bad will happen to her dog which helps her break open locks…

Fagin sends Oliver to help Sikes in a burglary. While they’re doing that, Oliver is shot by the servant of the house and he’s rescued by Mrs. Maylie and her niece Rose who live nearby. They take care of him for a while until Fagin comes looking for him with Monks, another man who wants to capture Oliver as well. Meanwhile, an old locket belonging to Oliver’s mother has been discovered but it gets stolen by Monks. When the Maylies come back from London after finding out about what happened with Nancy, she meets secretly with Rose and tells her everything about Fagin’s plan before being killed by one of his men when she leaves their meeting place without noticing them there. This makes Sikes angry enough to kill Nancy himself because he thinks she betrayed them both even though it was really his fault since he didn’t want anyone else knowing anything about what they were doing except for him and Nancy alone which led this whole thing happening in the first place. He then runs away from London but ends up hanging himself accidentally when trying to escape from all these people chasing after him because he knows they’ll never stop hunting him down unless something like that happens.