Throughout the two excerpts for week 2, the themes differ largely within them. Oliver Twist is trotting through the Victorian era of London to stay alive, while Archie Jones is attempting suicide right from the beginning. The two different times where the excerpts take place highlights the struggles of different time periods.
Oliver Twist is a boy who is trekking through villages in London to make it to safety with his companion Mr. Sikes. The writing of this excerpt is very detailed and descriptive. It allows you to feel the rain and even feel the tiredness of traveling. I could also envision the places they were traveling to just by the adjectives that were used to convey the dark streets and the simple landmarks that they were passing. The description made it easy to depict the financial class they were in and the troubles that followed with that. For example, Mr. Sikes lied about Oliver being his son so they could get a ride to the next place of travel. This conveys the little amount of financial support they had which led them to commit “crimes”.
In White Teeth, Archie is debating his life and ready to end it due to a marriage that has failed. He does not want to live anymore, which puts an emphasis on the seldom struggles of the 70’s. It was a well written first excerpt that put an emphasis on the dull spirit that Archie had left in him. It was overwhelming to feel what he was also feeling because of how realistic the description was. Archie no longer had reason to live, but he also did not want to die. One problem made him ready to end his life, which has me wondering if there had been things before that also contributed to his state of gloom. Overall, the two excerpts were very well written with detail and underlying similar themes.
Postcards From London 