Reading: Unit 3: Influences

Like many people who later became successful writers, Charles Dickens grew up in a nice house and received a good education. However, this was to change when he was only 12 years old. In 1824, his father found that he owed people a lot of money and he was sent to prison. Charles had to stop going to school, live alone and get a job to make ends meet. He worked in a factory, putting labels onto bottles. He was paid very little and he loathed every minute of it.

Like many people who later became successful writers, Charles Dickens grew up in a nice house and received a good education. However, this was to change when he was only 12 years old. In 1824, his father found that he owed people a lot of money and he was sent to prison. Charles had to stop going to school, live alone and get a job to make ends meet. He worked in a factory, putting labels onto bottles. He was paid very little and he loathed every minute of it.

Like many people who later became successful writers, Charles Dickens grew up in a nice house and received a good education. However, this was to change when he was only 12 years old. In 1824, his father found that he owed people a lot of money and he was sent to prison. Charles had to stop going to school, live alone and get a job to make ends meet. He worked in a factory, putting labels onto bottles. He was paid very little and he loathed every minute of it.

Dickens certainly empathised with the poor, but he also believed that being poor often led to a life of crime. We can see this in the character Fagin in Oliver Twist, who makes poor children work for him as thieves. For Dickens, the best escape from poverty was through education. He later helped to support the so-called Ragged Schools, where children of the poorest families in the country could get a good education.

Dickens certainly empathised with the poor, but he also believed that being poor often led to a life of crime. We can see this in the character Fagin in Oliver Twist, who makes poor children work for him as thieves. For Dickens, the best escape from poverty was through education. He later helped to support the so-called Ragged Schools, where children of the poorest families in the country could get a good education.