What did Oliver get when he asked for more gruel in Oliver Twist?
The boys that work with Oliver in the workhouse are starving, as they're only served small portions of gruel (a type of porridge similar to oatmeal) three times a day. They're afraid to ask for more than they're given, but they know that they must try or they'll die of starvation. Thus, they decide to finally ask the master for more gruel; they draw straws to see who will be the one to do it, and nine-year-old Oliver draws the short straw. He knows that asking for more food will get him in a lot of trouble, but he has to do it because the other boys will bully him if he doesn't, and he's also very hungry.
When he approaches the master and asks for a bit more gruel for him and the boys, the master is so shocked and even offended that Oliver dared to ask such a...
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question that he smacks the boy across the head with a big ladle. The master then calls Mr. Bumble, his superior, and tells him about Oliver's "preposterous" request. Mr. Bumble is equally shocked and takes the boy to a room where the Board of Directors are having a meeting. He tells Mr. Limbkins, the chairman, about the incident and Mr. Limbkins, and the directors agree that Oliver will receive a big punishment for his behavior; they even believe that he might be hanged. Thus, they try to think of ways of how to get rid of him and decide to sell Oliver for five pounds to anyone who is willing to take the boy.
Why did Oliver ask for more gruel in Oliver Twist?
The primary reason that Oliver asks for more gruel (which is similar to oatmeal) is because he is hungry. The board members of the workhouse where Oliver lives meet and decide that "the poor people like" the room and board they receive. Supposedly, the poor people enjoy being in a place where their meals are provided for and they can live without expense (besides their labor) (ch. 2). The board decides to feed the poor people less food to lighten the expenses of the facility and to encourage the poor people to get out of the workhouse. Dickens describes the miserable effects of the board's decision:
"It was rather expensive at first, in consequence of the increase in the undertaker's bill, and the necessity of taking in the clothes of all the paupers, which fluttered loosely on their wasted, shrunken forms, after a week or two's gruel. But the number of workhouse inmates got thin as well as the paupers . . ." (ch. 2)
The board's decision to reduce the food portions has grave effects: many die, and those who live have to get smaller clothing to fit their emaciated bodies. This starvation policy leads the boys, who "generally [have] excellent appetites" to "suffer . . . the tortures of slow starvation for three months" (ch. 2). In fact, one of the boys claims he is so hungry that
"unless he had another basin of gruel per diem [day], he was afraid he might some night happen to eat the boy who slept next him" (ch. 2).
Though the boys aren't truly considering cannibalism, they are very, very hungry. This is Oliver's primary motivation for asking for more food.
Their great hunger leads the boys to hold a "council" where they elect (through lots, or by rolling a dice) Oliver to ask the master for more food. Though he realizes that he will likely get in trouble for his discontent with the portion of food offered to him, he asks because he is sincerely hungry. He also asks for more gruel to (hopefully) benefit his friends with a bit more food. His wish is not granted, and he does get in trouble for making this request.
References
Why did Oliver Twist ask for more?
In chapter 2 of the novel, the eponymous Oliver finds himself in a workhouse along with lots of other orphaned children. The children are given hardly any food and, as a result, are malnourished. After three months of "slow starvation," the children get together and decide that one of them should ask the master of the workhouse for more food. The children draw lots, and it is decided that Oliver should be the one to ask.
Oliver is described as "desperate with hunger" the night that he asks for more gruel. He approaches the master of the workhouse with his bowl and his spoon in his hands and he says, "Please, sir, I want some more." The master is astonished that one of the children would dare to ask for more food and he strikes Oliver across the head "with the ladle."
Oliver Twist was first published in 1838. At this time, England was undergoing an Industrial Revolution, and one consequence of this revolution was lower pay and worse living conditions for the working classes. Charles Dickens himself experienced extreme poverty in his own childhood and, when he was just twelve years old, was put into a debtor's prison with his father, mother, and siblings. Dickens wrote Oliver Twist in part to protest the appalling conditions endured by the impoverished and by the working classes. When Oliver asks for more gruel, he speaks on behalf of the poor and working classes in England, who needed and deserved more from their country.