130 pages • 4 hours read
Charles Dickens, Philip HorneA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapter 21 begins on a particularly dreary morning. Sikes and Oliver head out into rainy London. Dickens describes the way that London comes awake at 5 a.m. with the hustle and bustle of people going about their lives. Sikes and Oliver walk a long time and every so often Mr. Sikes will drag Oliver forward so as to quicken his pace. However, with his short legs, Oliver has to quicken “his pace into a kind of trot between a fast walk and a run” in order to keep up with Sikes (241). Eventually, Sikes and Oliver catch a ride on the back of a cart from a friendly driver who assumes that Sikes is Oliver’s father.
They arrive in Hampton, where they get dinner at a public house. Oliver falls asleep at the table and later is awoken by a rude push from Sikes. They manage to get a ride with a man on his cart. Finally, Sikes and Oliver arrive at a ruined house outside of Shepperton. Initially, Oliver believes that Bill means to murder him, but Sikes keeps Oliver’s hand in his and heads into the house.
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