Chapters 28-36

I'm not exactly sure what to say about these chapters. Nothing particularly excellent, but nothing too damaging to Dickens (please see my comments below).
But perhaps I should start with just a few of the Charles Dickens really, really big words that he likes to use because it makes him sounds smart and people don't understand:
1. solicitude: anxiety: a state of uneasiness or anxiety
2. quaint (sounds similar to quail, but it's totally different in meaning): attractively old-fashioned: with a charming old-fashioned quality
3. undaunted: not frightened: not afraid or deterred by the prospect of defeat, loss, or failure
4. confound: bewilder: to puzzle or confuse somebody (Example: these words that Dickens likes to keep using)
5. benevolent (opposite of malevolent, if that helps): kind: showing kindness or goodwill
6. imprecations: curse: to call down something bad or harmful, especially a curse, on somebody

And....on to the [semi-brilliant, this time] quotations:
1. "...but that poor boy whom their charity had rescued from misery, or death, was eager to serve them with his whole heart and soul."
~This quote, while admittedly a little corny, is another proof to the pudding (I love these cliches!) that Oliver Twist is a benevolent individual on the inside, most likely due to the suffering he's gone through. He wants others to feel good, preventing what happened to him from happening again.
2. "if you [Oliver] only take half the trouble to please us, that you promise now, you will make me very happy indeed."
~Once again, Oliver Twist, while in the country with Mrs. Maylie and Rose, is promising wonderful things to the ladies. He's showing his inner kindness; Dickens is developing his character through these quotes, showing that he's not a rebel who wants to get back at the world for what they've done to him.
3. "They were so good to me [Oliver]! So very good to me!"
~Oliver is saying this in an almost suprised way. It's almost like he doesn't realize until now that there are nice people in the world, to the point where, when the two ladies are kind to him, he rejoices because he's never had this type of treatment before. He's being accepted for who he is, not an orphan thrown out and abandoned.
4. "How often did Oliver start from his bed that night, and stealing out, with noiseless footstep to the staircase, listen for the slightest sound from the sick chamber. How often did a tremble shake his frame..."
~These chapters are focused more on Oliver Twist's reaction to Rose's illness than they are with the illness itself. Oliver is standing outside Rose's door, listening for the slightest quivering or shaking from the 17-year-old girl. He wants her to survive; apparently, they have forged a connection that Oliver can't afford to break; he can't lose the few people that care for him, since they are, by definition, so few.
5. "Tears are signs of gladness as well as grief; but those which coursed down Rose's face, as she sat pensively at the window, still gazing in the same direction, seemed to tell more of sorrow than of joy."
~Dickens is relaying a deep message with this quote. He is saying that the essence of tears can be either overly happy or relating to grief. Rose just sacrificed her marriage with Harry, Mrs. Maylie's son, in order for him to have a more successful career. A key theme in this novel is sacrifice, especially for others.

These chapters are not nearly as exciting as the rest of the novel has been so far. They lack the action and flowing writing style of Dickens that kept the narrative going, encouraging the reader to read faster, sucking in the information. These chapters were a bit difficult to get through because of sheer boredom. However, this isn't necessarily a criticizm because every novel has to have some chapters that develop the protaganist and these lines did just that (see below). In addition, it's a little bit unbelievable that the entire family that was almost robbed by Oliver and his alleged gang suddenly accepts him and embraces him as one of their own. A bit far-fetched, if you ask me (I certainly wouldn't be that trusting).

The main theme that appears to be emerging at this point in the novel is the fact that Dickens is developing Oliver Twist into a caring individual who sees the need to help and protect others because he has lost so much. Ever since the beginning of his life, he's been shunned, pushed away, and beaten by others. However, it's not at those moment of getting caned or smacked that he breaks down into fits of tears or illnesses. Rather, he breaks down when he realizes that someone else has been hurt. For example, the prospect of robbing a house or Rose's illness, not his own.