POVERTY AND POWER: A SOCIO-LITERARY ANALYSIS OF OLIVER TWIST AND UNTOUCHABLE IN THE LIGHT OF THE UN’S SDG-1

Abstract

This study focuses on poverty as reflected in real life and in literature. It looks at how two famous novels, Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens and Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand, show the poor people suffering in two different cultures—England and India. They show that poverty is more than just not having money; it also brings shame, pain, and lack of dignity. Each novel is set in a different place and time—Oliver Twist in 19th-century England and Untouchable in 20th-century India. But the pain of poverty is the same. Both stories show how poor people are treated as if they are less than human. Oliver is treated like a criminal because he is poor. Bakha is treated harshly even worse than animals because of his caste.

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