Dead Men Whisper

I just added a new feature on my blog obviously called "Quote of the Month". I am one of those people completely intrigued in the power of a single quote. There must be something remarkable in a masterfully assembled sentence that makes people remember it.

Just as the title says, the quote will be changed monthly, each one attempting to summon a thought, any inkling of depth, into the minds of the reader. If you wish to see a quote from a month past, simply click on "Quotes" in the blog archive and all my postings concerning the quote and my thoughts upon it can be found. Usually, the quote has come from a book I have read, as does the first "quote of the month." Charles Dickens wrote the following in his emotionally prisoning story, Oliver Twist:

"If we heard but one instant in imagination the deep testimony of dead men's voices, which no power can stifle and no pride shut out, where would be the injury and injustice, the suffering, misery, cruelty, and wrong, that each day's life brings with it?"

Oliver Twist is merciless to the mood. Charles Dickens placed perfect injustice (what a sick oxymoron) upon the poor orphan Oliver, and let the reader follow along, helplessly wallowing in misery. I see this selection as a hope for eventual justice, a want for better understanding.

Dickens himself was a consistent humanitarian, determined to improve the social conditions of London in the nineteenth century (Learning this fact while on a Dickens tour in London motivated me to read Oliver Twist). A deep theme in each story he writes is the unlimited power of redemption. Almost no other author I know has come up with such beautiful portraits of good arising out of evil circumstances.

So take that, all you Dickens haters.