Oliver is an orphan who receives blow after blow from life, everything, and all that. Born in a workhouse and nearly starved as a child, abused, maltreated, malnourished, and downtrodden, he makes his way through life with goodness and an untarnished soul.
Dickens uses Oliver's origins as a commentary on the treatment of the poor: he depicts them as starving and hopeless and maltreated by the people whose very jobs are to look after them. It is a hopeless cycle ridden with self-serving, greedy, pompous people: the picture Dickens paints is a horrid one, inspiring pity.