Up until now, Oliver has endured all manner of indignities without uncomplaining. He has been humble and docile. But Noah's constant hazing and teasing, followed by his rude insinuations about Oliver's mother, brought Oliver to the limit of endurance. He rebelled. "He had listened to their taunts with a look of contempt; he had borne the lash without a cry; for he felt that pride swelling in his heart which would have kept down a shriek to the last though they had roasted him alive."
The awakening of pride was a new sensation for Oliver, and with it came the resolution to take positive action to escape from his oppressors. At the conclusion of Chapter 4, when ordered to his dreary bed, Oliver "meekly followed his new mistress." As Chapter 7 ends, we find Oliver firmly telling his friend Dick: "I am running away. . . . I am going to seek my fortune, some long way off. I don't know where."
