Great Expectations: connections with picture

    As strange as it may sound I think that the character Harry Potter is very similar to Pip. Not only is Harry left with his only surviving relative petunia, who is a strict harsh woman much like Mrs. Joe. Harry also must live a very humble life in a cupboard under the stairs and then is suddenly sent into the dazzling world of magic. Pip is also given a new life when his benefactor helps him move to London.
    Pip and Harry also have many near death experiences that make them reflect on there decisions and their friendships. Both characters also have very strong friendships. Pip has Joe and Herbert, while Harry has Ron and Hermione. One individual evil is also present in each story. For Pip it's Compyson and for Harry its Voldemort.

Great Expectations Stage 2

        In the second stage of Great Expectations Pip seems to be a little lost. He's is living in a completely unfamiliar world and is unsure of his hopes and aspirations in life. This combined with his lack of experience in the aristocratic world creates a conflict that Pip isn't prepared to face. This conflict is becoming an adult. Since he is not prepared for this, Pip created a bubble of denial to protect him. This bubble keeps him from realizing how deep in debt he is, how unrealistic his love for Estella is and how cruel he is to Joe. His bubble can't last forever though, and when it's popped he is thrust into the unfair world that he must face later in the novel.
      This shroud that Pip sees the world through is unhealthy, and eventually comes back to haunt Pip when he realises how poorly his life has turned out. The theme that pervades this stage of Great Expectations is that life is a struggle and we must face our fears honestly and not lie to ourselves about the problems have.

Connecting With Romeo an Juliet

       In the first scene of the play Romeo and Juliet there is a fight between the Capulets and the Montagues. In this fight Benvolio  tries to separate the two house holds, but no one listens to him. Instead he is mocked and ridiculed. Later though, Prince arrives, when he tells the people to disperse they do. This conflict reminded me a lot of and school fight, where two kids get violent and another tries to intercept. This other student being Benvolio. Prince on the other hand is like a teacher. He is respected and demands the attention that Benvolio could not get. Like most children, the Capulets and Montagues listened to there "teacher" and stopped fighting. It seems like a very mundane example to be comparing with Shakespeare, but as I read the play I realise that its actually a very universal story that everyone can relate to.
     This makes the book an easy read for me. As I can easily understand the basics of the characters conversations. Especially after going over the previous nights reading in class. It seems to help to know what other people got out of a particular passage or to hear the dialogue actually being spoken. The annotations on the other hand are a little confusing. Even though I know exactly what I'm looking for I'm not sure how thorough I should be or why I'm even doing them. I can grasp the information without the annotations and I know from the conversations we had in class other people can too.

Thoughts On Reading

     It's been a while since we finished reading the book Great Expectations. I'm sure that's obvious because of how late this post is.( I'm very sorry about that.) But still, i feel that Pip has left a lasting impression on my creative  mind. Giving me a more somber, dreary view of the romantic Victorian era. I felt that it was a good novel. Well rounded, if a little formal, even with the frequent use of low diction. I must say though that I was disappointed my the story's conclusion. It was vague and abrupt and very confusing with the double endings. I'm sure my staccato reading style didn't help my comprehension of the plot much though.
      It's true I was one of the students to read the book in large, infrequent chunks. But it seemed the only way that I could squeeze in the time to look over the writing critically and try to understand what was being said. When I wasn't trying to catch up though, I was reading much like Mrs Gilman. Very early in the morning, then while I was stuck in traffic and on into my first period Art class, where for the first twenty minutes we do nothing but talk about music and students' older siblings and how it just happens to be raining. It's not the most productive class, but that's not important. what really matters is that I did, eventually, finish Great Expectations and was happy I did. It was a well written, unique book, as all of Charles Dickens's works are, that helped me to see into my future and discover my own expectations for adulthood.

Great Expectations question

Why is it that Mrs. Joe is polite in public, but when she is alone with Joe and Poe she becomes a sort of military Sargent, who yells and hits them? The author points this out when he writes "My sister was uncommonly lively on the present occasion, and indeed was generally more gracious in the society of Mrs. Hubble than in other company." (23. Dickens)

Paragraph Conclusion

I'm leaving out the transition sentence because I'm not sure how it will work with Mathew's paragraph.
    In this play lies are used in multiple ways, but in the end it boils down to what you can gain by not telling the truth. There are so many ways to be dishonest but it seems that the most useful methods, at least in this book, are perhaps lying in your marriage or possibly trying to get out of a sticky situation, but most of all trying to pursue your personal, singular gain. When Wilde shows us this extreme use of lies he is trying to show us that everyone is dishonest. It's how we live, its how we survive as people in the lives that are given to us.
So it appears that sometimes it's not so Important to be Earnest.

another post

 I edited my paragraph so that it fits a little better. I wasn't quite sure what to about the first point. Let me know what you think