For Great Expectations, you will need to write 20 dialectical journals per section. Your first set will be due January 4th. This is the Thrusday after we get back from break. Please keep in mind what good journals look like. Think of the following:
Are you asking deep questions?
Are you presenting new ideas?
Are you giving and in depth analysis?
If you have any problems e-mail me at charlie_gaare@gfps.k12.mt.us. Good luck! Have a great holiday.
825 comments:
1 – 200 of 825 Newer› Newest»1)“A man who had been soaked in water, and mothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars; who limped, and shivered, and glared and growled; and whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me by the chin.”
Page 4, Section 1, Chapter 1 Paragraph 3,
I like the description in this passage, it makes me thing of the creepy old guy you see sitting in the park in older movies who is actually really nice but seams like he is going to kill you when you approach him, or usually when he approaches you. He is like the guy you just found out is there but wish you hadn’t, just because now the fact that every time you walk by that spot you will see him even if he’s not really there.
"A fearful man, all in course grey, with a great iron on his leg. A man with no hat, and with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied round his head. A man who had been soaked in water, and mothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars; who limped, and shivered, and glared and growled; and whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me by the chin."
Page 2, Chapter 1
I also like the description in this passage. Like the Grapes of Wrath, this book is going to be very descriptive, but it has a different feeling about it. This one passage makes the reader want to know more about the character. In the previous books we've read, description just meant that there would be more painful reading.
"My sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery, was more then twenty years older than I, and had established a great reputation with herself and the neighbours because she has brought me up 'by hand.' Having at that time to find out for myself what the expression meant, and knowing her to have a hard heavy hand, and to be much in the habit of laying it upon her husband as well as upon me, I supposed that Joe Gargery and I were both brought up by hand."
Page 6, Chapter 2
Don't you just love how clueless children are? Anyone would have to admit, that was a pretty good guess as to what "by hand" meant. But his sister doesn't seem a very "nice" character. Pip claims she hits him and even says she hits her husband. Today we would call that abuse. I can only expect the worst from this character.
"That young man has a secret way pecooliar to himself of getting at a boy, and at his heart, and at his liver."
Chapter 1 pg. 12
Why did the man threaten Pip? Pip is such a kind boy if the man had simply asked him for food he would have gotten it for him. Now the boy is frightened half to death over the thought of the young man who eats little boys. It is just human nature to get what you want though force and violence rather than talking it out.
"Having at that time to find out for myself what the expression meant, and knowing her to have a hard and heavy hand, and to be much in the habit of laying it upon her husband as well as upon me, I supposed that Joe Gargery and I were both brought up by hand."
Chapter 2 pg. 14
This particular excerpt is unusual for the time. In Victorian times the man was usually the one in charge of the family. It just goes to show the weakness of Joe and the strength and determination of Mrs. Joe that was uncommon for women of the time.
"The gates and dikes and banks came bursting at me through the mist, as if they cried as plainly as could be, "A boy with somebody else's pork pie! Stop Him!'"
Chapter 3 pg. 23
This is the same feeling I get after I do someting wrong or make a mistake. It seems that the whole world knows what you have done, and that everyone is out to get you. Sometimes this feeling more than anything else prompts you to come out and tell the truth.
"I remember Mrs. Hubble as a little curly sharp-edged person in sky-blue, who held a conventionally juvenile position, because she had married Mr. Hubble-I don't know at what remote period-when she was much younger than he."
Chapter 4 pg. 32
Mrs. Hubble, even if she was a brilliant women would not be allowed an occupation above her social status. This is one of the many reasons why women struggled through this time period. Many of the smart women were not allowed jobs that maximized their potential.
"The fear of Losing Joe's confidence, and of thencforth sitting in the chimney-corner at night staring drearily at my for ever lost companion and friend, tied up my tongue.
Chapter 6 pg. 49
Throughout the story Pip has had two problems to overcome. The physical problems like dealing with his sister, and the internal problems of his own conscious.If Pip were to lose Joe it would be a crushing blow to his heart.
"As I never saw my father or my mother, and never saw any likeness of either of them (for their days were long before the days of photographs), my first fancies regarding what they were like were unreasonably derived from their tombstones."
(page 1, para 1)
I find it interesting that Pip bases his ideas of how his parents look off of their tombstones. I sometimes base how things look by what they sound like or other things (example- I thought that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar would be a bulky, tough-looking, dark black guy, however, he is actually skinny, light black, and often found wearing bug-eyed sports goggles). I thought that this captures the thoughts of a young child's mind.
-Mauro Whiteman
"Having at the time to find out for myself what the expression meant, and knowing her to have a hard and heavy hand, and to be much in the habit of laying it upon her husband as well as upon me, I supposed that Joe Gargery and I were both brought up by hand."
(page 6, para 1)
This is the opposite of what most people think of when they think of a marriage. In this relationship between Mrs. and Mr. Joe Gargery, Mrs. Joe Gargery is in control of things, and it seems as though the author references to possible beatings by Mrs. Joe Gargery upon Mr. Joe Gargery. The author is very good at giving the opposite side of most ideas. I found it very interesting that the wife has more power in this family than the husband.
-Mauro Whiteman
"Conscience is a dreadful thing when it accuses a man or boy... If ever anybody's hair stood on end with terror, mine must have done so then. But, perhaps, nobody's ever did?"
(page 11, para 1, Ch. 2)
Charles Dickens amazingly captures the terror felt by a kid who has to do something. I know how it feels when you are going to sneak around at night and do something, and so I was moved by how he transformed the feeling into text in the book. Pip is also a great character to convey these feelings because he is easy to relate to.
This is Mauro and for my first two journals I forgot to put what chapter they were found. The first was in Ch. 1 and the second was in Ch. 2.
Sorry.
-Mauro Whiteman
"Pitying his desolation, and watching him as he gradually settled down upon the pie, I made bold to say, 'I am glad you enjoy it.'"
(page 18, para 1, Ch. 3)
This is a strange emotion to feel towards a person who was threatening Pip's life earlier in the story. Because of the man's condition, Pip feels sorry for him, but I believe that the man deserved what he got, because he seems to be an escaped convict. He obviously did something bad to get himself thrown in jail, and I don't think I would feel pity for him.
-Mauro Whiteman
"At the time when I stood in the Churchyard, reading the family tombstones, I had just enough learning to be able to spell them out."
Chapter 7 pg. 52
How old is Pip? By our standards today I would speculate that he was five or younger, judging by the fact that he can not read very well. However, during this time it was not common for children to recieve much or any education. Quite frankly Pip could be any age.
"I wished Joe had been rather more genteelly brought up, and then I should have been so, too."
Chapter 8 pg. 72
This is the first time that Pip has wished he was something that he isn't. Why does he want to be brought up in a more proper family? Is it because he wants people to treat him beter, or is it because of Estella?
"'The King upon his throne, with his crown upon his 'ed, can't sit and write his acts of Parliament in print, without having begun, when he were a unpromoted prince, with the alphabet-ah! and begun at A, too, and worked his way to Z.'"
Chapter 9 pg. 82
Although Joe is not exactly a scholar, he is filled with common sense which is wisdom in itself. Pip is a very gifted individual. It seems that often the only thing that keeps him from becoming briliant is himself.
" He stirred his rum-and-water pointedly at me, and he tasted his rum-and-water pointedly at me. And he stirred it and he tasted it: not with a spoon that was brought to him, but with a file."
Chapter 10 pg. 89
What will happen to Pip now? Is his life in danger? What is the man's connection with the prisoner? Is he also a prisoner? Did he steal the file, or did he kill the man for it so that he could escape? What should Pip do?
1. "As i saw him go, picking his way among the nettles, and among the brambles that bound the green mounds, he looked in my young eyes as if he were eluding the hands of the dead people, stretching up cautiosly out of their graves, to get a twist upon his ankle and pull him in.
Page4,last sentince of the last para.
this comment goes with the quote i accedently published.
I felt that this quote gave good imagery, and was descriptive like a homeric simily. i thought that pip felt like he was already dead, and that he would bring the guy with him, because that is what he deserved. if people want to murder, then their punishment should be for doing wrong should be the same thing.
2. "conscience is a dreadful thing when it accuses man or boy, but when in case of a boy, that secret burden cooperates with another secret burden down the leg of his trousers, it is a great punishment"
page10, 1st sen. of last para.
when i read that the boy stuck the bread and butter down his pants, it came back to mind when i read this. a persons conscience will haunt you for doing something wrong, even though you thought it wasn't wrong, thinking it is accusing you. it is like your concience is punishing you so you can do right. i can relate to this quote throughout my life when i have done something wrong, and it doesn't stop bugging me till i do what is right.
3. "i have often watched a large dog or ours eating his food; and i noticed a decided similarity between the dogs way of eating and the mans"
page 17 paragraph 3
i think of all the times that i see people and animals that all alike. even though people think that humans have no similarities to animals, then their wrong. when i get bored, i watch my dog, because he is so interesting, and i noticed that whenever we sit down to eat he does, and waits to eat till we do again. he watches t.v with us and plays with us. sometimes i think he is human
4. "' especially,' said mr. pumblechook, 'be grateful, boy, to them which brought you up by hand.' mrs, Hubble shook her head, and contemplating me with a mournful presentiment that i should come to no good, asked, 'why is it that the young are never grateful?"
page 23 para. 3
to answer the question, i think that it is because our generation has come to greediness. noone cares about anything other then want, want, want. kids should be grateful that they have a family, food, and clothes, but that is not enough. they want toys, and electronics, and stuff they don't need, while their are kids who just wish that they had a family and good food.
5. "all these things i saw without then knowing that i saw them, for i was in agony of apprehension."
page 28 paragraph 7
you don't need to see something to believe in someting or know it is there, like your grandma being all the way on the other side of the country, sitting in her house, safe and sound, or a million pieces of chocolate. you just know that it is their somewhere even though you don't have it.
6. "but i loved joe-perhaps for no better reason in those early days then because the dear fellow let me love him."
page 38 para.2 2nd sentence
to love, is to be loved. if someone lets you be able to love them, then it is something you should do if it is someone in your family or in pips case, you brother-in-law, but be careful who you love, because sometimes it can be a bad thing.
7. "i was too cowardly to do what i knew to be right, as i had been too cowardly to avoid doing what i knew to gbe wrong."
page 38 para.2 3rd to last sentince
it is hard to be brave when you want to do something right, and you know you can get into trouble, but doing what is wrong can lead to more trouble then doing what is right.
"There was a clock in the outer wall of this house. Like the clock in Miss Havisham's room, and like Miss Havisham's watch, it had stopped at twenty minutes to nine."
Chapter 11 pg. 91
What happened at twenty minutes to nine? Was there a power failure? Is this when the brewery closed? Did Miss Havisham lose her family at this time? What significance does the time have in Pip's adventure.
"When I got into the court-yard, I found Estella waiting with the keys. But she neither asked me where I had been, nor why I had kept her waiting; and there was a bright flush upon her face, as though something had happened to delight her."
Chapter 11 pg. 104
I wonder if Estella saw Pip fighting the young man. She seems to be happy that he won. I wonder if she has liked Pip secretly the whole time. Then why would she be so mean to him. Was she angry with Miss Havisham? How long will her relationship with Pip last, after all he is only a commoner.
"But they wouldn't leave me alone. They seemed to think the opportunity lost if they failed to point the conversation at me, every now and then, and stick the point into me. I might have been an unfortunate little bull in a Spanish arena, I got so smartingly touched up by these moral goads."
(page 25, para 1, Ch. 4)
I think this is a good reflection on how real dinners happen. At my family dinners when I was younger, I can remember always being the center of the conversation. Everyone seemed to want to talk about me even when I didn't want them to. This is a good point-of-view of a small child at a dinner. Also, the comparison between a bull in an arena and himself is very good at depicting what he feels like.
-Mauro Whiteman
8. "but my father were that good in his hart that he couldn't abear to be without us."
chapter 7, 3rd to last para.
when i read this, it brought back some horrible memories. my real father divorced my mother and i am ashamed to call him my father, but he misses us and wants to be with us because he has a good heart, but i never want to see him again. pip did not have a chance to see his father which makes me glad i know who my father is and that he loves me.
9. "boy! let your behavior here be a credit unto them which brought you up by hand!"
chapter 8 para. 8
all of the places my family has moved to, i have seen people disobey their parents like i have ever seen. they yell at them, punch them, and their parents just let them go and do it. kids need to obey their parents and even if you don't live with them and live with someone else, they offered to take care of you and you should respect them, because they care about you. even though pips sister is mean to him deep down i know she cares about him.
10. "namely that lies is lies. howsever they come, they didn't ought to come, and they come from the father of lies and work roud the same. don't you tell no more of them pip, that ain't the way to get out of being common, old chap."
chapter 9 pg 67 para 3
lying is not always the kids fault, parents have a big part in their lives. if parents lie then that means that their children probably will lie too because of the influence. lying will not get you out or trouble, but get you in trouble. when you lie, you can not go back in time and change the wrong you have done, that should of never happened.
11. "yet i do not call to mind that i was ever in my earlier youth the subject of remark in our social family circle."
pg 73 3rd to last para. chaptr 10
has our generation have come to our families being broken? why do kids not spend more time with their family, instead hang out with friends?" families are being broken by divorce or hatred, and noone can do anything about it. it is so sad to see our families these days.
1. "He was a mild, good-natured, sweet-tempered, easygoing, foolish, dear fellow - a sort of Hercules in strength, and also in weakness." Pg. 6, chapter 2
I think that this passage is really interesting because of the comparison of Joe to Hercules, in both strength and weakness. With Hercules, I always think of him as being this big, strong guy that can do anything. But then I think of his weaknesses. Does he even have any? Maybe it is like that saying: the bigger they are the harder they fall. So maybe Pip is saying that although Joe may have some really good qualities, he also has the bad qualities that come with all the good. Everything always has two sides.
tara
"'Ask no questions, and you'll be told no lies.'" Page 12, chapter 2
When Mrs. Joe is saying this to Pip, it really seems like an interesting thing to say. It is like she is saying that she lies to him, and that he shouldn't ask any questions to protect himself from those lies. In a way, that applies to everyone's life. Many do not like to ask questions for fear of everything but the truth. In the same respect, many do not try new things out of fear of change. Many do not like to put themselves and their feelings out into the world out of fear of rejection. But, then, what is life without a little risk?
tara
3. "Mrs. Joe was a very clean housekeeper, but has an exquisite art of making her cleanliness more uncomfortable and unacceptable than dirt itself. Cleanliness is next to Godliness, and some people do the same by their religion." Page 22, chapter 4
I really agree with what Pip is saying in this passage. Many people seem to like to carry some things out to perfection at a fault. There is always a fine line between getting the job done and just overdoing it. Many people, not excluding myself, are guilty of crossing that line. Religion is, a lot of times, overdone. A great number of people believe that their religion is the one and only, and that they need to get that out to the world. Sometimes people resort to forcing their religion on other people, and that is where the line is crossed. Like Pip said, it makes people feel uncomfortable and it is unacceptable; just as Mrs. Joe's cleaning does.
tara
"'Let him go free? Let him profit by the means as I found out? Let him make a fool of me afresh and again? Once more? No, no, no. If I had died at the bottom there'"
(page 36-37, para 10, Ch. 5)
I wonder what happened previously in these two convicts' lives? Perhaps they were cellmates and when they escaped, the one with the bruised face left his friend behind. They obviously have a lot of hatred for each other. I wonder if these characters will return later in the story. Perhaps Pip's help will change the convict's life.
-Mauro Whiteman
"Young as I was, I believe that I dated a new admiration of Joe from that night. We were equals afterwards, as we had been before; but, afterwards at quiet times when I sat looking at Joe and thinking about him, I had a new sensation of feeling conscious that I was looking up to Joe in my heart."
(page 51, para 1, Ch. 6)
This is very significant because now Pip knows how hard of a life Joe had when Joe was a child, and Pip also knows how much Joe loves Pip's sister. Now Pip realizes how good of a person Joe is and how lucky he is to have a "father" like Joe. I believe this paragraph really touched my heart because I look up to my own father much like Pip does now that he knows about Joe's life.
-Mauro Whiteman
"Though she called me 'boy' so often, and with a carelessness that was far from complimentary, she was of about my own age. She seemed much older than I, of course, being a girl, and beautiful and self-possessed; and she was as scornful of me as if she had been one-and-twenty, and a queen."
(page 58, para 7, Ch. 8)
This shows that the girl, because she was raised with such pride and dignity, looks down on Pip even though they are the same age. She was probably raised with everything she needed, and she thinks she is superior to people with less than she has. This is very unjust, but Pip seems to be putting up with it. I wonder if he will either get mad at her or fall in love with her?
-Mauro Whiteman
"In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong."
(page 41, para 2, Ch. 6)
This is very often the case in life. Most people know what they are doing is wrong, but they do not wish to upset anyone by doing what is right, and when people are presented with the opportunity to admit their wrong-doings, they usually don't because they are afraid of repenting.
-Mauro Whiteman
4. "But I loved Joe - perhaps for no better reason in those early days than because the dear fellow let me love him - and as to him my inner self was not so easily composed." Page 41, chapter 6
Pip loves Joe because Joe lets him. It seems to simple, and yet, extremely complicated. Why do we love some and not others? The answer is that they let us. We do not love those who do not let us; whether it is through harsh words, uninviting looks, or even the shallow concept of looks. We love those who we feel understand us, and see us for who we really are. Friedrich Nietzsche once said, "What else is love but understanding and rejoicing in the fact that another person lives, acts, and experiences otherwise than we do…? " I think that is the way Pip is feeling: he is rejoicing in the fact that he has Joe to confide in, to be friends with, and to just be himself.
I got the quote from http://www.quotationspage.com/subjects/love/.
tara
5. "Mr. Wopsle's great-aunt kept an evening school in the village; that is to say, she was a ridiculous old woman of limited means and unlimited infirmity who used to go to sleep from six to seven every evening in the society of youth who paid twopence per week watch for the improving opportunity of seeing her do it." Page 45, chapter seven
This is a great example of the majority of school teachers during the Victorian era. Many teachers would teach because they had nothing better to do, as the great-aunt obviously does not since she falls asleep regularly in front of her students. This proves that many teachers did not really have the drive to teach, and many students did not receive the proper education.
tara
"It was when I stood before her, avoiding her eyes, that I took note of the surrounding objects in detail, and saw that her watch had stopped at twenty minutes to nine, and that a clock in the room had stopped at twenty minutes to nine."
(page 60, para 5, Ch. 8)
This whole scene is freaky. Why is the old lady wearing an old wedding dress, one shoe, and has her clocks set to the wrong time? Did her fiance leave her at this exact time, and so she tried to stop time to not forget him? Does the old woman have any mental illnesses or other things that are not right? If I were Pip, I would run away.
-Mauro Whiteman
"I felt convinced that if I described Miss Havisham's as my eyes had seen it, I should not be understood. Not only that, but I felt convinced that Miss Havisham, too, would not be understood;"
(page 68, para 2, Ch. 9)
I understand what it feels like to not be able to explain something to older people because it is too hard to understand. Also, a child's mind processes information differently than an adult's, so it is sometimes hard to explain things to the other (child to adult or vice versa). Besides, Pip saw something very strange in that house, and perhaps it is better for him to not share it.
-Mauro Whiteman
"'If you can't get to be oncommon through going straight, you'll never get to do it through going crooked.'"
(page 74, para 4, Ch. 9)
This is a very good bit of insight provided by Joe. It describes the fact that cheaters never win, though that is rarely the case in the modern world. However, Joe tells Pip that if he just works hard and does the right thing, Pip can become "oncommon" and impress Estella. I think this shows the good morals that Joe has and that he is trying to pass on to Pip.
-Mauro Whiteman
"Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, or thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day."
(page 75, para 1, Ch. 9)
This is a very good bit of insight provided by Pip. It shows how everything in life can affect everything else, especially one memorable event. One thing could forever change your life, for either good or bad, which is why every day and every decision is very important. One bad move could throw your life into a rapid tailspin towards devastation while one good move could propel you upward into glory and whatever else comes with it.
-Mauro Whiteman
"He did this so that nobody but I saw the file; and when he had done it, he wiped the file and put it in a breast-pocket. I knew it to be Joe's file, and I knew that he knew my convict, the moment I saw the instrument."
(page 81, para 1, Ch. 10)
I wonder how this person got the file. Perhaps this man is also a convict who has escaped and freed himself from his iron. I wonder if the convict who knew Pip told this convict about him, and if the convict wanted revenge for being captured. Hopefully this new convict is not a killer who is after Pip. I think Pip should try to turn in the strange man, because I think this man is another escaped convict.
-Mauro Whiteman
"I kissed her cheek as she turned it to me. I think I would have gone through a great deal to kiss her cheek. But I felt that the kiss was given to the coarse common boy as a piece of money might have been, and that it was worth nothing."
(page 97, para 1, Ch. 11)
I think that this act will really hurt Pip on the inside because he feels for Estella, but she just thinks he is a poor, common boy. She only allowed him to kiss her because she either thinks it will make him feel worse about himself or she feels bad for him. Perhaps she is so proud that she knows Pip wishes to kiss her cheek, so she did it so she can feel more pride in herself. I feel bad for Pip because he was born into a common family and she was born into a rich family, and, because of this, Estella feels that she is better than Pip. This is true even today.
-Mauro Whiteman
1. “Ha!” he muttered then, considering. “Who d’ye live with-supposin’ ye’re kindly let to live, which I han’t made up my mind about?”
“My sister, sir-Mrs. Joe Garegry-wife of Joe Gargery, the blacksmith,sir.”
Ch. 1 Pg. 11
I didn’t even consider that the sister was married. With such a young brother I assumed she was five years older at the most and, certainly, I assumed such a young girl wasn’t married. I grew up in the stereotypical American home. (Mind you, Stereotypical is not the same thing as average.) My parents are still married and in all evidence, will remain so. I grew up in a prestigious elementary school, preschool, and have lots of educational opportunities. My sister and I are three years apart. I always find myself assuming the same is true for the majority of everyone else. This habit also applies to my reading. If you were to vaguely describe a character, unless, you had said different, I would assume that they were a white, brunet, brown eyed, five foot seven, English twenty-something man. I say this because it is who I’m used to reading about, and so, I subconsciously assume any character is of that description. I often get to know and relate to this stereotyped version of a character, and feel lied to when I learn they are different.
-Jojo
2. “If you can cough any trifle up, Pip I’d recommend you to do it,” said Joe, all aghast. “Manners is manners, but still your ‘elth is your ‘elth.”
Ch. 2 Pg. 18
It fascinates me how the English had such segregated classes that people couldn’t even speak without being judged. Just like in My Fair Lady, it is possible to tell where someone grew up, lives, even ancestry, by how they speak. The same is true for everywhere on a surface level, but I don’t think it holds very true in America.
Obviously you can tell where someone is from by their southern twang, jersey accent, whatever that Canadian colloquial is called, and many others, but you can’t tell their social standing. Many poor, originally low class groups like Native Americans and African Americans have had to hone their speaking and presentation skills because they were one of the only weapons they were left with after oppression. Meanwhile, some of the most powerful people in our country have terrible grammar and enunciation. Just look at George Bush. What this causes is that an English accent shows where you come from, but an American accent shows where you’re going.
-Jojo
3. I was soon at the battery, after that, and there was the right man-hugging himself and limping to and fro, as if he had never all night left off hugging and limping-waiting for me. He was awfully cold, to be sure. I half expected to see him drop down before my face and die of deadly cold.
Ch. 3 Pg. 25
The boy soon after this describes the man as eating like a dog; defensive and dangerous. He is right. Often what we forget is that the wolf and caveman were equals for much of history. There was no set decision that man was superior and different. Just as a dog that is abused and starved will revert to self serving instincts, a man can just as easily revert to violence and savagery when he is hungry and afraid. The man is fiercer than the dog though, because the dog was always a bit wild, but the man has bought into civilization and goes back on an unspoken promise when he attacks.
-Jojo
3) "The mist was heavier yet when I got out upon the marshes, so that instead of my running at everything, everything seemed to run at me. This was very disagreeable to a guilty mind. The gates and dikes and banks came bursting at me through the mist, as if they cried as plainly as could be, ‘A boy with somebody else’s pork pie! Stop him!’ The cattle came upon me with like suddenness, staring out of their eyes, and steaming out of their nostrils, ‘Halloa, young thief!’ One black ox, with a white cravat on-who even had to my awakened conscience something of a clerical air- fixed me to obstinately with his eyes, and moved his blunt head round in such an accusatory manner as I moved round, that blubbered out to him, ‘I couldn’t help it, sir! It wasn’t for myself I took it!’"
Chapter 3, Pg. 15
I can relate to this kid very well. Like him, I have a horrible guilty conscience and I'm a little paranoid. Although it's a little strange, it is an interesting characteristic for a young kid to have.
4) “’I thought he looked as if he did,’ said I. The man stopped eating, and regarded me with the keenest scrutiny and the greatest surprise. ‘Looked? When?’ ‘Just now.’ ‘Where?’ ‘Yonder,’ said I, pointing; ‘over there, where I found him nodding asleep, and thought it was you.”
Chapter 3, Pg. 18
Why wouldn’t this character know where the young man is? Why does he sound so surprised to know that Pip found him? Is it that the two don’t like each other or even know each other well? What is to come of this incident?
5) “Among this good company I should have felt myself, even if I hadn’t robbed the pantry, in a false position. Not because I was squeezed in at an acute angle of the table-cloth, with the table in my chest, and the Pumblechookian elbow in my eye, nor because I was not allowed to speak (I didn’t want to speak), nor because I was regaled with the scaly tips of the drumsticks of the fowls, and with those obscure corners of pork of which the pig, when living, had had the least reason to be vain. No; I should not have minded that if they would only have left me alone. Bu they wouldn’t leave me alone. They seemed to think the opportunity lost if they failed to point the conversation at me, every now and then, and stick the point into me. I might have been an unfortunate little bull in a Spanish arena, I got so smartingly touched up by these moral goads.”
Chapter 4, Pg. 25
Pip seems to always feel left out, as smaller kids do at big adult parties. But now he’s terrified that the conversation points to him most of the time. Is it because of his guilty conscience or is this because of his impatience with the company?
6) “’Besides,’ said Mr. Pumblechook, turning sharp on me, ‘think what you’ve got to be grateful for. If you’d been born a squeaker-‘ ‘He was, if ever a child was,’ said my sister, most emphatically. Joe game me some more gravy. ‘Well, but I mean a four-footed squeaker,’ said Mr. Pumblechook. ‘If you had been born such, would you have been here now? Not you-‘ ‘Unless in that form,’ said Mr. Wopsle, nodding towards the dish.
Chapter 4, Pg. 26-27
Honestly, what is the significance of this subject? They are, once again, just being inconsiderate towards Pip and tell him how fortunate he is. I don’t think he’s very fortunate. He doesn’t have much money. He doesn’t have a good education. I understand appreciating what you have, but they should just face the facts. This kid could have a much better life, and they spend their time telling him he’s a bad kid and that he should just live with what he’s got.
7) “’Aye!’ returned the sergeant, ‘two. They’re pretty well known to be out on the marshes still, and they won’t try to get clear of ‘em before dusk. Anybody here seen anything of any such game?’ Everybody, myself excepted, and said no, with confidence. Nobody thought of me.”
Chapter 5, Pg. 31
Why don’t they even consider asking Pip? Do they really think that low of him? A kid, who had been around the grave sites near the marshes, would have been who I would have asked first. Why, even in society today, do adults think less of children?
8) “’Well, Pip,’ said Joe, taking up the poker, and settling himself to his usual occupations when he was thoughtful, of slowly raking the fire between the lower bars, ‘I’ll tell you. My father, Pip, he were given to drink and when he overtook with drink, he hammered away at my mother most onmerciful It were a’most the only hammering he did, indeed, ‘xcepting at myself. And he hammered at me with a wigour only to be equaled by the wigour with which he didn’t hammer at his anwil. You’re a-listening and understanding, Pip?’
Chapter 7, Pg. 47
What a horrible childhood. His father beat him and his mother. There is a saying that boys become like their father and that girls marry boys like their father. This seems to the exact opposite. I don’t know about Pip’s and Mrs. Joe’s father, but I do know that Mr. Joe married someone like his father. Why would he marry her if she acted like that? Is it a longing of childhood or does he really love her?
9) “It was then I began to understand that everything in the room had stopped, like the watch and the clock, a long time ago. I noticed that Miss Havisham put down the jewel exactly on the spot from which she had taken it up. As Estella dealt the cards, I glanced at the dressing-table again, and saw that the shoe upon it, once white, now yellow, had never been worn. I glanced down at the foot from which the shoe was absent, and saw that the silk stocking on it, once white, now yellow, had been trodden ragged. Without this arrest of everything, this standing still of all the pale decayed objects, not even the withered bridal dress on the collapsed form could have looked so like grave-clothes, or the long veil so like a shroud.”
Chapter 8, Pg. 62
Why is she locked up in her room? Why does it seem, even to her, that time has stopped? There was mention of a wedding dress, was she suppose to get married? Is this the reason she sits there in a dark room, completely clean of daylight? Or is there still more to learn of this character?
10)”When I reached home, my sister way very curious to know all about Miss Havisham’s, and asked a number of questions. And I soon found myself getting heavily bumped from behind in the nape of my next and the small of the back, and having my face ignominiously showed against the kitchen wall, because I did not answer those questions at the sufficient length.”
Chapter 9, Pg. 68
Why is she so cruel towards Pip, he own brother? Is it some sort of hatred or grudge? Does he blame him for their family’s deaths? Why does she continue to lash out at the poor boy? Where will this get her?
11)”That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or glowers that would never had bound you, but for the information of the first link on one memorable day.
Chapter 9, Pg. 75
I like how the author included the reader. Instead of the reader asking questions, the author asks questions to get the reader thinking. To answer, I have a few days that have changed my life. The day my sister was diagnosed with diabetes, the day my brother was born three months premature, and the day we left Illinois to move to Montana. I can’t imagine my life being any different, and it’s even harder to try to guess where I would be if none of it had ever happened.
5. I noticed that Mr. Pumblechook in his hospitality appeared to forget that he had made a present of the wine, but took the bottle from Mrs. Joe and had all the credit of handing it about in a gush of joviality.
Ch. 5 Pg. 40
The sad truth is that you can give all you want to a person and the best that you can expect is that they look out for themselves. One person does not have the right to ask another person to devote themselves to anyone. Mr. Pumblechook and Mrs. Joe both know that Mrs. Joe’s family is Mr. Pumblechook’s charity project. In such a circumstance, Mrs. Joe must always play the grateful wretch, but should Mr. Pumblechook abuse the relationship, she cannot afford to offend him.
-Jojo
6. The other fugitive, who was evidently in extreme horror of his companion, repeated, “He tried to murder me. I should have been a dead man if you had not come up.”
Ch. 5 Pg. 45
When I read this section, I found my self wanting to choose which convict to believe. My sympathies ended up going to the convict not claimed by Pip. As Pip’s convict began to win the belief of the sergeant and the rest of his captors, I found myself rooting for the underdog. I know that rooting for the underdog is common to all people during some points in their lives, but why? People are constantly striving toward being better people and therefore, should value those of great wit, strength, and beauty, but they don’t do so consistently. Often they are threatened by those better than themselves. Despite the fact that the “over dogs” have earned what they posses, a reader will still wish the under dog to win because everyone is an underdog at some point. The fear of becoming one ensures that everyone needs to see an underdog win in order to give themselves hope.
-Jojo
12) “He was a secret-looking man whom I had never seen before. His head was all on one side, and one of his eyes was half-shut up, as if he were taking aim at something with an invisible gun. He has a pipe in his mouth, and he took it out, and, after slowly blowing all his smoke away and looking hard at me all the time, nodded. So, I nodded, and then he nodded again, and made room on the settle beside him that I might sit down there. But, as I was used to sit beside Joe whenever I entered that place of resort, I said ‘No, thank you, sir’ and fell into the space Joe made for me on the opposite settle. The stranger man, after glancing at Joe, and seeing that his attention was otherwise engaged, nodded to me again when I had taken my seat, and then rubbed his leg-in a very odd way, as it stuck me.”
Chapter 10, Pg. 78
Who is this new character? Why would a man like him be interested in Pip? Does he know the kid? If so, how? Why does he seem to want to know so much about him? Does he know the criminal that Pip assisted?
7. We had not gone far when three cannon were fired ahead of us with a sound that seemed to burst something inside my ear.
Ch. 5 Pg. 46
Society is much more careful about hearing loss than it use to be, but I’m not sure it is ready to accommodate people with flawless hearing. I’m absolutely sure that my entire nuclear family besides me has suffered from substantial hearing loss. They are constantly operating on a volume about twice as loud as necessary. If society were to bring up a generation with unharmed hearing, it would constantly be bothered by the noise. There are many pitfalls to having protected hearing in today’s world. Concerts are supposed to be loud. I know that, but why must the sound always be on the threshold of pain? Then there are little things; water pumps, cars, computers and even ovens make noise that constantly buzzes at an extremely quiet level, causing aggravation and weariness because they trigger the alertness that kept our ancestors from being eaten. Often, a person will try to drown out the noise by replacing it with something louder and thus, becoming part of the problem. I think Pip was privileged to live in a world where hearing loss was not a concern. He is free to live in his half-deaf bliss.
-Jojo
13) ”I took it out of the paper, and it proved to be a good one. ‘But what’s this?’ said Mrs. Joe, throwing down the shilling and catching up the paper. ‘Two one-pound notes?’ Nothing less than two fat sweltering one-pound notes that seemed to have been on terms of the warmest intimacy with all the cattle markets in the county. Joe caught up his hat again, and ran with them to the Jolly Bargemen to restore them to their owner. While he was gone I sat down on my usual stool and looked vacantly at my sister, feeling pretty sure that the man would not be there.
Chapter 10, Pg.82
Why would this guy give Pip this money, which I am going to assume is a large amount? He had the file, so is it right to suggest that the criminal was repaying him? What will this money be used for, if it is used at all?
14) “These crawling things had fascinated my attention, and I was watching them from a distance, when Miss Havisham laid a hand upon my shoulder. In her other hand she had a crutch-headed stick on which she leaned, and she looked like the witch of the place. ‘This,’ said she, pointing to the long table with her stick, ‘is where I will be laid when I am dead. They shall come and look at me here.’ With some vague misgiving that she might get upon the table then and there and die at once, the complete realization of the ghastly waxwork at the fair, I shrank under her touch.”
Chapter 11, Pg. 88
Does she really want to die? What would cause this feeling? Does it have to do with the rotten wedding cake on the table? Why would the wedding cake be on the table in the first place? Did she have and engagement go wrong? Why does she keep inviting Pip over to her home?
15) “I never have been so surprised in my life as I was when I let out the first blow, and saw him lying on his back, looking up at me with a bloody nose and his face exceedingly forshortened. But, he was back on his feet directly, and after sponging himself with a great show of dexterity, began squaring again. The second greatest surprise I have ever had in my life was seeing him on his back again, looking up at me out of a black eye. His spirit inspired me with great respect. He seemed to have no strength and he never once hit me hard, and he was always knocked down; but, he would be up again in a moment sponging himself or drinking out of the water bottle, with the greatest satisfaction in seconding himself according to form, and then came at me with an air and a show that made me believe he really was going to do for me at last. He got heavily bruised, for I am sorry to record that the more I hit him, the harder I hit him; but, he came up again and again and again, until at last he got a bad fall with the back of his head against the wall.”
Chapter 11, Pg. 96
Who is this kid? Why does he start up a fight with Pip? Why, even when he is losing badly, does this kid come after Pip again and again? Why would he see any threat in Pip? Why does he question him? Is he related to Mrs. Havisham or Estella?
8.My state of mind regarding the pilfering from which I had been so unexpectedly exonerated did not impel me to frank disclosure; but I hope it had some dregs of good at the bottom of it.
Ch. 6 Pg. 49
For a boy with such a limited education and vocabulary, that is an awfully advanced sentence. From this we can conclude one of two things. Initially, it occurred to me that Pip has grown up and gained an extensive education. Then, as I was considering story telling techniques, I thought of books that take place in other countries often have characters speaking a different language but having dialogue written in English. The reader is given the responsibility of believing that what they are reading is a foreign language in exchange for being able to understand the story. Perhaps in the same way, we are to believe that Pip might be thinking these things. He may not be able to articulate his thoughts in this way, but we don’t question the writing so that we can better appreciate the story.
-Jojo
9.for I have a lively remembrance that I supposed my declaration that I was to “walk in the same all the days of my life” laid me under an obligation always to go through the village from our house in one particular direction, and never to vary it by turning down by the wheelwright’s or up by the mill.
Ch. 7 Pg. 52
Pip is reasoning out, on a very simple level, that the requests of the dead should not be carried out simply because they are the wishes of the dead. He can recognize the worthlessness in doing things for an entity that will not be affected by his efforts. It is often painful and important to those who have lost a loved one to realize that what ever action they take next, they must make it for those who live. Grief, not unlike life insurance, is for those who live.
-Jojo
10. “I say, Pip, old chap!” cried Joe, opening his blue eyes wide, “what a scholar you are! Ain’t you?”
“I should like to be,” said I, glancing at the slate as he held it-with a misgiving that the writing was rather hilly.
Ch.7 Pg. 54
All throughout their dialogue, Joe has a heavy cockney accent, but Pip speaks in comparative properness. The entire story is told from Pip’s memory. Perhaps he simply did speak in the same way as Joe, but when trying to remember, he puts in speech that is similar to what he uses now. Maybe subconsciously, he prefers to use the higher class speaking in his stories because he does not want to remember the feelings of shame he felt for his low class standing. Perhaps he was trying to better himself even before Estella teased him. He mentions that her teasing was the first link in a chain that ran through his life, but the chain was there before as can be seen by his promise to become a scholar.
-Jojo
16) “Miss Havisham glanced at him as if she understood what he really was better than I had thought possible, seeing that he was there, and took up a little bag from the table beside her. ‘Pip has earned a premium here,’ she said, ‘and here it is. There are five-and-twenty guineas in this bag. Give it to your master, Pip.’”
Chapter 13, Pg. 106
That is a whole lot more than the two one-pound notes. What will Pip do with this money? Where will he go? Or will he do anything with it at all? Will Joe and his sister take the money? Or will they respect him enough to let him use the money he’s rightfully earned?
17) “And there my sister became so excited by the twenty-five guineas that nothing would serve her but we must have a dinner out of that windfall at the Blue Boar, and that Mr. Pumblechook must go over in his chaisecart, and bring the Hubbles and Mr. Wopsle.”
Chapter 13, Pg.110
Why would his sister get to use the money? Does she really think that she deserves that? Does she not see all the work that her younger brother had to go through to earn that money? Why would she take what is rightfully his? Does she not think that he needs a proper education? Or does she really think that he’ll be better off being an apprentice to Joe?
18) “It is a most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home. There may be a black ingratitude in the thing and the punishment maybe retributive and well deserved, but that it is a miserable thing, I can testify. Home had never been a very pleasant place to me, because of my sister’s temper. But Joe had sanctified it, and I believed in it.”
Chapter 14, Pg.112
It’s amazing the impact one person can have on another. Even though his sister made home life almost unbearable, her husband made it even better. Every human being finds that one person that changes their life or makes an everlasting impact on them. Joe just happens to be Pip’s person
11. “And she ain’t over partial to having scholars on the premises,” Joe continued, “ and in partickler would not be over partial to my being a scholar, for fear as I might rise. Like a sort of rebel, don’t you see?”
Ch.7 Pg. 58
Often, society is too blind to the trends of human nature. The first step in revolution is hatred followed immediately by education. If the oppressors remove the first step, they are safe to add the second without fear and may even use it to their advantage. Similarly, Mrs. Joe should change her tactics of trying to control her family. If she were to regain her family’s trust, she could then let both boys get educations and use them to make her family higher thought of. With Pip and Joe educated, they would bring in more money that the family could use to get more pleasure out of life. Unfortunately, Mrs. Joe’s bitterness and distrust keep her family from the chance at a better life.
-Jojo
19) “Whatever I acquired, I tried to impart to Joe. This statement sounds so well that I cannot in my conscience let it pass unexplained. I wanted to make Joe less ignorant and common that he might be worthier of my society and less open to Estella’s reproach.”
Chapter 15, Pg. 116
It’s amazing to me that Pip likes this girl, but still feels he needs to convince her that he isn’t just a common person. He even feels he needs to change his best friend/ brother-in-law just so that he can impress Estella and win her heart. This girl is either too arrogant or she has an extremely large ego. It could also be that she's been around wealth all her life and she thinks she is above the less fortunate.
"My sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery, was more then twenty years older than I, and had established a great reputation with herself and the neighbours because she has brought me up 'by hand.' Having at that time to find out for myself what the expression meant..."
Pg 7, Ch 2, Para. 1
They always give so much credit to Pip's sister for raising him "by hand" and they say she is such a nice girl, when in fact she is not so nice at all. She is not very fit for raising Pip, she is always angery and has trouble controlling that anger and Pip and Joe seem to pay for it.
12. The watchmaker, always poring over a little desk with a magnifying glass at his eye, and always inspected by a group in smock-frocks poring over him through the glass of his shop-window, seemed to be about the only person in the High Street whose trade engaged his attention.
Ch. 8 Pg. 64
I thought this observation was an especially powerful reminder to the reader that humans do not have complete control over the environment they live in. Without Mr. Pumblechook the seeds will sit in their boxes until they can no longer grow. The saddler, coach maker, baker, grocer and chemist are the only things that keep their products in circulation. The watchmaker is different. Weather or not he moves, dies, closes up business or keeps going, time will continue on its own. The shopkeepers (excepting the watchmaker) are the masters of their stock, but the watchmaker is a slave to his trade in a way the other men can never know. What does the man across the street matter when you have time to keep you occupied?
-Jojo
20) “The unemployed bystanders drew back when they saw me, and so I became aware of my sister-lying without sense or movement on the bare boards where she had been knocked down by a tremendous blow on the back of the head, dealt by some unknown hand when her face was turned towards the fire-destined never to be on the rampage again while she was the wife of Joe.”
Chapter 15, Pg.126
Who attacked her? Does it have to do with the cannons going off? Did the strangers steal anything? Why did they attack Mrs. Joe? Will she be alright? Will they catch who did this? Could it be the convict that Pip had helped out, and if so why? What will Pip do now?
13. “Broken!”
She uttered the word with an eager look, and with strong emphasis, and with a weird smile that had a kind of boast in it. Afterwards, she kept her hands there for a little while, and slowly took them away as if they were heavy.
Ch. 8 Pg. 68
For the longest time, I thought people enjoyed making themselves miserable, but this story begins to open my eyes. I used to think that boasting about how bad your life is, was the means by which a person saw themselves as better than the person they are talking to. They tried to get joy from this knowledge. After reading about Miss Havisham, I think I have realized that that was not the complete process but simply a step. I think that eventually, if they are willing to look at themselves with brutal honesty, they begin to realize that making themselves feel better by pretending to be better than everyone else is a doomed strategy. Only by seeing the joy in your world and in others can you hope to find joy yourself. Miss Havisham has pushed joy so far from herself that it is no longer there to be seen and she is desperately trying to find an alternative. She will not find one.
-Jojo
"I reposed complete confidence in no one but Biddy; but I told poor Biddy everything. Why it came natural for me to do so, and why Biddy had a deep concern in everything I told her, I did not know then, though I think I know now."
(page 101, para 2, Ch. 12)
Is Pip falling in love with Biddy? It sounds as though Biddy is the only person he fully trusts, and she seems to like to listen to him. Perhaps Biddy is falling in love with Pip but he doesn't know yet. I wonder if that is why Pip says that he knows why she listened now but not then. Perhaps Pip will later be romantically involved with Biddy. I think he has feelings for her, though he doesn't know quite yet.
-Mauro Whiteman
4. Mrs. Joe was a very clean housekeeper, but had an exquisite art of making her cleanliness more uncomfortable and unacceptable than dirt itself. Cleanliness is next to Godliness, and some people do the same by their religion.
Ch. 4 Pg. 30
Mrs. Joe is always seen as a hindrance and hurt. She is vicious and severely punishes the smallest of offences, but would she turn this wrath on someone else to defend Pip? Would she protect Pip if he were in danger? Before, she said she would not take Pip if she could choose again, but would she stand by while he was destroyed? Would Pip do the same to his sister? It is hard to tell if she is kidding with her ridiculous threats being an attempt at discipline, or if they are sincere warnings of abuse.
How does she view Joe? Joe is seen as such a benevolent being, but is that only because he standing next to Mrs. Joe?
Also, Mrs. Joe shows an inconvenient pride in her cleanliness. She is at the point where she doesn’t realize how poor she is. She would by the soap instead of dinner. She might serve you an empty plate, but you could be sure it would be clean. She must eat her pride.
-Jojo
14. In a by-yard, there was a wilderness of empty casks, which had a certain sour remembrance of better days lingering about them; but it was too sour to be accepted as a sample of the recluses as being like most others.
Ch.8 Pg. 73
I especially like the imagery that Charles Dickens writes with. He could have easily just told the reader that her yard had empty beer crates in it and they fallen into disrepair. He is so incredibly generous to the reader because he knows that the story of a book is the most important part, but a reader can be affected by a feeling or image just as powerfully as a character’s actions. I think Charles Dickens struck a good balance between giving the reader the environment and general feel of the story and making sure that the events of the story came fast enough to keep the readers’ attention.
-Jojo
15. I set off on the four-mile walk to our forge, pondering, as I went along, on all I had seen, and deeply revolving that I was a common laboring-boy; that my hands were coarse; that my boots were thick; that I had fallen into a despicable habit of calling knaves jacks; that I was more ignorant than I had considered myself last night; and generally that I was in a low lived bad way.
Ch. 8 Pg. 75
What many people don’t realize is that enlightenment comes at a price. All of Pip’s short comings weigh him down and he feels inadequacy and shame. Had he never learned there was anything better then how he was living, he could still be living blissfully unaware of his low class flaws. The question is when, not if, his redemption from his shame will come. Once he has gained class, will he then be enlightened to the upper class’ flaws and wish to return to his current poor existence?
-Jojo
1)"I knew Mrs. Joe's housekeeping to be of the strictest kind, and that my larcenous researches might find nothing available in the safe. Therefore I resloved to put my hunk of bread-and-butter down the leg of my trousers."
Chapter: 2 Pg: 17 Paragraph: 2
I am amuzed at the careful thought process that is needed to decide to save his bread for a strange deranged homeless man. It is very interesting to me also that he doesn't know if they have a safe, but he reasons that if they did it would be empty. I feel that even though his thoughts are elongated they are very entertaining.- Oliver Jones
2)"Drat that boy," interposed my sister, frowning at me over her work, "what a questioner he is. Ask no questions, and you'll be told no lies."
Chapter: 2 Pg. 20 Paragraph: 4
I enjoy a good saying. This is a quality saying that is mentioned by his sister. I also feel that this perticular saying is awesome because it is so true of being young. As a child or sometimes a teenager you can't ask real questions. When you do all you recieve are lies.
3):People are put in the Hulks because they murder, and because they rob, and forge, and do all sorts of bad; and they always begin by asking questions."
Chapter: 2 Pg: 21 Paragraph: 3
I love this statement. The basic premise of curiosity killed the cat. Questions get you into trouble. When people pry one another tensions build. This is a fact. Another fact is that asking too many questions is bad for business. I believe this is a good comment because it says that questions get people killed.- Oliver Jones
4) I had seen the damp lying on the outside of my little window, as if some goblin had been crying there all night, and using the window for a pocket-handkerchief."
Chapter: 3 Pg: 23 Paragraph: 1
This is just an awesome bit of writing. It is beautiful, but at the same time it is awkward. It shows the brilliance of Dickens. I appreciate the imagery of a gobblin holding a hankerchief. It is soothing, but unsettling at the same time.- Oliver Jones
5):when her eyes were withdrawn secretly crossed his two forefingers, and exhibited them to me, as our token that Mrs. Joe was in a cross temper. This was so much her normal state that Joe and I would often, for weeks together, be, as to our fingers, like monumental Crusaders as to their legs.
Chapter:4 Pg: 30 Paragraph: 1
The secretive gesture is something that everyone can relate to. the slightest eye roll or the big L on your forhead. These signs are funny. This one takes the cake though it is fun and a way to get away from the evil mood of someone, even if only for a second. This is a great section in the chapter. I love the in depth descriptions of everyday life make this book a classic.-Oliver Jones
1. “As I saw him go, picking his way among the nettles, and among the brambles that bound the green mounds, he looked in my young eyes as if he were eluding the hands of the dead people, stretching up cautiously out of their graves to get a twist upon his ankle and pull him in.”
Chapter 1, Page 5, Paragraph 2
This passage formed a clear picture in my mind of how the man was walking away. I pictured a man who was older. He had failed to take care of himself well, and walked slowly giving him a rather sinister sort of look. When it said, “…as if he were eluding the hands of the dead people…”, it provided me with the idea that maybe the old man himself was a little frightened about walking through the graveyard, and being watched by a child who he does not know if he should trust with the secret of his whereabouts or the knowledge of his existence. The final part of the passage, “…stretching up cautiously out of their graves to get a twist upon his ankle and pull him in,” allotted me with the idea that not many people were aware of this mans existence, making his life seem almost not as though he was really living it. Without some sort of human contact, life would be something experienced alone. One would not know of such joys and sorrows that could result from simply being with another person of their own kind. This makes the man’s life almost dead. The people in the graves seem to realize this, and try to make him one of them.
2. “The effort of resolution necessary to the achievement of this purpose I found to be quite awful. It was as if I had to make up my mind to leap from the top of a high house, or plunge into a great depth of water.”
Chapter 2, Page 8, Paragraph 3
Pip is found in a tough situation here. He needs to keep the bread and butter for his meeting with the old man tomorrow, but he is afraid there is no way to get the bread to safety in hiding without Mrs. Joe finding it because of her meticulous housekeeping ways. If he just suddenly hides the bread, it will be noticed that he made it disappear so rapidly. His comparison of his situation to having to either “leap form the top of a high house, or plunge into a great depth of water”, tells exactly of how he is feeling right now. That no matter what he does, he will be in trouble, there is simply no avoiding it.
3. “Since that time, which is far enough away now, I have often thought that few people know what secrecy there is in the young, under terror. No matter how unreasonable the terror, so that it be terror.”
Chapter 2, Page 13, Paragraph 5
This is really found true even in today’s society. It is saying that when something is scary, it does not matter if it is reasonable or not, the child will be scared. By reasonable, it is meant they could be talking about how an old man said to bring them some food and a file, and if they did not, or if they told somebody else of what it was that they were doing, somebody would come and tear out their liver. This example is an example of something that the old man would not really carry through with, but he knows that the child will believe he would. He is taking advantage of a child’s tendency to believe the irrational threat, and be alarmed by it.
4. “But they wouldn’t leave me alone. They seemed to think the opportunity lost if they failed to point the conversation at me, every now and then, and stick the point into me. I might have been an unfortunate little bull in a Spanish arena, I got so smartingly touched up by these moral goads.”
Chapter 4, Page 25, Paragraph 2
I find this to be true with adults and children in my own life at times. Adults take every opportunity to be able to say to their child, “See, other people want and expect you to do this, or to be like that.” Not only is it with their own children however, other adults to children in general will have little comments that will sound accusing to the child even though from the adults perspective, they are just inspirational. Pip’s comparison to being “…an unfortunate little bull in a Spanish arena…” is quite accurate. It is almost like his elders are telling him the right thing to do, but in turn it could be the defeat of him. They are tempting him to only be let down with the loss, just as the man with the red cape tempts the bull only to make him fall in defeat.
5. “I think the Romans must have aggravated one another very much, with their noses. Perhaps, they became the restless people they were, in consequence. Anyhow, Mr. Wopsle’s Roman nose so aggravated me, during the recital of my misdemeanors, that I should have liked to pull it until he howled.”
Chapter 4, Page 27, Paragraph 7
The feeling that Pip is experiencing at this time is one that I, along with I am sure most other people have experienced. He finds Mr. Wopsle’s Roman nose annoying him into aggravation. My own example is a girlfriend of mine, her tendency to butt in to anything I am doing annoys me to the point of aggravation on nearly a daily basis. I cannot however act out and do something about it
1)"My father's name being Pirrip, and my christain name Philip my infant tounge could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit then Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip."
Chapter 1, Page 1, Paragraph 1
Is Pip's real name Philip Pirrip? Why doesn't he want to be called Philip Pirrip? Why did everyone else call him Pip? How old is Pip? Who all called him Pip? I like how Pip is an short easy name to pronounce and not hard and a toung twister like Philip Pirrip. In the passage it says "his fathers name being Pirrip and his christain name being Philip" are any of his family members christain? mother? father?
-Jessica Kubiak
2)"It was in the early morning after my arrival that i entertained this speculation. On the previous night, I had been sent staight to bed in an attic with a sloping roof, which was too low in the corner where the bedstead was, that i caculated the tiles as being a foot of my eyebrows."
Chapter 8, page 59, paragraph 2
In these descriptions it mades you feel sad at what the protagionist or antagonists has to live like, even if it is only for a day or two. I like how the passage was descriptive, I can see the roof a foot away from my eyebrows. You start to appriciate what you have once you see what other people don't have even if it is at someone else's house, that is what this passage does to me.
3)"Joe made the fire and swept the hearth, and then we went to the door to listen for the chaise-cart. It was a cold dry night, and the wind blew keenly, and the frost was white and hard. A man would die to-night of lying out on the marshes, I thought. And i looked at the stars and considered how awful it would be for a man to turn his face up to them as he froze to death, and see no help nor pity in the all glitteing multiude."
chapter 7, page 55, paragraph 5
Pip is thinking back to the two men and is wondering if they will die staring at the stars in the marshes. He propably feels awful that a mam mmight die in a marsh, frozen, staring at the stars. He might think that if he had told someone they might not have died in the cold marshes. This makes him feel guilty. I would feel guilty if two men were probably going to die in a marsh frozen to death, and I knew that the two men were there, and I could of saved them, and I think that is how Pip feels.
4)"For such reasons I was glad when ten o'clock came and we started for Miss. Havisham's: though i was not at all at my ease regarding the manner in which I should acquit under the lady's roof. Within a quarter of a hour we came to Miss. Havisham's house, which was of old brick, and dismal, and had a great many iron bars to it. Some of the windows had been walled up; of those that remained, all the lower were rustily barred."
chapter 8, page 60, paragraph 2
Why is Miss. Havisham's house so decayed and not proper looking? Is the area where the windows are covered, the area that Miss. Havisham lives at with no sunlight? The house that looks run down tends to give people creeps, this house kinda gives me creeps. At the look of the house it makes you think what type of person lives in there? Why does Pip not like math, because of al the math questions he is asked, he is happy it is ten o'clock and he can stop being asked questions?
"I am afraid I was ashamed of the dear good fellow-- I know I was ashamed of him-- when I saw that Estella stoop at the back of Miss Havisham's chair, and that her eyes laughed mischievously."
(page 106, para 5, Ch. 13)
This section is very, how should I say, "tear-jerking." Pip is ashamed of his best friend just because he is a common person. I wonder why Pip could not just accept his place in the society and be happy. Because of Estella, Pip wishes he was a gentleman and was part of an upper class family, not the apprentice of a blacksmith who is uneducated. He doesn't realize that he has a good friend in Joe and that that should be enough.
-Mauro Whiteman
"I was always treated as if I had insisted on being born in opposition to the dictates of reason, religion, and morality, and against the arguments of my best friends." Chapter 4, pg. 25
How bad would that be to feel as if u were born a thorn in someones side? And to treat a child in such a manner is horrible. This is one
"It is a most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home. There may be a black ingratitude in the thing and the punishment may be retrubutive and well deserved, but that it is a miserable thing, I can testify."
(page 112, para 1, Ch. 14)
I can really feel the pain that Pip is going through right now. He has made the acquaintance of an upper class person and her daughter, and now he wishes he could be just like them; worse, he is now ashamed of his own home, which any other lower class boy would be happy with. He is ashamed of Joe and his own coarse hands and thick boots. I was torn by this: why can't he just be happy with his life?
-Mauro Whiteman
5)"'This' said Mr.Pumblechook, 'is Pip.'
'This is Pip, is it?' returned the young lady who was vary pretty and seemed vary proud; 'come in, Pip.'
Mr.Pumblechook, was comming in also, whem she stopped him with the gate.
'Oh' she said. 'Did you wish to see Miss Havisham?'
'If Miss Havisham wishes to see me,' returned Mr. Pumblechook, discomfited.
'Ah!' said the girl; 'but you see she don't'"
chapter 8, page 61, paragraph 3
Why was the girl so mean to Mr Pumblechook? I can understand why Mr. Pumblechook would feel discomfited because he was thought he was going with Pip but was rudly denied. Why did the girl seem vary proud? Does Pip like the girl who is showing him the way? The girl sounds disappointed to see Pip looks like he does, because she questions back to Mr. Pumblechook that this is
Pip. Why wasn't Mr.Pumblechook allowed to go in?
"We were equals afterwards, as we had been before; but, afterwards at quiet times when I sat looking at Joe and thinking about him, I had a new sensation of feeling conscious that I was looking up to Joe in my heart." Chapter 7, pg. 56
I think it is human nature to look for a companion when we are in uncomfortable situations. It seems now that pip has found his foothold on an unsturdy childhood.
"But, he was particular in stipulating that if I were not received with cordiality, or if I were not encouraged to repeat my visit as a visit which had no ulterior object, but was simply one of gratitude for a favour received, then this experimental trip should have no successor."
(page 118, para 8, Ch. 15)
Pip is in a terrible position at this time in his life. He has a nice home, a good friend, and a respectable apprenticeship, and yet he longs to be with Estella and the rich people. He wants to visit Miss Havisham, and I believe it has more reason than to just give thanks. I believe Pip wants to see Estella again and to be with the upper class people. I think Pip should just forget Miss Havisham and Estella and continue his work for Joe. Also, cordiality is one of my favorite words in the English language (but that is on a tangent).
-Mauro Whiteman
"In the little world in which children have their existence, whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt, as injustice." Chapter 8, pg. 70
This is so true because little kids dont forgive their parents for hurting or abusing them untill they are much older.When i was more little than I am now I used to feel so much more emotion when someone lied or cussed than i do now.
"If you can't get to be oncommon through going straight, you'll never get to do it through going crooked." Chapter 9, p. 81
This reminded me of our discussion in class when we were talking about how people dress. Pip wants to be lke someone else that he is not. Kinda like me wearing basketball shoes.
"There was such a malignant enjoyment in her utterance of the last words, and she broke into such a disagreeable laugh that I was at a loss what to say. She spared me the trouble of considering, by dismissing me."
(page 123, para 6, Ch. 15)
This was a very cruel thing for Miss Havisham to say, though I do not know if it was meant by her to be so. She knows how Pip feels for Estella, and yet she mocks him and shows the utmost indifference in the fact that Pip misses her. This was very painful for Pip to accept. I believe that after this meeting, Pip should try to forget both Miss Havisham and Estella.
-Mauro Whiteman
6)"I saw the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress, and like the fowers, had no brightness left but the brightness of the sunken eye. I saw that the dress had been put upon the round figured woman, and that the figure upon which it now hung loose, had shruken to skin and bone."
chapter 8, page 63, paragraph 4
Is the women really old, or in her mid years? Why was she wearing a faded, yellowed, dress? Did she ever get married in that dress? the passage makes the womes seem she rounded when she was younger and now she is just bones and skin no fat or muscle on her. It makes me think of an anorexic person, because they sometimes are super skinny and it lookes like the skin is streached over the bones and the little muscles they have.
"... think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day." Chapter 9, pg. 82
This is a very moving paragraph in that he is talking about that one life changing expeirience that we all are faced with sooner or later.
"Then I bethought me of a crutch, the shape being much the same, and I borrowed one in the village, and displayed it to my sister with considerable confidence."
(page 130-131, para 4, Ch. 16)
I wonder if it was the convict from the beginning of the story who did this to Pip's sister. Perhaps he was out for revenge on Pip because he had been caught, though I doubt that he was dissatisfied after capturing the other convict. I wonder if the attacker will try to finish the job. Perhaps the attack will cause Pip's sister to give Pip the money.
-Mauro Whiteman
"There have been occasions in my later life (I suppose as in most lives) when I have felt for a time as if a thick curtain had fallen on all its interest and romance, to shut me out from anything save dull endurance any more. Never has that curtain dropped so heavy and blank, as when my way in life lay stretched out straight before me through the newly-entered road of apprenticeship to Joe." Chapter 14, pg. 124
This dialecticaljournal is gonna be very short. Can u say fourth grade??
"'Because, if it is to spite her,' Biddy pursued, 'I should think--but you know best--that might be better and more independently done by caring nothing for her words. And if it is to gain her over, I should think--but you know best--she was not worth gaining over.'"
(page 136, para 8, Ch. 17)
I believe that Biddy is right on with this statement, and, if Pip followed her advice, he could become a happy person and live out his life with Joe and Biddy and his sister. However, I doubt greatly that Pip will ever be strong enough to do what Biddy has suggested, and he will continue to chase the dream of being a gentleman and gaining the heart of the beautiful Estella.
-Mauro Whiteman
"And now, because my mind was not confused enough before, I complicated its confusion fifty thousand-fold by having states and seasons when I was clear that Biddy was immeasurably better than Estella, and that the plain honest working life to which I was born had nothing in it to be ashamed of, but offered me sufficient means of self-respect and happiness."
(page 140, para 6, Ch. 17)
I wish Pip could accept the state of happiness that he could have if he just forgot about the upper class and took his place among the lower class. He would have everything, and he even says that. I don't understand how he could not be content with the life he leads. He has so much going for him without being a gentleman.
-Mauro Whiteman
"I looked at both of them. Agter a pause they both heartily congratulated me; but there was a certain touch of sadness in their congratulations that I rather resented."
(page 151, para 11, Ch. 18)
It is obvious that Joe and Biddy are hurt by the loss of Pip, and they both probably wish he wouldn't go. However, they are both happy that he has the chance to become something big, though neither of them do. I don't know how I would feel in the place of Joe, losing my best friend and almost "son" to a life that is far above the life I live. I definately feel bad for Biddy, because she is losing a person who she probably loves, and she knows that she is not good enough for Pip.
-Mauro Whiteman
"I went to church with Joe, and thought perhaps the clergyman wouldn't have read that about the rich man and the kingdom of Heaven, if he had known all."
(page 155, para 2, Ch. 19)
I think that Pip should have listened to the sermon about the rich man and the kingdom of Heaven, and maybe Pip would have changed his mind about leaving to become a gentleman. However, he has been given a once-in-a-lifetime chance to become a better person in the social status, though he will lose everything that he had. I don't know what I would do in Pip's place, but I have never had to make such a hard decision.
-Mauro Whiteman
7)"She was dressed in rich materials-satian's, and lace, and silks--all white. Here shoes were white. And she had a long white veil dependant fomr her hair, she had bridal flowers in her hair, but her hair was white. Some bright jewles sparkled on her neck, and on her hands, and some other jewles lay sparkling on the table. Dresses, less splendid then the dress she wore and half packed trunks packed about. She had not quite finished dressing, for she had but one shoe on--the other was on the table near her hand--her veil was but half arranged, her watch and chain were not put on, and some lace for her bosom lay with thoes trinkets, and with her handkerchief, and gloves, and some flowers, and a Prayer-book, all confusedly heaped about the looking-glass."
Chapter 8, page 63, paragraph 3
Why did the women have on one shoe, half a veil, and not have on her jewlery and gloves? Was the women so sad she could not finish getting dressed? Why was everyting confusedly heaped around the looking-glass? The way the women is described it makes me think that maybe the woman is crazy or insane, because she can't fully get dressed, she sits there and just sits thinking about someone or something.
"'He may be too proud to let any one take him out of a place that he is competent to fill, and fills well and with respect. To tell you the truth, I think he is--though it sounds bold in me to say so, for you must know him far better than I do."
(page 158, para 5, Ch. 19)
I wish Pip was able to be proud like Joe. I wish Pip would just stay and live with Joe like a regular "common" person. However, Pip wants to have more, and he is given the opportunity for more, so I believe he will take it and leave behind his life in the lower class.
-Mauro Whiteman
"my first decided experience of the stupendous power of money was that it had morally laid upon his back, Trabb's boy."
(page 161, para 1, Ch. 19)
This was an amazing change that occured as soon as Pip mentioned his new fortune. All of the sudden, everything changed and he was treated much differently. Also, Trabb's boy was treated much differently, as if the boy would reflect illly on the tailor. I think this just shows how money can truly change a person's life.
-Mauro Whiteman
Chapter 2, page 8, Para. 3-
"My sister, Mrs. Joe, with black hair and eyes, had such a prevailing redness of skin that i sometimes used to wonder whether it was possible she washed herself with a nutmeg-grater instead of soap. She was tall and bony, and almost always wore a coarse apron, fastened over her front, that was stuck full of pins and needles. She made it a powerful merit in herself, and a strong reporach against Joe, that she always wore this apron so much."
Even though the descriptions are hard to get past, i think that Dickens does an excellent job portraying the characters and painting a picture in your mind of exactly how he envisions the people to look like. Mrs. Joe, seems like a harsh women, the kind who has made it her effort to keep a strong disposition and make everyone where of it. She holds her self high, but at the same time almost too high. She is the state and Pip makes it clear that she is neither attractive nor is she merciful.
[[.kathrin hardy.]]
chapter ,page 44, para. 2-
"MI DEER JO I OPE U R KIRWITE WELL I OPE I SHAL SON BE HABELL 4 2 TEEDGE U JO AN THEN WE SHORL B SO GLODD AN WEN I M PRENGTD 2 U JO WOT LARX AN BLEVE ME INF XN PIP"
Knowing what i know now about victorian education, gives an excellent background about how the children were taught and how, a poor labouring boy like Pip recieved a very low standard of education, and even though this passage is thoroughly complex and very immature, to Joe it is amazing work and even though really the only thing he can really read is the J-O parts he is very excited to learn like Pip, having never gone to school in his younger days. I feel very grateful to have a quite astonishing education today. Thank you Ms. Gaare!!!
.::.kathrin hardy.::.
6)"The sheep stopped in their eating and looked timidly at us; and the cattle, their heads turned from the wind and sleet stared angrily as if they held us responsible for both annoyances"
Chapter:5 Pg: 43 Paragraph: 1
I enjoy the imagery that is used in this passage. It is interesting to think of a cow or sheep stopping and looking at you with blame as a human would. It is also rather stunning to see that these animals are aware of their surroundings in such a storm. I think this is an interesting passage that shows the different point of views in different areas.-Oliver Jones
7)"I loved Joe-perhaps for no better reason in those early days than because the dear fellow let me love him-and as to him my inner self was not so easily composed."
Chapter:6 Pg: 49 Paragraph:2
This is a common idea. The fact that you can love someone because they let you. It is in my experience easier that way. If someone has you shut out it is difficult. I feel that this common idea is great. I feel that it is important in the relationship between Mr. Joe and Pip.-Oliver Jones
6. "With an alphabet on the hearth at my feet for reference, I contrived in an hour or two to print and smear this epistle:
'mI deEr JO i opE U r krWitE well i opE I shAl soN B haBelL 4 2 teeDge U JO aN theN wE shOrl b sO glOdd aN wEn i M preNgtD 2 u JO woT larX an blEvE ME inF xn PiP.' Page 46, chapter 7
When Pip writes to Joe he is so proud of his work that he wants to teach Joe. Even though he hardly spelled anything right, this note still pleases him because he was the one who did it, all on his own. This reminds me of when I would be happy over the smallest things. I would draw pictures and write badly spelled notes that were pretty much impossible to read, but I was proud of the work I did. Pip was probably proud of his work because, at his age, he doesn't care what others think; he is not afraid to be himself and do what he wants.
tara
chapter 2,page 14,para.4-
"..every board upon the way, and every crack in every board, calling after me, 'Stop theif!' and 'Get up, Mrs. Joe!'
This passage reminds me of Edgar Allen Poe's A Tell-Tale Heart. His subconcious screaming out at him, the guiltiness that he's going to feel for quite a while, when something that he took is being looked for and no-one can find it, it will burn a hole inside him. Everytime he hears "Well i thought we had.." his grip will tighten and his palms will start to sweat, and then he'll think that everyone is looking at him and sooner or later, he's gonna crack.
=kat=
8)"I struggled through the alphabet as if it had been a bramble-bush, getting considerably worried and scratched by every letter.
Chapter:7 Pg:54 Paragraph: 1
In this passage I was awed. The description of what it is like not to be able to fluently read is perfect. To struggle with letters and feel as if they are painfully released from your mouth is terrible. It is a terrible thing to not be able to read with fluency and ease. In this time it was a very respected skill to be able to do this.- Oliver Jones
7. "…Joe pursued, with a countenance expressive of seeing something very nasty indeed, 'if you could have been aware how small and flabby and mean you was, dear me, you'd have formed the most contemptible opinions of yourself!'" page 49, chapter 7
Many people only see themselves in one light, and that is most likely a good one. They hardly ever see themselves in the bad light. I think that, almost all the time, we don't accept ourselves for what we are. We are not perfect. Yet, even though we know that perfection does not exist, we do not want to see the qualities that make us who we are; whether it is mean or "flabby" or shy or anything else. We do not accept the qualities that make us unique. We see ourselves as we want to, and many times, we are too caught up to see what really matters.
ttara
8. "Young as I was, I believe that I dated a new admiration of Joe from that night. We were equals afterwards, as we had been before; but, afterwards at quiet times when I sat looking at Joe and thinking about him, I had a new sensation of feeling conscious that I was looking up to Joe in my heart." Page 51, chapter 7
A lot of times, opinions are formed of people that are often changed. It is that cool feeling you get when you think that you really know someone, you have a fixed opinion, but that opinion changes. It happens extremely fast, and at first, it is hard to know what to do. But then you discover that the change was for the good, and everything is good.
tara
9)"It was not in the first few moments that I saw all these things, though I saw more of them in the first moments than might be supposed. But, I saw that everything within my view which ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its lustre, and was faded and yellow.
Chapter: 8 Page:67 Paragraph:2
I feel that this is a very vivid picture of entering a place that is old. It seems that at one point it was very beautiful. It reminds me of the beggining of phantom at the Opera. It is amazing that it even goes as far to say that the women in the dress was also lacklustre. It shows great importance in the story in some way. I'm not sure what that way is yet, but I am determined to find out.-Oliver Jones
10)"The stranger looked at me again-still cocking his eye, as if he were expressly taking aim at me with his invisible gun-and said," He's a likely young parcel of bones that."
Chapter:10 Pg: 88 Paragraph: last on page
The feeling Pip felt at this moment was easy to relate to. He felt almost proud, but out of place. When a stranger is talking about you with your gaurdian you feel proud. You also feel awkward because you are right next to the conversation. It is an interesting feeling, and Pip deals with the awkwardness well.- Oliver Jones
11)"He was a burly man of an exceedingly dark complexion, with an exceedingly large head and corresponding large hand. He took my chin in his large hand and large hand."
Chapter 11 Pg. 94 Paragraph 4
I very much like the imagery in this passage. The description of this powerful dark complected man is something that I can see in my head. I can see him grabbing Pip in a certain way. I can see him talking in a certain way. I can see this because of the vivid imagery that is written by the author.-Oliver Jones
12)"The more I thought of the fight, and recalled the pale young gentleman on his back in various stages of puffy nad incrimsoned countenance, the more certain it appeared that something would be done to me."
Chapter 12 Pg.106 Paragraph 1
I am confused to why he had to fight the boy in the first place. If Estella jumped off a bridge would he? It is a very common idea and feeling. The feeling of guilt and trouble. The thought that you will be caught at any moment. The sure terror you feel in your heart burns. It is unlike any feeling in all the world.-Oliver Jones
"... what would it signify to me, being coarse and common, if nobody had told me so!" Chapter 17, pg. 149
If no one told you that you look different would you know that u did? If noone tole you that dressing a certain way was cool wat would you wear?
"... it [felt] very sorrowful and strange that this first night of my bright fortunes should be the loneliest I had ever known." Chapter 18, pg. 169
This shows theperfect example that money can't buy happiness, althoughit is strange that he is lonly.
13)"I could hardly have imagined dear old Joe looking so unlike himself or so like some ectraordinary bird, standing,as he did, speechless, with his tuft of feathers ruffled, and his mouth open as if he wnated a worm."
Chapter 13 Pg.113 Paragraph 4
I could hardly imagine such an amazing similie. This is an amazing passage. It creates vivid imagery of Joe. It shows the awe of the situation. It shows the great want that Joe had in this passage. It showed the mannor that he tried to attain during his meeting with this astute women. This was a fantastic similie.-Oliver Jones
"Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before--more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle." Chapter 19, pg. 185
It would be great if this ability to cry was allowed to all of us and i think we would be better for it.
chapter 8,page 56,para.1-
"I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress, and like the flowers, and had no brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes. I saw that the dress had been put upon the rounded figure of a young woman, and that the figure upon which it now hung loose, had shrunk to skin and bone."
Miss Havisham appears to be a ghastly women, quite dusty indeed, with a heart shattered into tiny shards, still bitter. As the chapter proceeds she never seems to be any more merciful than Pip's sister and frightening the poor kid to death. I percieve her as being a very prestigous girl in her days and then darkness spread over her days turning them into nights, living in darkness all the time, at her own will. It is sad almost, thinking that she had something wonderful and her life was struck by something aweful. This is also mysterious to me, what happened to her? why is she so depressed and emo..?? well i shall see!!
[[hearts]]kathrin hardy
14)"How much of my ungracious condition of mind may have been my own fault, how much Miss Hivisham's, how much my sister's, is now of no moment to me or to anyone.
Chapter 14 pg. 120 Paragraph 3
I feel so sad reading this passage from the fourteenth chapter. I feel like I have been cheated. I feel as Pip does now that he had a chance to save his sister, but he is useless. He feels that he is to blame for her condition. He is sad and mad and confused. It makes me feel sympathy for him.-Oliver Jones
2) “’I tell you what, young fellow,’ said she, ‘I didn’t bring you up by had to badger people’s lives out.’”
Page 14, Paragraph 14 Chapter 2, Section 1
I don’t like how in this book Miss. Joe is always acting like I brought you up so I am always right and you have no right to question me. This is especially true when she freaks out when he is just asking questions that he doesn’t know the answer to and just wants to know. It’s as if she doesn’t trust him with anything, not even general information.
Katy
3) “I thought he would be more glad if I came upon him with his breakfast, in an unexpected manner.”
Page 18, Paragraph 2, Chapter 3, Section 1
I don’t understand how he figures that a man who is running away from the cops would want him to snick up on him. If it was me I would be scared that he would have a knife or a gun or something that he would pull out and attack me with. Maybe he thought he would run away if he knew some one was coming so he snuck up so that he would not be frightened, but then again this guy is pretty crazy so who know how he thinks.
Katy
4) “The other one still gasped, ‘He tried-he tried-to-murder me. Bear-bear witness.’”
Page 40, Paragraph 4, Chapter 5, Section 1
If this is the convict and his friend first of all are they not friends so why were they fighting and then yelling if they knew if someone came they would both go back to the jail bout thing. Secondly why would they convict be trying to kill him when just that morning he was doing things to help him, or were they not friends and he had just said that to make sure that Pip did what was wanted of him?
katy
5) “then the convict whom I call the other convict was drafted off with his guard to go on board first.”
Page 42, Paragraph 3, Chapter 5, Section 1
Why did they put the people onto a bout? Could they not work together and take over the bout then they would all be free and have nothing to worry about? If they were out over water could the prisoners just jump over board and swim it safety? Do you think that’s how the two convicts got away?
katy
6) “She was dressed in rich materials-satins, and lace, and silks-all white. Her shoes were white. And she had a long white veil dependent form her hair, and she had bridal flowers in her hair, but her hair was white. Some bright jewels sparkled on her neck and on her hands, and some other jewels lay sparkling on the table.”
Page 63, Paragraph 3, Chapter 8, Section 1
From just this passage you can tell a few things, one that she is in a wedding gown and two that she is quite old. But as you read later on you see that she was never married mostly because she said that it was her wedding cake that was sitting in the corner with cobwebs. I took this as that she was ready to marry but her soon to be husband either left or was killed before the wedding, and that she wanted time to stop so she wouldn’t feel the grieving of that great lose.
7) “I glanced at the dressing-table again, and saw that the shoe upon it, once white, now yellow, had never been worn. I glanced down at the foot from which the shoe was absent, and saw that the silk stocking on it, once white, now yellow, had been trodden ragged. Without the arrest of everything, this standing still of all the pale decayed objects,”
Page 66, Paragraph 7, Chapter 8, Section 1
I like this passage because it says that everything changes and that you can try to keep everything the same but it will eventually change and life is way easier if you change with it. If you try not to change with it you miss out on life itself and have to isolate yourself to stay in your own time. And there is very little you can do to change your surroundings.
8) “’It’s a terrible thing, Joe; it ain’t true’”
Page 77, Paragraph 1, Chapter 9, Section 1
Why did he tell the truth to Joe but not to his sister? Did he really have a reason to lie to them? I mean he did nothing wrong and did nothing extremely good either, so why did he make up a story to tell them? Did he just want to mess with them, or maybe he just didn’t trust them. I don’t really think his sister or his uncle ever gave him any reason to lay them.
9) “I wondered whether he could be a doctor: but no, I thought; he couldn’t be a doctor, or he would have a quieter and more persuasive manner.”
Page 92, Paragraph 6, Chapter 11, Section 1
How can he tell what people would be and why they can’t, the personality of a person has nothing to do with what they will become when they get older, sure if they are people persons and what not, but still how would he have know if he was a people person with only seeing for a few seconds.
10) “’and you are unwilling to play, are you willing to work?’”
Page 92, Paragraph 13, Chapter 11, Section 1
What I don’t get is why in the first place she wanted him to come play? She had her niece there why doesn’t she play? I think that she wanted it to seem like they were her kids, since she was never married she wanted it to feel as if they were her kids.
11) “I heard the mice too, rattling behind the panels, as if the same occurrence were important to their interests.”
Page 93, Paragraph 2, Chapter 11, Section 1
If she wanted to keep every thing the same why dose she not have someone clean it for her? Or why dose she at least have some one get rid of the mice?
Katy
12) “Matthew will come and see me at last’ said Miss Havisham, sternly, “when I am laid on that table. That will be his lace-there,’”
Page 97, Paragraph 4, Chapter 11, Section 1
I think that it is kind of weird that she is talking about her death and that she will soon die yet she is walking around trying to stay healthy. Why dose she have where all of her family will stand when she is dead, and why dose she have everything planed out, is it because she wants to make sure that it is planed and that they don’t just forget about her.
Katy
8)"It was when i stood before her, avoiding her eyes, that i took note of the surrounding objects in detail, and saw that her watch had stopped at twenty minuets to nine, and a clock in the room had stopped at twenty minuets to nine."
chapter 8, page 64, paragraph 7
Why did the clocks stop at twenty minuets to nine? Did her friend die at twenty minuets to nine? Was she supposed to get married twenty minuets to nine, back on her weeding day?
13) “’Come and fight,’ said the pale young gentleman.”
Page 100, Paragraph 7, Chapter 11, Section 1
Why would some random guy be in the garden and to me it seams like he is outside a lot because he wanted to fight yet he was still really pale. Why would he want to fight when he new he was going to lose? I think that he doesn’t get out much and that he had to snick outside to fight and was not meant to be there he was meant to be inside, which would explain why he was really pale.
Katy
14) “’Pip has earned a premium here,’ she said, ‘and here it is. There are five-and-twenty guineas in this bag. Give it to you master, Pip?’”
Page 112, Paragraph 2, Chapter 13, Section 1
Why dose the money that Pip make go to Joe? But why dose she ask Pip if she gives it to him anyway? I am really confused, by the fact that back then the money was to go to Joe so why did she ask Pip in the first place?
15) “Now the reality was in my hold, I only felt that I was dusty with the dust of small coal, and anvil was a feather.”
Page 118, Paragraph 4, Chapter 14, Section 1
I think that him going to see Miss Havisham made him used to being nicely dressed and all cleaned up. This messed with him because he didn’t want to get all dirty just in case he got to go back to Miss Havisham’s house.
katy
9. "I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress, and like the flowers, and had no brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes." Page 59, chapter 8
This really makes me wonder if surroundings have everything to do with what is actually visible to the naked eye. Pip sees an old woman that is "withered" and tired. But does he see her that way because of what surrounds her? She wears a withered dress and is surrounded by withered flowers and, yet, her eyes are bright. Pip looks at them but he doesn't really see them. He doesn't see that the only brightness there comes from the most important thing there. I personally think that eyes are windows into people's souls, and if her eyes are bright, even if they are bright only compared to a withered dress, then her soul must be bright as well. What if the woman was dressed in a lively dress with exquisite jewels and fresh picked flowers surrounded her? Pip would notice them, but then her eyes would seem dim. If her eyes were compared to her lively surroundings, they would be nothing; what would her soul be seen as? Surroundings have everything to do with what is looked at and what is actually seen. Even the most brilliant things can be overlooked if they appear to be upstaged.
tara
16) “’Yes, Joe; but what I wanted to say, was, that as we are rather slack just now, if you would give me a half-holiday tomorrow, I think u would go up-town and make a call on Miss Est- Havisham.’”
Page 124, Paragraph 4, Chapter15, Section 1
Why was Pip trying so hard to go see Estella, and why did he say he wanted to see Miss Havisham instead of telling the truth? Wouldn’t Joe be more understanding if he knew that he wanted to go see a girl his own age rather then an eighty-year old lady?
Katy
chapter 8,page 58,para.7-
"'He calls the knaves, Jacks, this boy!' said Estella with disdain, before our first game was out. 'And what coarse hands he has! And what thick boots!'"
Social classes are a thing of society that are brutal. Estella, obviously being more wealthy than Pip, looks down on him because he is a labouring-boy. And not once does she seem sorry for her remarks or does Pip say anything mean to her other than telling Miss Havisham that she is very insulting. Yet for some reason it seems as if Pip and Estella may end up being together, i shall watch as it unfolds.. ooo lala!!!
^_^kathrin
9)"mI deEr JO i opE U r krWitE wEll i opE i shAl soN B haBelL 4 2 teeDge U JO aN theN wE soHrl B sO glOdd aN wEn i M preNgt 2 JO woT LarX an blEvE ME inF xn PiP."
Chapter 7, Page 49, paragraph 4
I don't know how neat and right children during the victorian era wrote. I think that Pip is pretty smart, he can write, not great, but you get his message. Pip also tried his hardest to write this letter right and it showed.
10. "I had never thought of being ashamed of my hands before; but I began to consider them a very indifferent pair. Her contempt for me was so strong that it became infectious, and I caught it." Page 62, chapter 8
Opinions of ourselves are made. As we grow older, people tell us how we should live, what we should do to fit in, and how we should act to fit in. Therefore our opinions change because we feel that we are not good enough and we need to change to be accepted by society. Pip has never noticed how coarse his hands were until Estella mentioned them. Would he have ever noticed them if they were never mentioned? He probably would not. His opinion about himself has changed. He is self-conscious about his hands and wants to change. Like Pip said, contempt is infectious, which means that we can stop this infection by living by Eleanor Roosevelt's words: "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." If the infection is not caught, it cannot be spread.
tara
16. I coaxed myself to sleep by thinking of Miss Havisham’s next Wednesday; and in my sleep I saw the file coming at me out of a door, without seeing who held it, and I screamed myself awake.
Ch. 10 Pg. 90
His confessions at this point bring to light some very interesting aspects of Pip’s character. In this passage, Pip has seen his former convict and is try to calm himself down by thinking more comforting thoughts. He finds Miss Havisham the most comforting thing he could think off. This is surprising because the reader assumes he would think of Joe because he is such a father figure. Maybe this is foreshadowing to future relationships, or a sign that Pip is becoming more independent of Joe.
The dream also serves as an honest look in to Pip’s fears. We can assume that the file represents his past actions and crimes catching up with him. Because he can not see behind the door, one can assume that he does not know where his punishment will come from, but the door being open represents that he knows it has be released and it is coming.
-Jojo
11. "Her chest had dropped, so that she stooped; and her voice had dropped, so that she spoke low, and with a dead lull upon her; altogether, she had the appearance of having dropped, body and soul, within and without, under the weight of a crushing blow." Page 63, chapter 8
There is a heavy burden resting on Miss Havisham's shoulders. I wonder what it is? Maybe she was going to get married at one point, but something happened to the groom or to her that prevented the wedding. She probably loved him so much that she could not go on. In essence, time stopped. Her clocks were stopped in her room, nothing was removed from its place, and everything is put back in its place if ever removed. She still wears her wedding dress. She lives in her dressing room. There is something that she cannot overcome, if she even tries. She needs to stop dwelling in the past and move on, as do we all.
tara
"Miss Havisham would often ask me in a whisper. Or when we were alone, 'Does she grow prettier and prettier, Pip?' And when I said Yes (for indeed she did), would seem to enjoy it greedily."
Chapter 12 pg. 108
How can Pip stand being in the same room as Miss Havisham? She is rude to him, and she continues to taunt him with Estella. Why does Pip like Estella if she is so mean to him? Her mood swings would make any kind of relationship difficult. Estella reminds me of his sister.
10)"She came back, with some bread and meat and a little mug of beer. She put the mug down on the stones of the yard, and gave me the meat and bread without looking at me, as insolently as if I were a dog in disgrace. I was so humiliated, hurt, spurned, offended, angry, sorry-I cannot hit upon the right name for the smart-God knows what its name was- that tears started to my eyes. The moment they sprang there, the girl looked at me with quick delight in having been the cause of them. This gave me power to keep them back and to look at her: so, she gave me a contemptuous toss-but with a sense, i thought, of having made too sure that i was so wounded-and left me."
Chapter 8, page 68, paragraph 7
Why is Estella so mean to Pip? Pip cries and it makes her happy, then he tries to not cry and she pushed harder and made sure he was wounded. Who would do that? Why would you do that? Has she seen Pip before and got mad at him and he didn't notice? No one should be this mean to a guest.
12. "The moment they sprang there, the girl looked at me with a quick delight in having been the cause of them. This gave me the power to keep them back and to look at her: so, she gave a contemptuous toss - but with a sense, I thought, of having made too sure that I was so wounded - and left me." Page 64, chapter 8
When people wound you, whether it is physically or emotionally, they make you stronger. We need to learn that we can take those wounds, those scornful words, those hurtful looks, and turn them into motivation to prove that person wrong. That is exactly what Pip did. He used her delight in his pain to motivate himself not to cry. He was proving to her that she had no control over him or his fate. Estella, without meaning to, has made Pip a stronger person.
tara
6. “I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong. I had had not intercourse with the world at that time and I imitated none of its many inhabitants who act in this manner.”
Chapter 6, Page 41-42, Paragraph 2-1
I think this passage seems to be true to most human nature. All people have a tendency to do the wrong thing at some point of their life. I think the way Pip explained why he did what he did put the reasoning of most people in a more clear perspective. To do what would be the right choice is often difficult or frightening, and people are often too frightened or not willing to do what is difficult making them choose to do the wrong. Pip’s situation however is much different from what decisions children are faced with today. In stead of having to tell the truth about steeling to help out a man Pip thought to be homeless, it would more frequently the pressures to do drugs or alcohol from peers.
7. “I whish it was only me that got put out, Pip; I wish there warn’t no Tickler for you, old chap; I wish I could take I all on myself; but this is the up-and-down-and-straight on it, Pip, and I hope you’ll overlook shortcomings.”
Chapter 7, Page 51, Paragraph 1
This makes me think about Joe in a new light. I thought before that he was more of just a friend to Pip, now I kind of fell like he is more of a fatherly/brotherly figure. This shows that he genuinely cares about him. Joe feels responsible for the things that Pip has to suffer through on account of Mrs. Joe. This also adds much more substance to Joe as a character, and makes him seem more life like.
8. “…but it meant more than it said. It meant, when it was given, that whoever had this house could want nothing else.”
Chapter 8, Page 58, Paragraph, 7
This statement gives you somewhat of an idea about the current setting. I can picture an older mansion that was once extravagant and elegant in its day, but is now in not as great of a condition. Still, its older appearance makes is seem more of a treasure because of all of the memories that were made there and important, special events that took place there. This quality alone makes it all that a person could ever want.
9. “But, I saw that everything within my view which ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its luster, and was faded and yellow.”
Chapter 8, Page 59, Paragraph, 4
This sets the tone to a sadder, more depressed one with the mention of the aged white turning that stale yellow hue. That tells a lot about this new person we are being introduced to. She must be older also, and perhaps she just doesn’t bother being concerned about the little things such as keeping her whites clean, new, and white.
"Finally, I remember that when I got into my little bedroom, I was truly wretched, and had a strong conviction on me that I should never like Joe's trade. I had liked it once, but once was not now.
Chapter 13 pg.119
What has caused Pip to change his mind so quickly? He is forgetting everything he loves about his current life. Is it his love of learning or his strive to impress Estella that has brought about this change?
10. ‘“Son of yours?”
“Well,” said Joe meditatively-not, of course, that it could be in anywise necessary to consider about it, but became it about everything that was discussed over pipes-“well, no. No, he ain’t.”’
Chapter 10, Page 80, Paragraph 4-5
Joe doe not know how to answer the question that has been inquired of him. He feels like a fatherly figure to Pip, but he technically, is not. I think he is afraid that the man will not understand the situation, or the relationship between him and Pip. This is something that would be more common in today’s world. So many people have so many different living arrangements, and it is more accepted. In that day and age however, such things were not talked about with strangers. Things like Pip’s parents being dead, and his sister having to raise him, and him and Joe being great friends were not things that should be discussed over pipes.Topics of discussion back then were so restricted. I guess its good because somethings that are so openly discussed today are probably discussed at often the wrong time. I do have to consider however that somethings need to be discussed that were not spoken of in that time in order to know wrongs from rights.
11. “And here I may remark that when Mr. Wopsle referred to me, he considered it a necessary part of such reference to rumple my hair and poke it into my eyes. I cannot conceive why everybody of his standing who visited at our house should always have put me through the same inflammatory process under similar circumstances.”
Chapter 10, Page 80, Paragraph 10
This is a situation most children have been thrown into in their lives. Its as though adults feel more superior to children because they can do this kind of thing. Or, they think that it looks like they care more about the child when they touch the child in that kind of a way. They are portraying something that they aren’t necessarily to the strangers so they will think that there is a perfect children-adult relationship there, even when they may not even know, or like each other all that much.
"The unemployed bystanders drew back...destined never to be on the rampage again while she was the wife of Joe."
Chapter 15 pg. 134
How will the family hold up without its leader? Will Joe be able to take care of Mrs. Joe? Will Pip have to work alone in the forge? Should Pip be happy that he will not be bothered by his sister any longer or should he be sad?
"And on the ground beside her, when Joe picked her up, was a convict's leg-iron which had been filed asunder."
Chapter 16 pg. 136
Why would the convict attack Mrs. Joe? Did she know someting? Was the leg-iron ment for Pip because he helped turn in the convicts the night in the swamp? Is the family in danger? Does Mrs. Joe know who hit her? What will come of the attack?
13. "'The king upon his throne, with his crown upon his 'ed, can't sit and write his acts of Parliament in print, without having begun, when he were a unpromoted prince, with the alphabet - ah!'" Page 74, chapter 9
Joe is saying that everyone has to start somewhere. A king doesn't get to his throne automatically, he is a prince first who has to work hard and learn a lot before he can be king. Pip, wanting to be a scholar, also has to start somewhere.
tara
"'Now, I return to this young fellow. And the communication I have got to make is that he has great expectations."'
Chapter 18 pg. 154
What are Pip's great expectations? Are they his potential, or his destiny? Why has he been chosen? Is he to be the next great writer or politician? Why were certain kids chosen to seek further education than others? Is this a gift from Miss Havisham?
14. "Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would have never bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day." Page 75, chapter 9
Our lives seem to always have that defining moment that changes our lives forever. It can change us for the better (the gold or the flowers) or for the worse (the iron or the thorns). But from that day forward, the chain of better or worse binds us. The day at Miss Havisham's was like Pip's defining moment, and he knows it. I think that this day will be the real beginning of Pip's life. This day will define him.
tara
"'Now you are to understand, secondly, Mr. Pip, that the name of the person who is your liberal benefactor remains a profound secret, until the person chooses to reveal it.'"
Chapter 18 pg. 154
Who is the person? I don't think that it is Miss Havisham, but I think that she knows the benefactor. I wonder if Estella had anyting to do with it. She seems to have liked Pip, at least a little. There is also the strange young man who fought Pip. What is his purpose in the story?
17. Like the clock in Miss Havisham’s room, and like Miss Havisham’s watch, it had stopped at twenty minutes to nine.
Ch. 11 Pg. 91
When reading this book, it is hard to allow myself to relax and trust the author. When I constantly hear about the clocks, I at first think that time has actually stopped, but if this was Mr. Dickens’ message, he would have included other supernatural elements. I keep searching for them and they are not there. Still needing an explanation, I now presumed the clocks were stopped on the day of Miss Havisham’s wedding since she has refused to move on after she was heart broken. But I also find this too sinister for a book that talks about games involving eating slices of bread with Pip’s brother-in-law. The author’s greatest responsibility is to earn the reader’s trust that the author will not invest the reader’s time and emotion in something worthless. But more and more, I grow distant and try to remove my sympathy from the characters in the book. I suspect that Charles Dickens will destroy these characters and I refuse to share their pain if or when it comes.
-Jojo
"I would not have listened for more, if I could have heard more: so I drew away from the window, and sat down in my one chair by the bedside, feeling it very sorrowful and strange that this first night of my bright fortunes should be the loneliest I had ever know."
Chapter 18 pg. 162
Pip's dream has come true, but is it a good thing? He will be sent off to a new city and will know no one. He has chosen to leave his friends and family behind and everything else he has know and loved. I don't think that becoming a gentleman will make Pip happy, but maybe the success that comes with it will.
15)"out there with the sails on the river passing beyond the earthwork,and sometimes when the tide was low, looking as if they belonged to sunken ships that were still sailing on at the bottom of the water."
Chapter 15 Pg. 124 Paragraph 3
This is an interesting passage. It shows the imagination of Pip. It shows the great simplicity of a river flowing with sails. It flows with the power to illuminate. It shows that Pip is not all business. He is a dreamer. It helps support that fact. This passage is an interesting view of sails being seen from a window. The great abstract view that Dickens makes is beautiful. He makes a fantastic view of this conversation by showing us what Pip is seeing.- Oliver Jones
"As I passed the church, I felt (as I had felt during service in the morning) a sublime compassion for the poor creatures who were destined to go there, Sunday after Sunday, all their lives through, and to lie obscurely at last among the low green mounds. I promised myself that I would do something for them one of these days..."
Chapter 19 pg. 163
Pip has decided to come back one day to help the poor in his community. This is the first time he has decided to use his gift to help others. Maybe Pip will become a revolutionary in his own right helping the poor rise in society. I just hope it is not an empty promise and that nothing he goes through will keep him from it.
"Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts."
Chapter 19 pg. 177
Sometimes the best thing to do to help wash away hard times is to cry. It reminds me of the "Grapes of Wrath" when it talked about the men and that they must never breakdown and cry or the family would fall apart. This is a little different however, Pip is on his own and he needs to release the energy that is built up in him.
16)"And on the ground beside her, when Joe picked her up, was a convict's iron which had been filed asunder."
Chapter 16 Pg. 136 Paragraph 1
I am confused. I don't understand how with seeing this evidence they still blame Olrick for this. It's easy to see that it was not Olrick. It was obviously a convict that wore Iron leggings. Unless they think Olrick was smart enough to build those and plant them there. I don't think that Olrick should have been blamed for the crime.- Oliver Jones
"By this time my sister was quite desperate, so pounced on joe, and, taking him by the two whiskers, knocked his head for a little while against the wall behind him.."
Pg 11, Ch 2
She shows so much violence! All Joe did is ask why Pip isn't eating and she starts banging his head on a wall. I dont think this atmosphere is safe for young Pip.
11)"She gave me a triumphant glance in passing me, as if she rejoiced that my hands were so coarse and my boots were so thick, she opened the gate and stood holding it. I was passing out without looking at her, when she touched me with a taunting hand.
'Why don't you cry?'
'Because I don't want to.'
'You do,'she said.'You have been crying tell you are half blind, and you are near crying again now.'
She laughed as she contemptuously, pushed me out, and locked the gate upon me."
Chapter 8, page 71, paragraph 3
Why is Estella picking on Pip again? Why is she so mean? Has someone hurt her in the past and she wants to take it out on Pip? Wy does she asume things about Pip? In the passage the description makes Estella seam like a really mean, rude, girl. It seakms like she doesn't care for others except Miss Havisham.
17)"Pursuing my idea as I leaned back in my wooden chair and looked at Biddy sewing away with her head on one side, I began to think her rather an extroardinary girl."
Chapter 17 Pg. 141 Paragraph last on page.
This is the moment in the movies when the music starts to play, and the camera zooms in on the girl. I think it is interesting that he now has a bit of a crush on Biddy. At the same time though it makes sense. He respects her and he believes she is remarkable. I think that these feelings are a little sudden. He is just watching her and he begins to become twitterpated.
12. "matthew will come and see me at last," said miss havisham, sternly. "when i am laid on that table. that will be his place-there," striking the table with the stick, "at my head! and yours will be there! and your husbands there!and sarah pockets there! and goergiana's there! now you all know where to take your stations when you come to feast apon me. and now go!"
page 83-84 chapter 11 last para.
it kind of freaked me out when i read the last sentince, because i was thinking that she couldn't have been human. miss hem, as her friends call her, has never seen daylight, which is pretty strange. is miss hem human, or is she and the people in the house non-human? although, it does seem ironic, because noone wants to feast on humans, she probable meant thet they should feast on the behalf of her death.
12)"'Remember?'said Joe'I believe you! Wonderful!'
'It's a terrible thing Joe; it ain't true.'
'What are you telling of Pip? cried Joe, falling back in the greatest amazement. 'You don't mean to say it's-'
'Yes I do; it's lies, Joe.'"
chapter 9, page 77, paragraph 1
Pip lied to his sister and his uncle, yet he didn't lie to Joe. Why didn't he lie to Joe? Pip seams like a horrible person for lying but he then tells the truth and leaves you confused. You don't know if he is a good or a bad person. Why did he lie to his sister and uncle?
18. “Now you see, Joseph and wife,” said Mr. Pumblechook, as he took me by the arm above the elbow, “I am one of them that always go right through with what they’ve begun. This boy must be bound out of hand. That’s my way. Bound out of hand.”
Before, I thought that Mr. Pumbechook was using his middle class status and wealth to force Mrs. Joe to accept his ridiculous claims to being the family’s supporter, like when he kept taking credit for the wine given to the soldiers when it was a gift to Mrs. Joe. Surely, if he tried to do something of this nature in a public place it would be looked down upon, but here he is, trying to look as if it is because of him that Pip is getting apprenticed. Who is more the fool: Mr. Pumblechook for thinking he could get away with it or Mrs. Joe for enabling it?
-Jojo
"The gates and dykes and banks came bursing at me through the mist, as if they cried as plainly as could be, "A boy with somebody elses pork-pie! Stop him!"
Pg 17, Ch 3
The guilt of taking his sisters pie burns in him. I think that this shows that Pip is a good kid. He feels guilt for doing something wrong, as he should. He has a self-conscious and he is feeling it.
18)"Finding that he could not see us very well from where he sat, he got up, and threw one leg over the back of a chair and leaned upto it; thus having one foot on the seat of a chair, and one foot on the ground."
Chapter 18 Pg. 153 Paragraph 4
Everybody has got a little captain in them. The subtle lines in this book are awesome. The little descriptions of everything. It seems irrelevent, but it is quite entertaining. I beleive this is why people read Dickens. They read it for the random subtle commentary about the way people loiter. I liked this passage because it shows how genius Dickens was.- Oliver Jones
"Did you speak?"
"I said i was glad you enjoyed it."
"Thankee, my boy. I do."
Pg 20, Ch 3
Pip is a nice young lad and full of generousity. Even in the face of a convict he is kind. He asks the man if he enjoys the food that Pip himself had to take from his sister who happens to have anger issues.
13. "she asked me and Joe whether we supposed sha was doormats under ou feet, and how we dared to use her so,"
page 94 chapter 12 para, 5
i knew a boy in my old school, who i was a very good friend with. he told me all his secrets. he brought this girl over to show me, which i knew to be his girlfriend. when we sat to lunch one day he told me he was using his girlfriend to make his ex jealous. many people use their loved ones to make people jealous, especialy brothers and sisters. they take advantage of when one gets in trouble. using others is something i see common, and it needs to stop, because it gets nowhere.
19)"Mr. Trabb's boy was the most audacious boy in all the country-side. When I had entered he was sweeping the shop, and he had sweetened his labours by sweeping over me."
Chapter 19 Pg. 167 Paragraph last on page
Everyone knows that there are phrases that people say in voices that mean different things. There are also gestures that people do that mean different things. I like this passage because it shows that the guy is very prideful. He is snitty, but not without good reason. I enjoyed this passage because it is true to life. It shows the real way that some people act.- Oliver Jones
10)“My fathers family name being Pirrip, and my christian name Phillip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.”p3 chapter 2
This shows a maturity and understanding in pip as well a an intelligence that he was little once.
19. I had believed in the best parlor as a most elegant saloon; I had believed in the front door as a mysterious portal of the Temple of State whose solemn opening was attended with a sacrifice of roast fowls; I had believed in the kitchen as a chaste though not magnificent apartment; I had believed in the forge as the glowing road to manhood and independence.
Ch. 14 Pg. 120
Much like how without a god, a temple is just another building, Pip’s home is now just a cheap, low-class shack. The belief that had prior occupied Pip’s home must be shifted elsewhere. He can not let the belief he felt die all together or he will be left emotionally drained and purposeless. He can not shift his belief back to his own home because he has seen it through enlightened eyes and has seen its unforgivable flaws. This traumatic revelation means that Pip will need new morals and beliefs.
-Jojo
11)“It is a most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home. There may be a black ingratitude in the thing and the punishment maybe retributive and well deserved, but that it is a miserable thing, I can testify. Home had never been a very pleasant place to me, because of my sister’s temper. But Joe had sanctified it, and I believed in it.”Ch 14 p 12
If you can't call your home a hoem where will u play or dream? Where will you learn to be a human?
"I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress, and like the flowers, and had no brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes. I saw that the dress had been put upon the rounded figure of a young woman, and that the figure upon which it now hung loose, had shrunk to skin and bone."Ch8 P56
People tend to cling to happy memories when they are in times of sadness and I think this is the casein that she is in her wedding dress but looks as if she has been in it for some time, and weddings are usually very happy.
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