Photo connection

                I believe that this picture of Icarus can easily be connected to Pip and some of the recurring concepts that appear when Pip gains his expectations. Before Pip got his expectations, he is like Icarus locked up in the tower. Only could Pip dream of becoming a gentleman and being able to fly free.        

When Pip gets his expectations, it is as glorious to him as the wings given to Icarus. Pip, however, is not satisfied with his place in life, and wants to fly higher. He becomes arrogant and starts to develop this attitude of being better than his friends. He is not content just being a gentleman, either, so he starts to overindulge and goes into debt. He is slowly getting closer to the sun.

                 Then, he meets Estella. Pip falls madly in love for her but even after his expectations, still feels he is not good enough for her. He is always feeling the need to improve. Every time he tries to better himself and get closer to Estella, he is climbing closer to the sun. Eventually the wax will melt and Pip will fall from the clouds to realize his arrogance and greed. It is only a matter of time before Pip gets too close to the sun.

Picture

The book is a totally dork fantasy book, bu it connects pretty well to Great Expectations. Through the image you can see how Kylar isn't an innocent child by the time hes an adult.

Making Connections

There are many similarities in the themes of Great Expectations and The Night Angel Trilogy. Kylar’s life experiences are almost identical. One of the connecting themes between these two books is social class. Kylar is just a small boy in the beginning of The Night Angel Trilogy and is growing up in a guild off the streets. Life for him is tough and isn’t about to get better anytime soon. Just like Pip, he dreams of being something better, something higher in social status.

Kylar only dreams, until one day he catches the eye of Durzo Blint. Durzo can easily be compared to Mr. Jaggers: well known, feared, and high on the social ladder. Durzo tells Kylar that he has great expectations. Durzo adopts Kylar into a higher social class, and trains him to take up his profession. This change in social status brings many changes in Kylar’s character, just as it brought many changes in Pip’s.

Another theme that can be connected between the books is guilt and innocence. Like Pip, being adopted by Durzo made Kylar lose most, if not all, of his childhood innocence. By the time Kylar was about Pip’s age, he had no feeling of guilt at all, just like Pip had stopped acting on account of his guilty conscience. The only difference is that Kylar was raised to be that way. Being adopted into new families and social classes had big affect on both the characters Kylar and Pip.

Through all of this, you can see the imperfection of humanity. These novels have characters that go through phases of being very condescending upon others, yet not feeling like enough. Of course, wanting to become more is a universal feeling that most humans get at some point. Pip and Kylar are examples of the flaws of humanity. In both novels, that is still subject to change, though.

The Second Stage

In the book Great Expectations, Pip goes through some drastic personality changes. By the second stage, Pip has become a “double” of his former self at the start of the novel. During the first few chapters of the book, Pip and Joe are a practically inseparable pair. However, Pip starts to change once he learns that he is going to become a gentleman. With this and his growing older, Pip is losing his innocence and becomes ashamed of his working class family. By the second stage of the novel, Pip is judgmental, and has an “I’m better than you” kind of attitude towards many people he knows, even his best friend in London.

Pip is building upon multiple themes and motifs in the novel Great Expectations. Most of these, however, have originated from the theme “becoming a gentleman”. This starts in the first stage, an example would be Pip’s changed attitude towards biddy. Just like he felt he was better than his good friend, Herbert, Pip is acting rudely to his friend, Biddy in the first stage. Becoming a gentleman starts other motifs, such as Pip's being ashamed of Joe. Pip's changes create a contrast that build upon the theme of becoming a gentleman.

Chain of events

Pip is referring you to stop and try to remember a moment of your life that has changed who you have become today. This experience that Pip has had has changed him in negative ways. Pip has become more mature in his thoughts and actions. He doesn’t make a game of describing his opinion of uncle Pumblechook and he starts to use more offensive words against Pumblechook. Uncle Pumblechook isn’t the only one who Pip thinks of differently (not that he ever liked Pumblechook). Pips opinions of himself and Joe also change. Pip used not care so much about what others think, but after being insulted by Estella, Pip begins to care about social status and class. He doesn’t like his “course hands and thick boots.” He cares to a point where he begins to get embarrassed by Joe and his low education. This is slowly separating him from Joe.

                An important chain in my life started towards the end of seventh grade. I wasn’t chosen by my math teacher to skip pre-algebra, which didn’t bother me, until my imbecilic friend of mine was chosen to skip pre-algebra. This was one of lessons about how important grades are that stood out to me. After that year ended, I decided to change how I look at school and grades. In 8^th grade, I did more than  just what’s required to pass, I applied myself and did all I could to get the best grades I could and it worked. I’m pretty sure my lowest grade that year was a B. I now work harder, knowing that getting the future I want can be done with good grades.

Questions

My first question is what makes uncle Pumblechook so important to Pip’s sister? I know that family should always be welcome, but seems to be at their home a lot. You think that she would at least try to treat her husband with the same amount of respect of her guests, but she doesn’t. It’s almost like she would rather be around uncle Pumblechook than her own husband. She either overlooks or ignores how shallow uncle Pumblechook is. In her mind, he is perfect. Why is this? My other question is why was Pip chosen to go to Miss Havisham’s? There are plenty of upper class boys she could have chosen, and an even more abundant amount of lower class children. So caused Pip to catch her fancy?