Great Expectations: Thoughts on Reading

To be honest I actually didn't start liking the book until about chapter 40. I don't know why but it just didn't appeal to me. It was boring and slow going and there were a lot of big and confusing words. After a while it's really tiring looking up all the words you don't know or asking people if they know what it means. The characters were alright... my favorites were Pip, Miss Havisham and Estella. I likes Pip because he was the main character that this novel focused on and Dickens really created a good image in my head with his words. Miss Havisham is just a crazy rich old lady who is fun to read about. The main portion of her life is just dreaming what she wanted her life to be like. After her husband she recreated that pain and sadness everyday and reminded herself how much she was hurt. I also like Estella because she is a brat, she was brought up to be a brat and a turd. There is also something about her that makes me feel sorry for her. Miss Havisham brought her up that way. She didn't know her parents, she was created to destroy men and never to love them but only to lead them off and tear them up. As for the settings, sometimes it got very confusing and I would have to reread a lot of the paragraphs just to understand where the characters were and what was happening. The writing was... okay. It had a lot of big, confusing words. Some of them like larks and low were interesting. It's weird to think that people did used to say "larks" and talk about being low. As an author Dickens was okay. I didn't find his book amazing or outstanding but it also wasn't one of the worst books I have read. Pip and Miss Havisham had some similar characteristics. They both fell in love and had their hearts broken bad. But instead of dwelling for Estella, Pip keeps his life going and doesn't let that one bad bump in his road stop him like it did for Miss Havisham. The book was my only source of mystery solving, oh yea and also the discussions on class. Those helped a lot, there were things that I didn't realize, or catch, or understand until the class talked about it.

Eventually yes I did read the whole book, all 59 chapters. There was one point where I was a lot of chapters behind and I knew i needed to catch up. I did it though! My problem was that every time I opened the book I ended up falling asleep within 5 minutes of reading. I read at night, it is my favorite time of the day to read. But if I read in my head, then I got sleepy and fell asleep. But when I started reading aloud and using different voices for the different characters, (yes I did do that), it helped me so much. To understand it better, have fun reading it and it kept me awake. But if I'm not in a reading mood then I'll try my best but I wont really pay attention. By the time I got all my other homework done it was dark and I was tired so when it was time to read I was sleepy. If I'm not into a book then I wont pay much attention to it. I don't like being forced to read things I don't enjoy. I know that is a part of school and etc. but it makes it no fun for the readers if they don't enjoy it. Or let alone understand it.

Okay well my reading happened in the locker room before school, on the bus, in a car on my way to school, in my room laying on my floor or bed, the floor by our french doors, the computer chair with my feet on the computer desk and my parents rooms. I get so distracted easily so I have to be alone in a quiet place or I will never finish the reading assignment. Definitely reading out-loud helped me understand so much better than just in my head. I actually preferred to read out loud than in my head, it just sounds better to me and... it gives me more of a reason to enjoy the book. I like drama and it is one of my classes. This book was a good opportunity to practice my voice skills and showing emotions in my voice by reading aloud. I had fun doing it to, it was a one man show (: The times I was reading about 10 o'clockish. It wasn't too late but late enough that I was bored of school work and didn't want to do it anymore. When I hit about chapter 40, i knew I had better catch up so I sat all day Sunday reading. That is all I pretty much did, was read read read. That is also about the time I started getting into the book and liking it. I don't like reading in front of people or in an hearing distance. I like it to just be me and my book and voice. Overall this wasn't one of my favorite books but I did, in the end, end up enjoying it.

Making connections

I think that mystery is a big concept in this novel. In the first two stages you have so many questions and it feels as if they are never going to be answered. Mystery plays a role in this novel because it's like the little things that keeps some people going, keeps them interested. They want to find out all the answers to the mysteries so they keep reading. They have something to look forward onto every page because they don't know when the mystery will revel itself. This picture relates because he also has a mystery on his hands. That he has to look around and find clues to lead him to his answer. In the book you have to read it, read and look carefully for "clues" that might help you uncover a mystery in the novel. This character relates the us, the readers. As he goes along looking for clues with his magnifying glass, we are looking for clues ourselves with class discussions, group work, and when our teacher talks to us about the book in class. All the mysteries end up getting resolved in the end of the novel.

Making Connections and Posting a Picture

        To me, Great Expectations is similar to the series The House of Night. In the series Zoey, an ordinary high school girl, is chosen by the tracker to become a vampire. She is unaware but she is more than just an ordinary fledgling. She has been Marked specially by their Goddess Nyx. Now the fate of her new school and the world rest in her hands. A motif/ theme that both these books use is Mystery. In Great Expectations, there are many small mysteries that help tie in major pieces of information. In the first stage, Miss Havisham, the Satis House and Estella were some mysteries. The reader doesn't know much about why Miss Havisham's clocks stop, why is wearing a wedding dress, has one shoe on, puts things right back when she is done, why she tells Estella to break Pip's heart. You don't really know who Estella is, how she/ if he is related to Miss Havisham, why she is so mean to Pip. The house is just a mystery in its self. The place is like a maze, there is a big garden and a brewery behind it. In The House of Night, the whole book is based on mystery. Zoey is at this new school where she knows no one, is scared and confused and is now considered a loser and a freak at her old school. She finds out that she has control of all five elements, most students there are lucky to even have one. Only the Goddess has all five and now Zoey has all five. The elements are Air, Fire Water, Earth and Spirit. There is mystery to why she has all the elements, what she is supposed to do, the priestess in training Neferet, this hot guy Eric and her real family background. 
        

        Zoey experiences are similar to Pip's because she too wants more than what she has. When she gets to The House of Night, she runs into two very important characters. One of them is this hot guy, his name is Eric. She wants to impress him but doesn't know how. After she meets her friends, she asks them how she can get his attention and they say that he is untouchable and this girl, the leader of the Dark Sisters, has control over him. Zoey and Eric meet and they start to fall for each other. Pip wants to become a gentlemen. He wanted so much more than what he already had after meeting Estella. He wanted to impress her and for her to like him. He liked her so much that he started to get ashamed of Joe, what he taught Pip, what his clothes looked like, that he was apprenticed to Joe. Pip was so scared that one day while he was in the forge, Estella would be looking in the window and see Pip with his face and hands all dirty and black and she would see his working conditions and the place where he lived.   

Great Expectations, Second Stage.

       In the Second Stage, Pip comes to London. Pip is so excited. He is ready to be amazed and ready to see jaw dropping sights. He can't wait to see why people who live there brag about how great it is and how lucky they are to live in London. His first thoughts on the place were "ugly, crooked, narrow, and dirty." Disappointment swept across his face like a twister running across a field. He was not ready for what he was seeing. The place was dirty and he couldn't believe that people thought this was the best. He is coming far from home and he high these high expectation and all of a sudden your feelings turn from happy and excited to confused and disappointed.
        In class we discussed the motif becoming a gentlemen. That is what Pip is exactly trying to do. Become someone of higher "class" to impress Estella and win her heart. He was super embarrassed when she was mocking his clothing and his background. After he lost the game at Miss Havisham's house, he started to feel ashamed of Joe. Joe taught him to call the knaves jacks and when he called that card during the game of Begger my Neighbor, that really embarrassed Pip. The main reason Pip is going is because he wants to win Estella's heart. He wants her to like him, like he likes her. In the first stage Pip finds Estella really pretty but also kinda snobby and he feels that she thinks she is soo much better than himself. One time Estella says it is alright if he kisses her on the cheek, but after that one time she goes back to treating Pip like he is just a lower class animal. He wants so bad to become a gentleman for her, to prove to her that he is good enough.

Pip's quote

I'm not 100% sure what Pip is referring to? I guess he could be referring to relationships. Thorns are on flowers. Two different things but they relate. Iron or gold has the same idea. They are two different metals but are both strong and popular. I was sorta confused on this sentence, I am not positive on what it totally means. What do the long chair of iron or gold signify? That day has altered him because he found out that after he lied to Joe and Mrs. Joe and uncle Pumblechook, Joe wasn't mad at Pip. He didn't hate him, and that surprised Pip. He thought that Joe was going to be mad and upset at Pip for lying. From then on, Pip realized that he and Joe had a stronger relationship than he thought. That Joe was more of his friend than Pip realized. Pip is starting to get more independent and kinda distant from Joe. He is ashamed of Joe, of knowing him and having him teach him things the way he did. For example, Pip was embarrassed that Joe had taught Pip to call knaves jacks. When playing cards with Estella and Mrs. Havisham, Pip was very embarrassed and ashamed of Joe for what he told Pip. He is growing up and now people's opinions on him matter a lot, especially since he likes Estella. I guess these are "negative" changes because they aren't great changes but they are normal in a growing boy's life. My perception on these changes is pretty calm/ I'm right with them. It makes me sad that he is now getting embarrassed and ashamed of Joe. Joe is so sweet and nice and protected of Joe. Joe treated Pip like his son, like his best friend. 

I can honestly say that I don't know of the day in my life that started my chain. There are several days that have changed and impacted my life at the same levels. One of the days that are on the top of my list is the day that my best friend and I met. I had been having a rough couple years with friends. Trying to be someone I wasn't to fit in the "popular" group. So I finally gave up and was a loner. Sure I talked to people but didn't really have a close friendship. 8th grade basketball that all changed. We met and started talking one day during practice (neither of us remember how it happened) and after that one day we clicked so to speak. She listened to me and we talked more and more and more. We started talking in the hall ways and before school and walking home from school with each other. Her name is Blair and without her I don't know where I would be today. She has helped me through so much in my life and defiantly has inspired me. She has helped me realize so much and become a better person, that one day that we met was one of the best days of my life.