Parenting Trouble

In many ways, certain events that take place in the novel are very similar to situations in real life.  First of all, Miss Havisham was left at the altar by her fiancé, Compeyson.  You don’t necessarily hear this same exact story every day, but you do come across a lot of divorced couples.  Divorce is becoming increasingly common in our society, leaving many women distraught and left with nothing.  Miss Havisham is a very extreme case of this, having never even changed out of her wedding dress, but the concept is still the same.  She loved a man dearly, but then had that love ripped away by Compeyson.  This completely changed the course of Miss Havisham’s life, as well as the others around her.

Not only does the couple suffer from the divorce, but their children do as well.  They can misbehave due to a lack of a parental guidance, be and emotional wreck, or end up as a mean person, if their parents were too.  Estella is the direct result of Miss Havisham being left at the altar.  If Compeyson had just married her, Estella would have turned out to be a beautiful, nice lady with a happy family.  But unfortunately, life does not always turn out the way we expect it to, adding to the realism of the novel.

Another way Great Expectations connects to everyday life is that Miss Havisham is completely living through her child.  Almost every parent these days does this on a regular basis.  Whether they were a star athlete, or the one who was picked last at recess, many parents try to relive their lives through their children.  A lot of the times, the only reason a kid plays a sport is because their parent is forcing them to do so.  In Estella’s case, her sport is to crush men’s hearts.  Miss Havisham has trained her for her whole life to do this evil deed to get revenge on men for being left at the altar.  She could not do this herself, so she just did it through Estella.  Once again, Miss Havisham portrayed a common theme in our society, further constructing a believable novel.

Arrogant Aristocrats

In our recent readings of “Great Expectations,” we have seen a rapid decline of Pip’s personality.  He has been completely corrupted by his wealth.  Pip wastefully spends his money, accumulating mass amounts of debt.  He has no understanding of how to save his money because it was just given to him.  There was no work involved; Pip was just in the right place at the right time to receive his great expectations.  This is very similar to many people today.  Not necessarily the part where they were given money, but a vast majority of people in our society is not very good at managing money.  They have many credit cards, each adding to their masses of debt.  I guess they just think that a credit card is just an endless source of money, however, it obviously is not, and spending too much money will come back to haunt you. 

Another corruption of Pip is that he has become very arrogant.  He has pointed out Biddy’s “bad side of human nature.”  Pip thinks that she is jealous, but she clearly is not.  Throughout the reading, we see many examples of his arrogant attitude and it makes me dislike Pip.

Pip’s arrogance, as well as his childish ways of managing his money makes me actually kind of angry. Just because of his sudden gain in wealth, that he had to do absolutely no work for, Pip thinks that he is a better human being than Biddy, Joe, and almost everyone else in the novel.  This reminds me of the kind of people today that think they are so much better than everyone else.  They have no reason to think so, but they do, I can assure you of that.  The people like this get my blood boiling when they strut around thinking little of everyone else, and the same is true with Pip degrading Biddy and everyone who he grew up with.  My observations so far have been that as the novel progresses, my disliking of Pip increases.

With Great Expectations come Great Downfalls

Pip just now acquired Great Expectations in our reading.  This means that he is expected to have a large amount of money or land in his future.  This seems amazing to Pip at first, but he has some expectations of his own.

Sure Pip is extremely glad he has come into this sudden wealth, but he is not satisfied at that.  Pip feels that he needs the best, and when he gets the best, it is not good enough for him.  While being “transformed” into a gentleman, Pip is extremely excited for his new clothes.  However, when he tries them on, all he feels is, “meh.”  Unfortunately, this is a common theme in our society today.  There are tons of greedy people who need the newest smartphone or the coolest new style of clothing.  Many people today are never content with what they have.  They may have the iPhone 4S, but the slightly slimmer, slightly taller, slightly better iPhone 5 was released so they MUST have it.  But do they really?  No.  All the slight changes are not worth it, but a good amount of people in our society is never content, just like Pip.

Another side-effect of Pip’s recently obtained money is his actions towards others.  He has slipped into the awful mindset that because he is wealthier than others, he is therefore better.  Pip even calls his good friend Biddy jealous of his fortune, while she is simply sad that her long-time friend is leaving.  He is just being too egotistical to realize this.  Although, this is not all Pip’s fault.  The majority of the blame goes to Miss Havisham and Estella.  They did the same to him at the Satis House, putting him down for his common social class.  Once again, this same exact thing happens in the 21^st century.  People are looked down upon for not being able to afford fancy gadgets or clothes, similar to how Pip looks down on Biddy and Joe for being common folk who cannot afford the many luxuries of life.

In the chapters we recently read, Pip showed us some of the common downfalls of the human race.

Pity for Pip

When I began reading Great Expectations I met a character named Pip.  He is introduced as a fearful child.  He is fearful of a loose convict, fearful of his sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery, who is taking place of his mother, and fearful of almost everything in his life.  In reaction to this, I feel bad for the poor kid.  Pip is a young boy and should not have so much to fear in his youth.  His parents died when he was a young child and his sister had to “raise him by hand.”  Clearly, Pip is abused by Mrs. Joe, so he has a very good reason to be afraid of her.  If Pip slips up but once, even in the slightest bit, he gets the “tickler,” one of Mrs. Joe’s favorite devices to literally whip Pip into shape.

Just as I feel bad for him because of all he has to fear, I also feel for Pip because he is consistently put to shame throughout the opening chapters.  Even at Christmas dinner, where family and friends should get together and recollect nice memories and overall have a joyous time, Pip is shamed for being “ungrateful” for his mother; the same mother that abuses him.  What Pip is punished for is quite absurd.

Another event that was brought to my attention was when Pip was forced to play for Miss Havisham.  One day out of the blue, Mr. Pumblechook took Pip to an old decaying house.  In that house, a matching figure sat in a chair at a desk, frozen in time, known as Miss Havisham.  She was a madwoman who was still mourning the fact that she had been left at the altar.  Pip was left at the shambled place to play cards with the beautiful, but extremely rude Estella.  She constantly tossed insults Pips way, and he could do nothing about it.  I cannot imagine what it would be like to have to go through the same thing as him.  The experience would be terrible.  Putting this together with his abusive sister and insulting guests, Charles Dickens undoubtedly creating Pip’s character to be pitied.

Expectations of Friends and Family

I recently had the opportunity to ask some family and friends what they expected of me.  When asked, my friend Matt responded, “I expect you to be a good friend and to do well in school.”  This was not very shocking because this is what I expect out of him and myself.  First off, we both expect each other not to be complete jerks to each other.  That is a given, but we expect that of each other as friends.  He also expects me to do well in school.  This is mainly because I have done so in the past, so nothing less is anticipated. 

When asked the same question, my dad told me that he expected me “to do well in your classes, participate in extracurricular or sporting activities, and to prepare yourself for college and the rest of your life.”  Once again, this came as no surprise because I’ve picked up this information throughout my life; I just have never had to ask directly.  As his child, I feel like I need to fulfill his expectations, so I try to do my best every day, whether it is in soccer, baseball, orchestra, or school.

Of course, my mom’s expectations were very similar to my dad’s.  She told me that she expected me “to do your best, to work hard, and to be a good person.”  Much of this comes from how she was raised.  As a kid, my mom was a star athlete and student.  Throughout her educational career, she received nothing below a 4.0 GPA.  Her reasoning is that if she could do it, than so can I, so I do my best to do well on my tests, assignments, and in my sports.  The reason I am expected to be a good person is derived from our religion.  As a Catholic family, we are all expected to be accepting to others and to be nice to our acquaintances.

Through my interviews of my friends and family, I found a couple common themes in everyone’s expectations.  They are to do well in school, and to be a good person.  This is no surprise because they are what I expect of myself in life.