Book: Great Expectations
Pages read this week: 103
Pages read this semester: 103
Weekly Style: Quotation
The story starts with Pip (Philip Pirrip), a young little boy, paying homage to his parents and his five deceased siblings in the graveyard. He is being brought by Joe Gargery, a village blacksmith who is married to Pip’s sister. A runaway convict catches him and asks him to bring a file (“a long, narrow tool of steel or other metal having a series of ridges or points on its surfaces for reducing or smoothing surfaces of metal, wood, etc. Source: www.dictionary.com), and some food. He steals some food and brandy from his house. The next night is Christmas night and some relatives pay a visit to the blacksmith’s house. The thought of stealing keeps haunting Pip, and he is terrified when some soldiers arrive at their house late in the night. He is a bit relieved to know that they had something which needed repairs from Joe. After that is done, Joe, Pip and Mr. Wopsole accompany the band of soldiers who are out to catch two convicts. Both are caught, with one being the same culprit Pip had fed. However the culprit says that he himself stole food from the blacksmith’s house. This leads to the awakening in Pip’s mind. A year later, he is summoned to show up at Miss Havisham’s house up town. She is a rich lady and wants to see somebody play. Pip gets really acquainted to that house and has sweet and bitter experiences with Estella who works at Havisham’s house. By the end of chapter 12, Miss Havisham summons Joe, to whom Pip will be apprenticed to.
“In the little world in which children have their existence, whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and finely felt as injustice.”
Pages read this week: 103
Pages read this semester: 103
Weekly Style: Quotation
The story starts with Pip (Philip Pirrip), a young little boy, paying homage to his parents and his five deceased siblings in the graveyard. He is being brought by Joe Gargery, a village blacksmith who is married to Pip’s sister. A runaway convict catches him and asks him to bring a file (“a long, narrow tool of steel or other metal having a series of ridges or points on its surfaces for reducing or smoothing surfaces of metal, wood, etc. Source: www.dictionary.com), and some food. He steals some food and brandy from his house. The next night is Christmas night and some relatives pay a visit to the blacksmith’s house. The thought of stealing keeps haunting Pip, and he is terrified when some soldiers arrive at their house late in the night. He is a bit relieved to know that they had something which needed repairs from Joe. After that is done, Joe, Pip and Mr. Wopsole accompany the band of soldiers who are out to catch two convicts. Both are caught, with one being the same culprit Pip had fed. However the culprit says that he himself stole food from the blacksmith’s house. This leads to the awakening in Pip’s mind. A year later, he is summoned to show up at Miss Havisham’s house up town. She is a rich lady and wants to see somebody play. Pip gets really acquainted to that house and has sweet and bitter experiences with Estella who works at Havisham’s house. By the end of chapter 12, Miss Havisham summons Joe, to whom Pip will be apprenticed to.
“In the little world in which children have their existence, whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and finely felt as injustice.”
Pip is commenting about how he felt after he was ill treated, well not ill treated, but given harsh comments on his appearance by Estella. He also felt that “all that glitters is not gold.” Miss Havisham’s house was big but lonely and had nothing for him. It was in a bad shape. So he really felt weird and sad at the shattering of his hopes of a lavish rich household and availability of everything including love.
Whenever children feel hurt, they feel that they had been subject to partiality. I was a kid once and there is still a kid hidden somewhere in my mind. When I was younger, I used to feel that at certain moments, I was biased at school or home, although now I understand at most occasions I was not, well never at home. However, the matter of concern is that increasingly more and more young kids are starting to feel this way. And one of the biggest, perhaps the biggest and most important reason is the parental lack of care towards them in this rapidly transforming world of technology. Having lived in two nations and in two separate cultures and societies, I have observed it a lot. Parents, especially the rich and the working class are very busy in their scheduled lives. If the children protest, they are hushed up by the parents saying that they are living hard lives just for them. Some kids are contented with this argument, but some are not. The latter group wants love and affection.
I remember that in December 2007, there was an Indian Bollywood movie about a seven year old child who is neglected by his parents. That movie was highly acclaimed by both eastern and western critics, but could not reach the final five in Oscars this year. I have not watched the movie but the music, reviews and reports give me a feeling that it directly deals with this problem of the “neglected” generation. Not all parents are like that, but such negligence can lead to bigger psychological and social problems. That is what my father says who is often pointed out by some of his relative here who feel dejected with the way how my parents (over) care about us.
Whenever children feel hurt, they feel that they had been subject to partiality. I was a kid once and there is still a kid hidden somewhere in my mind. When I was younger, I used to feel that at certain moments, I was biased at school or home, although now I understand at most occasions I was not, well never at home. However, the matter of concern is that increasingly more and more young kids are starting to feel this way. And one of the biggest, perhaps the biggest and most important reason is the parental lack of care towards them in this rapidly transforming world of technology. Having lived in two nations and in two separate cultures and societies, I have observed it a lot. Parents, especially the rich and the working class are very busy in their scheduled lives. If the children protest, they are hushed up by the parents saying that they are living hard lives just for them. Some kids are contented with this argument, but some are not. The latter group wants love and affection.
I remember that in December 2007, there was an Indian Bollywood movie about a seven year old child who is neglected by his parents. That movie was highly acclaimed by both eastern and western critics, but could not reach the final five in Oscars this year. I have not watched the movie but the music, reviews and reports give me a feeling that it directly deals with this problem of the “neglected” generation. Not all parents are like that, but such negligence can lead to bigger psychological and social problems. That is what my father says who is often pointed out by some of his relative here who feel dejected with the way how my parents (over) care about us.
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