Great Expectations Stage 2

In stage 2 of Great Expectations, Pip's surroundings completely change as he moves to London.  He meets new characters and changes a lot himself.  Herbert is reintroduced in the second stage of the novel, as a kind gentleman that we learn is the same boy who Pip fought in the garden at the Satis house.  We know this character as the "pale young gentleman".  Pip becomes bestfriends with Herbet and they end up moving in together.  Herbert teaches Pip the manners that come with being a gentleman.  I questioned throughout the second stage weather Herbert was more of a positive or negative influence on Pip, because although Herbert seemed like such a nice character, he was helping Pip become a gentleman, and Pip was becoming a worse and worse person as he was becoming a gentleman.

Dickens uses the new characters and settings in the second stage of Great Expectations to further develop Pip as a character.  The theme of becoming a gentleman is greatly continued in this stage of the story, and Dickens uses characters such as Herbert to portray this theme and make it into a huge part of the novel.

Making Connections in Great Expectations

Great Expectations weirdly relates to Mean Girls.  Pip like Cady Heron, used to be a kind, innocent character.  However, as the story goes on both characters take a turn for the worse.  Pip and Cady both become greedy and ignore the things and people that used to be important to them.  As both the reader of Great Expectations and the people watching Mean Girls are forced to sit through several chapters or minutes of watching these characters be horrible people, we are forced to think about what is really important, as it is easy to see just how terrible we can really be when we watch someone else who has quickly changed.  Both Cady and Pip end up getting a much needed wake up call in the end, and learn what is truly important.

Great Expectations Wrap-up

I found Great Expectations to be overall a good book.  I enjoyed Dicken's constant theme of mystery throughout the story, because it kept the long novel entertaining.  I liked how Dickens made us feel differently about all of the characters, and how in the end they all got what they deserved.  I feel like the only parts of the story I didn't enjoy were just the parts that were difficult to understand because of the time period in which the story was written, so I don't have many complaints about Great Expectations.  I liked how the main character changed throughout the story, and how Dickens wasn't afraid to make the reader not like Pip for a portion of the story towards the end.  I also like how he changed Pip back to the same lovable character, just a little wiser now, that we knew from the beginning of the story.

The outside reading went very well for me at the beginning, because I knew it needed to be a priority.  I got my chapters read every night before I needed to go somewhere.  However, about halfway through the book I started to slip a little bit and started staying up a little later every night to get the reading done. I felt like annotating and reading that much every night was difficult, but that is probably just because I have many priorities and I don't like reading in general.  Although I never got more than about one night behind, I should have managed my time a little more wisely and avoided the last minute reading I encountered towards the end.  I also think that this would have helped me to understand the story better, because I would have had more time to focus on it.