Connections To Great Expectations

     This post is especially difficult for me because most of what I read is non-fiction, and hold no similarity to Great Expectations. The best example I can think of is the book Mixed Emotions, by Greg Child.

     Mixed Emotions is a compilation of short stories from Child's life, starting out when he first started climbing as a teenager in Australia, to his time on El Capitan, and in the Karakorum. Aside from the hard to follow timelines of both stories, the biggest similarity between the two books is the theme that fame (Mixed Emotions), and money/power (Great Expectations) aren't everything they're made out to be. 

     Through his perseverance, Child managed to become a world renowned climber, but instead of spending the whole book telling himself how great he is, he spends a lot of time asking himself "Is it worth it?" After losing most of his toes to frostbite, shattering numerous bones in a fall, and watching powerlessly as his best friend died of HAPE (high altitude pulmonary edema) he begins to realize that although he is world famous, it isn't worth watching his friends die for.

     Even if he didn't have to work for it, Pip becomes a Gentleman, which in the eyes of those in his hometown is akin to being world famous. Although he tells himself he has everything he ever wanted, in the back of his mind he knows that he isn't truly happy, even though he has everything he thought he wanted. After being in London for some time, he starts to realize how his expectations have changed him, and that his dream life isn't as perfect as he thought it would be. Although not as dramatic as Child's story, Pip is also paying a price for his dream when he alienates all those who had ever loved him.

   Both of these books tell the stories of two characters who managed to achieve their lifelong dreams, but eventually realize that fame, money, and power aren't everything they're made out to be. 

     Additionally, both books deal with mysteries, although of two different kinds. The mysteries in Great Expectations center around characters, and the details about their lives that are intentionally omitted. Mixed Emotions is also filled with mysteries, but they all have to do with the human psyche instead of the characters. For example, Child spends time describing the unexplained phenomenon of ghostly companions experienced by high altitude climbers. When climbing above about 7,000 people sometimes report feeling another presence following them. Some people become so convinced that this presence is real that they report trying to give it food, only to discover that there is no one there. People who have become lost in blizzards have reported being guided back to their companions by an unknown presence. Depending on who you ask, this mysterious presence is god guiding those who have lost their way, a ghost of a dead climber, or most probably, a combination of oxygen deprivation, exhaustion, and dehydration playing tricks on peoples minds.

Second Stage Of Great Expectations

     Although the second stage of Great Expectations is rather dull and tedious, several very important things happen.One of the most significant events is when Herbert explains to Pip Miss Havishams back story. (179-180). Dickens explains that Miss Havisham wears a faded wedding dress, and stopped all her clocks at twenty till nine because her fiancée left her on the alter at that precise time. Since that day Miss Havisham has left everything in the house the way it was at 8:40 on the morning of her wedding, essentially frozen in time. Dickens also reveals that Estella was adopted by Miss Havisham, and is used as a tool to exact vengeance on the men of the world.
     This passage relates mainly to the continuous mystery motif, and is significant because it is the first of the books many mysteries to be solved. Dickens gives his readers more background information on Miss Havisham and Estella, but intentionally withholds key part of the story, like who Estella's birth parents are, and the identity of Miss Havisham's mysterious fiancée. Miss Havisham also ties into the prison/prisoners motif of the first section, for although there are no physical bars restraining her, she remains a prisoner to her own grief, and her house has the air of a disused prison.

Pip's Quote

     I would interpret this quote to mean that aspects of your life in the future by what happens to you in the present. I assume that he is comparing events in the present to the first links of a long chain. On the day he first meets Estella, his views on the world are altered. Before this, he had a childlike view on the world; he had never known hunger, and all the suffering in his life was caused by his sister, so naturally he thought that he had all a person could ever want. After meeting Estella, he suddenly became mush more aware of the gap between the classes, and started viewing himself as common, and dirty. The Pip before and after this quotation are two similar, but different people, the first Pip has never known anything but the small world of the blacksmiths house, and so he wants nothing more, but the second Pip has had his eyes opened to the world of the economic elite, and comes to view himself as inferior, simply because of the harsh nature of one cruel child. In addition to feeling inferior, the second Pip seems more mature and aware of the world. It seems unrealistic, but as the result of one day of torment at the hands of Estella, Pip seems to have matured greatly, into an almost different person.

     Because I can't think of anything else, I would say that one of the first links in my "chain" was the day I decided to sign up for honors English. A decision that has left me doomed to sit at a computer writing blog posts at 11:30 on Friday nights for the rest of the year.