Final English Project

Genres:

Imagination. Lost, but not forgotten

Imagination was born into a grand mansion at the beginning of time. As time began to tick, all imagination could do was stare in wonder of the shapes and lights he saw. Without any idea of what anything could be or should be, Imagination started to dream. He saw bright, valiant  colors and dark, menacing shadows in all things. Even though everything was foreign and unknown to Imagination, he built his own ideas of what things were intended to be. When Imagination began to walk, he learned to roam. He discovered the house full of forgotten nooks and closed rooms waiting to be opened. Nooks became the homes of magical beasts and every closed door had a unseen world behind it.

The Shapes and lights turned into characters and their stories. Fire breathing giants arose, chasing after a lone black horse and his silver clad hero with Imagination following close behind, bouncing to keep up. Witches were found casting bubbling clouds of spells over boiling cauldrons when inhabiting the darkest closets. Their goblin henchmen chased imagination, bouncing down the steps and climbing over one another while bewitched trees tapped on the windows at night. But the grandest spectacle that Imagination ever witnessed was the epic that would ensue at nine o’clock when bedtime was announced and thick gray rain clouds were rolling in.

As soon as the lights were turned out, the door to the room closed, Imagination settled into to the blankets and his eyes closed, the faint pitter-patter of rain would assault the window pane. Out of the faint rain and black night, Imagination could hear his friends approaching. Pulling from all the mystery, adventure, magic, and fantasy Imagination had seen before, he could create his own worlds and magnificent tales. Vast armies assembled on the ridges of mountains, fragile ships bobbing in the oceans of a hurricane, dragons soaring above the clouds with their scales glistening in the sun, or a group of explorers boarding a black and white rocket destined for the farthest reaches of space.

However, these adventures with explorers or the grand clashes of knights and dragons could not last forever. Imagination tried to hold on for as long as he could. With each passing year, the house around him had more doors close, more nooks fade away. No longer did the dragon chase a knight down the hallway or did goblins roll down the stairs. Closets became places where shoes and coats were stored, no longer dens for plotting witches. Imagination had long days that were filled with other forms of entertainment. He would laugh with friends and exercise afterwards. After falling into bed, exhausted and defeated from another long day, closing his eyes and turning out the light, out of the darkness he could feel the drumming of a thousand boots, the flapping of gigantic wings, and a silent smile broke Imagination’s face.

Reality. All around but not inside.

Reality was born into a grand mansion at the beginning of time. As time began to tick, all Reality could do was stare in wonder of the shapes and the lights he saw. Without any idea of what anything could be or should be, Reality listened and learned. He spent the beginning of his life wide eyed and quiet, soaking in all that he heard and all he saw. This made his favorite activity to sit in the corner and listen to what everyone said and then to stare out the attic window once he had heard everything they were to say. Everything he heard and everything he saw became a filed new addition to his memory to be used at another time.

As Reality sat in the window, the clouds drifting by and the birds singing songs in the trees next door, Reality was able to observe and ponder the meaning of everything he saw. The robin that sang its songs everyday, the man in the green jump suit who walked ten dogs at a time, and the explosion of orange and red that dominated the sky as the sun fell. All of these things held Reality’s curiosity but not his passion. Reality was pleased with learning new things, the names of animals and the facts out of his fact books, but there was no adventure, no interaction that Reality longed for. There was no expedition, no discovery, only the events that he had read about in his books of explorers discovering the North Pole or a long lost pirate shipwreck.

The lack of adventure and excitement made Reality’s first years difficult. He spent the majority of his time staring out the window of his attic and the remainder reading books. He was far removed from the world around him, observing and learning but never content. The books were an outlet for sometime. They were where he found new facts and names that were from far away places. The books contained the names of massive mountains or that of the largest creatures in the world, past and present. Eventually though, the names of birds repeated a dozen times, the same old wrinkled pictures of spiders and caterpillars, the dusty ancient dictionary that Reality had been pouring over for years were no longer endurable.

Reality’s mother made him leave his window that day. She grabbed his backpack and opened the towering front door to push Reality out. Stepping outside, Reality saw a peculiar sight. Another boy, just across the grass, that looked like him. He was the same height, also had a backpack twice the size of his body, and being followed close behind by his mother. Reality hobbled over to the boy and introduced himself. The boy did the same, smiling, asking if Reality knew how to spell his name. Reality answered matter-of-factly that he sure did, shooting back if the boy knew what a blue whale was.

That was when Reality felt the the longing for interaction smolder and disappear from his chest. He had found what he was looking for. A friend to share and experience life with. Reality cracked a wide grin and with a warmth in his chest, he and his new friend walked to kindergarten with their mothers trailing close behind.

Black, White, Splashing Red by Ryan Knohl

Dress in black and white

Two performers stand center stage

Just a splash of red in the night

Motionless under a blinding light

Each steps forward, each a talented mage

Dressed in black and white

The crowd blurs from sight

Fire and smoke form a cage

Just splash of red in the night

Sparks fly as the two excite

Flames lick to charcoal the page

Dressed in black and white

One claps, a thunder’s light

The other collapses under their rage

Just a splash of red in the night

The victor dashes into the night

One left slumped on stage

Dressed in black and white

Just a splash of red in the night

Ryan Knohl

May 15th, 2015

Expository Essay

Romano, AP English

We Fear What We Do Not Know

Humans, as a species, have struggled with the unknown for their entire existence. For as long as humanity has existed, so has the desire to understand and conquer that unknown. The ancient Greeks found their explanations for the world around them in imagination and in their fantasy. They created a history of the universe based on gods who controlled the world around them like Zeus and Poseidon controlling the sky and the ocean. Human use of imagination and fantasy to explain and interact with the world was then replaced by science. Starting with the Scientific Revolution, science became the main focus of society as a means to prove the forces that acted on the environment and affected Human life.

The Scientific Revolution began in the 16th century with Galileo challenging the Church’s view on the orbit of the planets. That marked the moment human intrigue shifted to emphasize the interactions in nature proved by science as imagination had done before. Science proved that Zeus and Poseidon do not exist to create lightning and hurricanes, static in the atmosphere and pressure differentials do. Scientists replaced old theories of understanding with tested new ones. Since the start of the Scientific Revolution, humans have explained sickness, natural disasters, and have begun tackling the questions of the stars while Imagination and fantasy proceeded to fade away from the forefront of human understanding.Yet they have remained a cornerstone of Human understanding and interaction with the world.  

Stories of fantastical adventure and the impossible are still the most entertaining and popular practices that humans spend their energy on. In 2014 Americans spent 10.6 billion dollars on movie attendance with movies like Transformers: Age of Extinction and The Lego Movie making 250 billion and 229 billion respectively in profits (MPAA). Fantastic conflicts and expression of emotion through made up characters and stories add excitement to human lives. Movies are only one form of interaction that humans have with their environment through imagination. Painting, writing, singing, any form of creativity are ways that Humans use imagination to interact with their environment and express emotion.

Human fascination with the unknown has created the desire to express the impossible with fantastic stories and thereby creating the desire to dream outside of reality.  In the book The Night Circus written by Erin Morgenstern, the distinction between reality and the imagination is portrayed through a travelling circus. The performers that live within the circus are capable of magic and live extraordinary, gifted lives, but the visitors that attend the circus live trivial ones without any knowledge of magic. However, this difference is not necessary because the visitors do not question a performer's’ impossible tricks and protect their division between reality and imagination. When Celia, the magician protagonist, confronts a frequent visitor on the circus’ impossible and magical roots, he responds “I prefer to remain unenlightened, to better appreciate the dark.” (Morgenstern, 183)

It is the necessary interaction with the light and the dark through the lense of human imagination that derives human understanding and interaction. C. S. Lewis believed that “reason is the natural organ of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.” (Hoyler, 1) Imagination is the means to which Humans find intrigue and interest in the world. By Lewis’ definition, Imagination is the tool that has allowed Humans to derive meaning from nature, to explore the world, and is still responsible for pushing the boundary on Human understanding. With the ideas of gods like Zeus and Poseidon Humans stole some control of the world by labeling it with meaning. As the human imagination grew with the influence of science and the creation of new stories the potential for “what if” is pushed further. Human understanding multiplied exponentially as people derived the forces of nature and then left the planet for the first time. Without imagination for the impossible and the creation of fantastic stories, Humanity would lack the capability to elevate its position and conquer the unknown.

Bibliography

1. Theatrical Market Statistics. Motion Picture Association of America, 2013. Web. 15 May 2015.
2. Soergel, Philip. “The Scientific Revolution and Philosophical Rationalism.” Arts and Humanities Through the Eras: The Age of the Baroque and Enlightenment. (2004) 288-296. Galebooks. Web. 15 May 2015.   
3. Morgenstern, Erin. The Night Circus. New York: Doubleday, 2011. Print.

4. Holyer, Robert. C.S. LEWIS ON THE EPISTEMIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE IMAGINATION. Pennsylvania: Penn State University, 1991. Web. 17 May 2015.

A definition of black and white and the grey in between.

Reality is defined by “a natural state of things as they actually exist” or “the state and quality of having existence or substance”. Imagination is defined as “the ability to form new images and sensations through the mind without the use of the sense”. One is an adjective and one is a noun. Even though they seem to be contrasting figures, their similarity is what gives them power when put in the right hands.

The distinctions between the two are bold. Reality involves the world in the physical elements that exist as well as the events of the past that have been labeled and categorized in history. This makes reality a physical and definite being. In reality the cup is half full of liquid and placed on the desk. The cup is bound by logical and possible phenomenon. Imagination on the other hand is all the ideas, moments, substances, and possibilities that humans have created within themselves. Imagination does not occupy a single time because it is possible for people to go back and alter the past within their imagination. Imagination does not involve definite matters either because at any moment someone can change one object into another or alter one picture with an added/ removed detail. That same cup on the desk could be transformed to be a cup made of water half full of air. It is not bound by the logical or the possible.

What imagination and reality have in common is that the two occupy the same plane when Humans interact with them. Humans possess the ability to take their imagination and turn it into reality. This capability to think beyond the present and explore possible outcomes before they happen is what gives us our humanity. People do this their entire life while Artists do this for a living, but every child growing up has experienced it on another level.

Artists take their imagination and create with it. Then they translate those creations to canvas, to words, to actions and form reality. Their imaginations create a new form of reality that did not exist once before. They create an overlap in what was once undefined and an infinite possibility becomes real and definite.

The overlap is even more prevalent in young children and it is why the importance of understanding the interaction between imagination and reality is so important. A child growing up has the strongest imagination. They can turn sticks into Excalibur, they can build grand fortresses out of pillow cushions, and they can entertain themselves with anything they have to work with. This is because their imagination becomes their reality. When playing in this environment, when a child’s imagination is working to create substance and interaction, they are living that imaginative setting. The stick ceases to exist as a stick, it is Excalibur; The pillow cushion is no longer a pillow cushion, it is bricks for the walls. This transition from imagination to reality is flawless in a child’s mind and it is also the one place in the universe where the real and the impossible are able to exist together.

Dear Ms. Romano,

For my golden thread, the idea of “the light and the dark” is what jumped out at me after I had completed all of my genres. Something that I had not picked up on right away because I had confused it with a similar “white and black” scheme. The light and the dark embodies my genres’ positions on that of reality and imagination. As I fleshed out my expository essay I realised that what I had been arguing was that imagination had been one of the reasons why Humanity has become what it is. The desire to understand nature when it was impossible to do so led to the creation of Greek mythology and a sense of understanding. However, human imagination continued to push humanity to expand on what it knew; driving creativity and invention. Humans left Earth because someone wondered what it would be like to enter space. That single idea created the folklore and the stories that encouraged it thousands of years before, until one day, someone actually achieved that dream. It is a fascination with the unknown, the dark or the black, that allows for continued exploration as new ideas and possibilities are brought into the light. With my “Imagination” and “Reality” pieces, each one (specifically that of imagination) have a strong focus on the light and the dark. The boy derives his imagination from the dark and eventually reality takes over with the light but that sense of darkness and unknown remain. The same effect is seen in the poem but altered some. In the book The Night Circus, the performers all wear black and white on the outside while they live in bright color behind the curtain. In the poem, the two characters are dressed in black and white but the splash of red symbolizes the opposing perspective. For example, a group called the Jacques in the book are fanatic night circus visitors and they are distinguished by a burgundy article of clothing they wear each night to the circus. The idea of purpose in the unknown or having the dark influence the expansion of the light is the relationship I discovered between human imagination and reality. __Ryan Knohl, 2015

Magical Realism and The Night Circus

After continuing The Night Circus with the idea of magic as the focus and the ways that magic play a part in the roles of the characters' lives as well as the readers understanding, I believe that magical realism is the core of the novel and will be the core of my research. After a quick google search, I found that magical realism is, as rightly assumed "marvelous realism in literature, painting, and film that, while encompassing a range of subtly different concepts, share in common an acceptance of magic in the rational world." There is no doubt in my mind that this is the core of the The Night Circus and the events that take place within the Cirque des Reves. It is this relationship between the characters that are aware of the presence of magic, even if not directly responisble, such as Bailey, a young boy who befriends two of the younger performers in the circus and discovers their ability to see the past and to see the future, or Isobel, a tarrot card reader, who is not magical but still interacts with Marco on an intimate level. (Tarrot cards are a deck of cards that, when shuffled and arranged properly, they can reveal a person's future based on the cards turned over.) 

These characters know that there is something more going on than just circus acts and that plays into the magical realism of the circus. For example, one of the original memebers of the circus, Tarra, realized that the members of the circus had not become ill, had any injuries, or appeared to have aged since the circus' doors first opened. On the otherside of that are the characters that are responsible for the magic involved. Celia and Marco are using the circus as a way to test one another while also making the circus the grand event that it is. The chapters are filled with magical descriptions of characters entering into tents off the black and white outside setting, to be embraced by marvelous colors, like that of "charcoal-coated kittens and red embers". This creates another interesting phenomenon within the circus, the distinciton between the performers and the vistors, as well as this division in color and setting. 

The majority of the circus is designed to be a mixture of swirling silvers, striped whites and blacks that create this magical surreal enviornment. Then there is this opposite one that is hidden behind the white and black of sharp color. This Bright orange and burgandy is where the performers live. They also use it to disguise themselves while mingling with the crowds in between shows. When disguised in the these warm and bright colors, the performers are nearly invisible and can move through the crowd unnoticed. When Bailey returns to the circus he finds Poppet and Widget, two twins who are performing with dancing cats in contrasting snow white and midnight black outfits. When they are finished, the two put on brown overcoats with matching green scarves to compliment their firey red hair. 

The more I read, the more the competition is less of the focus. I keep noticing these subtitiles of color, interaction with the fantastical, and the impossible/magical that characters experience which seems to make the climax of this "competition' far off. For example, one of my favorite scenes was when Celia goes to visit a clock maker. When in his shop she sees a fantastic clock with curling silver orbs that match the planets laying on the table. Celia puts her hand on it and the gears within begin to realign and the springs tighten to start a faint ticking noise. All the while, the clock worker, Frederick, watchs and doesn't ask how she is able to do her tricks, saying"I prefer to remain unenlightened, to better appreciate the dark." This could be the underlying principal of magic and magical realism, that we see but do not understand and yet do not investigate for fear of ruining the emotion or crippling the effect it has on us?

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern is a fictional story dually narrated by the two protagonists, Celia and Marco, two magicians in training who are set to compete against one another in an age old competition held by their tutors. Celia Bowen is the daughter of Hector Bowen, a famous stage magician operating in England, who discovers her natural ability for magic when her mother sends her back to him, claming she was the "devil's child". Marco Alisdair is an orphan who is adopted by Alexander, refered to as the alusive "man in the grey suit", for his part in the game. Much less connected and invovled with Marco than Celia and Hector, Alexander works as a watchful guardian who gives Marco the teachings necessary and nothing more, when Hector follows his daughter and raises her with the competition in mind.

The compeition, which has not been directly stated as to what it will involve yet, starts with Celia and Marco at a young age. When Hector Bowen and Alexander meet to verify the competion, a rematch from a previous game, Alexander first asks if Prospero has "at least considered the possibility that she could be lost, should the competition not play out in her favor" (17).  A detail that brings the fate of the competitors into the the mind of the reader and creates even more confusion of the compeition itself. This slight note to the menacing intentions of the game also show the relationship between Hector and Celia, giving the author the decision as to whether Hector believes in her inability to fail or lack of care for her life. Once Hector has assured Alexander of her ability, by allowing her to levitate then destroy and reassemble a pocket watch, Alexander takes off his ring and places it around Celia's finger, where it burns and fuses with her scaring her skin, marking her admission into the game. Propsero gives Alexander a similar ring to give to his student once he selects one as to lock in the contestants.

The Reason that the book is called The Night Circus is because Hector and Alexander decide that the arena for their game should be held in a circus. This circus has become the main theme of the book so far with the activities there being the warm up between Celia and Marco. A man named Chandresh, a rich man a need for a new activity, is sought out by Alexander and convinced to start a circus, the Circus des Reves or the Circus of Dreams. He becomes the head of the circus, organizing and building it up. He brings together all arrangements of performers from contortionists to performing identical twins and gymnasts, but the most important pieces of the circus are Celia and Marco themselves. They each operate within the circus, but independently. Due to the rules of the game, they are not allowed to directly interact with one another, but the circus allows them to show off and experiment with their skills. The first part of the game is to show off what the two can do and try to best the other contender. Celia, for example, has specific tents that she operates on opening nights where she causes a contorionists to disappear in a cloud of smoke out of a sealed glass box, or when she designs a magical carrousel that baffels and excites the guests. Marco also gets to show his abilities in his own tents, a tent that is a garden of flowers and fruits all made of ice, or a grand bonfire that glows all colors of the rainbow and extends ten feet high.

The parts that stick out the most for me with regard to literary presence and what we have been doing this year in english are that of the description of the circus itself and some key literary devices that have been used. Obviously there is the foil between the two main characters of Celia and Marco, their interaction with one another and the different backgrounds they have coming into the compeition. There is the interesting way the story is arranged by chapter with short excerpts stemming from Celia's point of view then shifting to Marco's or of a third party member like the circus' members or even Hector/ Alexander. The most gripping part though has been the emphasis on colors and presentation of the circus. Everything is in a glimmering silver, a charcoal black, or a glowing white that seems to permeat all aspects of the circus. The magical realism of the circus can be seen in the actual magical feats that occur within the circus and the interactions that the vistors have. I believe that my research on the project should be into magic and its precieved effects because the term "magical realism" is perfect for the The Night Circus. The cricus is run by actual magic and has a magical air about it for all the vistors that come through the silver and gold gates.

Dicken's Critique

So I have talked about this grand idea that permeates throughout the entire novel. It is an idea that drives Pip's quest and is a social criticism. This idea is that wealth corrupts the goodness in a person and it cannot give someone goodness. This idea is defined through a parallel structure that constantly compares and contrasts those that have and those who do not. Initially, Pip lives his life, although bullied and abused at home, happy and doesn't fight it. However, that all changes when he goes to see Miss Havisham for the first time. On that visit he meets Estella. Estella is the one who throws him for a loop. She critiques him on his "rough hands and working boots" as well as calling him "common". This makes Pip extremely self conscious of his social position in life, so much so that he is conscious of Joe's commonness and has a conviction that "[he] had liked Joe's trade once, but once was not now." This mindset continues to permeate all aspects of Pip's life because of his admiration for Estella. He decides that he will better himself and become a gentleman just so that he can be with her. This idea is so strong that it eclipses Biddy from Pip's view. He even says " I should of been good enough for you: shouldn't I, Biddy?" but then continues to discuss his love for Estella. If I know anything about relationships, you do not discuss with someone how you could of loved them and then love someone else. But, moving on to how that plays into the criticism. Biddy understands the world much more so than Pip but we are limited to Pip's interpretation as he is our eyes and ears for the novel. Biddy knows that chasing after Estella will only crush Pip and lead him down a dangerous path. The next conversation that Biddy and Pip have it is when he asks her to improve Joe's manners and says that he would not fit in with the company he wants to have (this reflects back to when Joe comes with Pip for his last visit to Miss Havishams, dressed in his awkward Sunday suit, where he not once speaks to Miss Havisham but directs his responses to Pip. A habit that makes Pip extremly uncomfortable and ashamed). Here Biddy gets very upset with Pip and argues that Joe is actually one who is proud of his work (in the previous post on Joe's innocence) and not ashamed of who he is because he lives a good life. Again, this is just something that Pip can not understand and it marks a significant turning point for him. This turning point can be seen in Pip's conscious after he is informed of his great expectations from Mr. Jagger. Since the novel is translated through Pip's experinces, we can see this change in conscious due to the tone that alters. Previously, Pip felt small. His voice wasn't filled with authority. "'Come and Fight' What could I do but follow him? I have often asked myself the question since; but, what could I do?" He has not authority and just goes along with it. After learning from Mr. Jaggers that he has great expectations, Pip's tone changes. He gains authority. He gains entitlement. After speaking with Mr. Jaggers, Pip "caught them looking at me, though never so pleasantly, I felt offended; as if they were expressing mistrust in me." This trend continues outside of Pip as well. As with Joe who lives his life at the mercy of his wife and yet still loves her and does everything in her power to make her happy, there are polar opposites to him. Miss Havisham is a good example of this. She has a ridiculous amount of money. She has jewels on her dressing table, estate, and a massive house. Yet, she is one of the saddest and cruelest characters in the whole novel. She essentially creates Estella to become a heart breaker for men in her life all because a man broke her heart. When Pip is over, she constantly asks him what he thinks of Estella and reminds him she is better than him. All the while, Miss Havisham lives in isolation, lives in the past, and lives in her memories. This commentary is almost painfully obvious once recognized. Dickens uses Pip to reiterate it multiple times throughout the novel, all the while Pip is oblivious until the very end. Mr. Jagger is described as a beast who controls his work and the people in his life with savage control. Uncle Pumblechook is the epitome of an oily scum-bag. All of these characters throughout the story have the feel of being hungry for something. Jaggers for power, Havisham for revenge, Pumblechook for money. Yet, it is the characters of Biddy and Joe and Abel Magwitch that feel complete. They are the ones who feel full and not lacking of substance, the ones who we feel as being actual humans. I suppose that is what Dickens was trying to get at. Pip is actually the only character that is dynamic in that sense. He starts his life like Joe and Biddy, then he attempts to transform into the likes of Estella and Pumblechook, but fails and realizes that he is better off being true to himself. Thus, his ultimate quest. The reason in Pip's mind to win Estella, the road is the road to London, and the true meaning is to discover that true goodness is not obtained from money and wealth. True goodness is found inside of someone, allowing him to finally come to terms that Estella will never be for him and letting her walk into the mist in the final scene as he "saw no shadow of another parting form her."
In the end, I feel that Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is a wonderful book. The language, writing style of Dickens combined with the perspective that is Pip is both an entertaining and delightful read. Charles Dickens is an excellent writer and Great Expectations is obviously his greatest work. I would highly recommend this book to anyone that is looking for a longer novel for reading in free time or burning through all in one night (although highly unlikely).

The Innocence of Joe

First a little information on my innocent Joe character. Joe Gargary is the father figure to Pip in Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. He married Pip's sister, Mrs. Gargary, and when Pip's parents died he brought Pip into the household. Contrary to Mrs. Gargary, who for lack of a better term, abuses Pip and makes sure his life is miserable (even though he is her brother), Joe is warm and friendly to Pip. He not only looks out for Pip but he also supports and encourages Pip's development. For example, when at the holiday dinner while Mrs. Gargary and Uncle Pumblechook are berating Pip, Joe calmly spoons Pip spoon after spoon of gravy.
Joe is also the village blacksmith. His trade and his connection to Pip's humble beginnings make him a very important character for the development of Pip's personna and a strong contrast to the theme that Dickens develops (to be discussed in the synthesis post). When Pip runs into "his convict" in the marshes, the main reason he is spaired is so that he can return home and recover a file- one of Joe's tools- necessary to removing his shakel. This is extremely important since Able Magwitch, the convict, will become the reason that Pip has the chance to become a gentleman. Equally important is the contrast that Joe provides to the other characters in the story. Miss Havisham, Estella, Mr. Jaggers, and Uncle Pumblechook are all characters that are rotten. They are corrupted by wealth and social class which has destroyed their humanity for others. Miss Havisham is extremely wealthy and heartbroken, thus she raises Estella to be cold and manipulative as to wreck revenge on innocent men, Mr. Jaggers makes his living as a criminal lawyer while manipulating the people in his life with sheer force, Uncle Pumblechook is abusive of Pip until he comes into his "expectations", which he fully exploits (earlier after Pip is paid for attending to Miss Havisham, Pumblechook takes the Gargary family out to dinner with the money Pip was paid). Among all of these people, is our innocent Joe. He is oblivious of the wretchedness of these other people in his life and one of the only true characters within the whole novel. There are two very important instances that make this true. The first is when Pip is just a boy. Joe becomes Pip's only friend and they develop a special bond. While they eat their afternoon meal of bread and butter, the two after each bite put up the bread and compare bites with the other. A little ritual that builds their bond and eventually cares over into the forge when Pip becomes Joe's apprentice and they spend long hours staring into the hot coals together. The second instance is when Mr. Jaggers comes and informs Joe that Pip is to become a gentleman. In this moment, Joe is losing an apprentice and his one true friend he has had in life. Mr. Jaggers understands this and offers to pay him a compensation. What does Joe do? He accepts nothing. He lets Pip go. Asking for nothing in return, Joe allows Pip to move on and better himself. What does Pip do? He goes with Mr. Jaggers to become a gentleman and in the process he losses respect for Joe. He sees him as common and even asks Biddy (another orphan who Pip spent time educating himself with) to better Joe's manners. This was even beginning to happen before Pip was madea gentleman. After meeting Estella, he felt ashamed of his "common" background and his "rough hands and working boots". From then on he felt ashamed of himself. Joe on the otherhand, he has pride in his innocence he even says "if you can't get to being oncommon through going straight, you'll never get through it going crooked". He has pride in the work he does, the life he lives, and who he is. For some reason Pip can't understand that, and he will not understand until the very end of the book when he realizes that wealth only corrupts goodness and that the only truly good people he has ever meet in his life have not been wealthy lawyers or estate holders, but a convict, a blacksmith, and an orphan.

One Day to Define Them All

So we have discussed the way in which Great Expectations is narrated and who that narrator is, a male named Pip who starts of as an orphan and eventually becomes a well to do gentleman. (Although we have full insight into what Pip thinks and feels, how he hates when adults ruffel his hair or how his sister who is raising him treats him so poorly, we actually never get a phyiscal description of Pip. Interesting) This drastic change in status is arguably the main focus of the story and it is all thanks to a single act of Pips. One that occurs in the very beginning of the novel and is referenced to many times later throughout the story and Pip's development. That one act is simple: helping a man in need. This is a common trend in stories, the main character aids a helpless wanderer. That wanderer, unbeknownst to the character is actually an angel, a milionaire, a princess, or someone who later returns the favor and makes the life of the main character more intersting. This is exactly what happens to Pip, although with a little bit of a spin. Pip is out wandering the marshes on a cold foggy day, he is actually observing the graves of his dead parents, and he is attackd by a convict who turns him upside down and shakes his pockets empty. Afer doing so, the convict threatens to have Pip's "heart and liver out" if he doesn't bring him a file for his shakel and food the following day. Pip being a young, friegthend orphan rushes home (he lives with his sister who makes sure he knows how much of a pain he is) and plots to steal a file from his "father" Joe and food from the pantry. He ends up being successful and the convict is saved from starvation and disappears off into the fog. Yes! Done! Pip is free from having his liver and heart removed, well not exactly. He actually accompanies a group of soldiers later along with his father figure, Joe Gargary, to search out the convict and is witness to his rearrest. This 'convict' or reference to the action that took place on the marshes is  then hint to on and off again for the rest of the story. For example, Pip goes to the Three Jolly Bargemen, the local pub in town, and while there he meets a secret stranger who stirs his drink with a file. A very peculiar thing to do, if you do not get the reference back to the convict in which Pip gave a file. This stranger also bestows Pip with a shilling, a shilling wrapped in two one pound notes. A not very large gift, but a gift none the less. Possibly repaying the favor that Pip did for him? The next rather odd encounter that Pip has is when a man named Jaggers enters town and tells Pip and Joe that Pip has come into a great deal of money. Such a great deal in fact, that he is going to be made a gentleman with land and have "great expectations" (I always love it when the title of the book reappears within the novel). However, Pip is not to know who the mysterious benefactor is, until the benefactor sees it right to make himself/herself known. Until then Pip is bestowed in to the custody of Mr. Jagggers and travels to London to be educated. In an effort of Pip's to see Estella, essentially the reason he wants to become a gentleman (as he said earlier to another orphan he grew up with so that in order to become worthy of Estella he would have to improve his position), he runs into two convicts being taken off to prison ships. One of which Pip recognizes as "his convict". He over hears him talking about paying a a man to "find out that boy that had fed him and kept his secret", this is undoubtly "his convict". Now upon Pip's twenty first birthday, Jaggers tells him that he has come into the bulk of his "expectations" and that he shall recieve five hundred pounds as a yearly allowance from now on. That is a pretty substational amount of money when two pounds was a big deal earlier while Pip lived with Joe. Here, while in London, Pip meets his mysterious benefactor. It is, in fact, the convict that Pip helped those many years ago on the marshes. His name is Abel Magwitch and he plays a large part in the underlying them that Dickens incorporates into Great Expectations, one of which the true goodness in someone comes from their soul and that wealth corrupts that soul.

The First Taste of Expectation

I am reading, as you already know, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. In this first blog I would like to do two things 1) discuss a little bit about the time the book is set in and the man behind the writing and 2) discuss the form of narration that is used within the story. First, Charles Dickens was one of the most successful English authors to ever live and Great Expectations was his best selling book. Dickens lived in the early 18th century in Landport, Southern England. He was one of eight children and lived a relatively good life, yet he only attended formal school for three years. With  little formal education, his experiences were largely a part his work and are seen throughout Great Expectations and the life of Pip. Now enough backstory, (I like the ability to actually play around with informal writing and blogging) I want to discuss the narration of Great Expectations and how it is used to tell the story since it has been such a large part of our classroom discussions of late. To get started, the narrator of the story is a boy named Pip, Philip Pirrip is his realy name but it is shortened to be just Pip since no one likes to say it. The entire story is told in first person, never shifting away from Pip and always radiating out around him. We as readers get a very good sense of what Pip is feeling and we see through Pip's eyes. While this gives us a great deal of insight into the life and tale of Pip, it forces Dickens to use Pip's observations to characterize the other characters within the book and all events revolve around his bias. For example, Pip is sent to a woman's home, named Miss Havisham, who is extremely wealthy and lives in isolation. After being led through the dark house by Estella with a single candle, a women around Pip's age who he falls in love with (dictating the actions and progression of Pip, but that is for later), he arrives in a room that "looks as if it has stopped in time". All of the clocks in the room are stopped exactly at the same time, the table is arranged for a dinner that never happened and a large wedding cake is just sitting and rotting on top. It appears as if light has not entered into the room for decades. Miss Havisham is wearing a yellowed and crumbling old wedding dress, which she never changes out of. These observations are made through the eyes of Pip and thus our perception and understanding of Miss Havisham is 'forged' by Pip (his father figure is a blacksmith). Now that brings me to the part that intrigues within the novel. Since Dickens has created this character named Pip and he uses him as an outlet to dictate the story, we need to view the entire story as a commentary that is designed by Dickens and worked out through Pip. Almost exactly like Briony in Atonement. Which brings up the question, just like how we couldn't necessarily trust what Briony said because she wrote in the first person and we were ultimately bomboozled in the end, can we not trust Pip? Or does the story that he occupies validate his authenticity? I believe it does validate his authenticity becaues we are reading the 'story of Pip'. Of course there is an underlying theme that has social criticism, an over arching message that Dickens is trying to convey, hidden subtleties that Pip doesn't pick up on, but we are being brought along through the story on Pip's shoulder. Therefore, as THE narrator, we have to make our assumptions and conclusions based off of what Pip tells us and what Pip experiences. This makes for a very interesting story that truly feels like a powerful and great work of fiction.