Photo Post Thing

This amusing picture represents the evolution of human beings, their downfall, and their beginning again. Pip's evolution is very much like this. He starts out as a blacksmith's son (the monkey), then an apprentice blacksmith (the upright humaniod). But then, Jaggers reveals to Pip his Great Expectations, and he starts becoming a gentleman (humanoid with dagger through human with sword and shield). Now, good things never last long, so when Pip becomes a full-fledged gentleman (modern human with gun), it's only a matter of time before the 'bomb' drops. After which, he must start again.

Connection

In the movie Ratatouille, Alfredo Linguini is the lowly kitchen cleaner of the restaurant Gusteau's, until Remy, a rat, 'teaches' him how to cook. Remy later reveals to Alfredo that he is in fact Gusteau's son. He quickly rises in status to head chef, but is unable to cook without the help of Remy. This catches the eye of food critic Anton Ego, who offers a challenge Alfredo can’t refuse. But when he abandons Remy, it’s all downhill from there.

This sort of coincides with what we have read in Great Expectations so far. Pip starts out as the lowly son of a blacksmith, until an unknown benefactor raises Pip up the social ladder, although he is totally dependent on his benefactor. He is now the same social class as Estella, but has run into a considerable amount of debt.

Pip, Stage 2

When Pip goes to London, he meets a variety of new people. One of these people is Wemmick. When Pip first meets Wemmick, he describes him as “…a dry man, rather short in stature, with a square wooden face, whose expression seemed to have been imperfectly chipped out with a dull-edged chisel.” (169) But later, when Pip goes to Wemmick’s house, he becomes almost a different person. Wemmick explains that “When I go into the office, I leave the castle behind me, and when I come to the castle, I leave the office behind me.” (207) This sets a definite line between work and private life.

This is very different from work and private life in the village. Joe is a blacksmith, and his forge is connected to the house. He is the exact same way that he is in the forge as he is at home. For Joe, there is to line between his work and private life.

Both these examples show how far apart city life and country life can be, and how hard it will be to adjust.

Chains

Pip's chain started on the first day he went to Miss Havisham's to 'play'. There, he meets Estella, who criticizes him for being a 'common labouring-boy', and changes his life forever. He no longer wants to be common, which he had no problem with before, and now wants to be a gentleman. He has grown self-conscious of who he is and wants to change.

Like all people, I have many chains. Some stretching as far back as I can remember, and some so short they started yesterday. But today, I’ll talk about the longest chain I have: music. I started my first instrument, piano, when I was four. For the first months, my chain consisted of nothing but gold and flowers. But that wasn’t meant to last long. My gold and flowers quickly turned to iron and thorns. It was like that until fifth grade, when I took up the trumpet. This helped me turn iron and thorns back into gold and flowers. After that, tuba and guitar came in, and strengthened my chain. Without music, my whole life would’ve changed. I don’t know how, and I don’t intend to find out. I’m happy being me, and music has made me that way.