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Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Lit Anal-        Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

GENERAL

 1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read, and explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose (based on your well-informed interpretation of same).
-Takes place in a small village at the edge of North Kent marshes, and the grater city of London. Pip is six years old and lives on the English marshes with his sister and his sister’s husband, Joe. His sister is mean but his brother-in-law Joe is pretty much the best thing that’s happened to Pip .One Christmas Eve, Pip meets a scary, escaped convict in a churchyard. Pip steals food from his mean sister (Mrs. Joe Gargery) so that the convict won’t starve (and so he doesn't beat Pip). Later on Pip meets Miss Havishman because he is Estella's playmate. Estella is Miss Havisham’s adopted child. She is a cold, snobby, and regal girl, but with beauty.Pip soon begins to have feelings for Estella, but knowing that she is the adopted daughter of the most richest woman in town, he knew that he couldn't have her. In that sense, knowing you can not have something, well the love grows fonder by the second. He grow older (early teens) and began to work with his brother-in-law in blacksmith in hopes of one day being able to marry Estella. Pip moves to London in his pursuit of becoming a gentlemen. Later on becomes best friends with Miss. Havishmans cousins son named, Hertbert Pocket. Eventually he becomes a frequent visitor to Satis House, located in the market town. Here signifies another great expectation for Pip. Later on in the novel he moves to Cairo. Throughout the novel, Pip travels between these three locations in pursuit of his great expectations.

2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.
-The major theme would have to be ambition. Pip has ambition for all the great expectations he has for himself about life, love, and friends. No only does his ambition in pursuing a positive outcome for himself but ingratitude is expressed in portions of the novel as well.

3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).
- Th tone is explained as Dicken's "grotesque tragicomic". It is mixed between a comedy and a tragedy. A good example would be in the beginning of the novel how Magwitch was 6 year old Pip's bully. But when Pip grew up and has already moved onto bigger an better things in life, well Magwitch is Pip's benefactor. Towards the fen ally of the novel it ended up that Magwitch was there to help him.

4. Describe a minimum of ten literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the author's purpose, the text's theme and/or your sense of the tone. For each, please include textual support to help illustrate the point for your readers. (Please include edition and page numbers for easy reference.)

-Figurative Language   - “No varnish can hide the grain of the wood; and that the more varnish you put on, the more the grain will express itself.”  (100)

-Metafor    - “It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.”   (122)
- Personification  - "I had seen the damp lying on the outside of my little window, as if some goblin had been crying there all night, and using the window for a pocket-handkerchief.”   (   222)

- Narrator   - “In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong.”  (77)

- Dialogue   -  "Itcan't be supposed," said Joe. "Tho' I'm oncommon fond of reading, too."
Are you, Joe?"
Oncommon. Give me," said Joe, "a good book, or a good newspaper, and sit me down for a good fire, and I ask no better. Lord!" he continued, after rubbing his knees a little, "when you do come to a J and a O, and says you, 'Here, at last, is a J-O, Joe,' how interesting reading is!”  (332)

- Climax   - " did really cry in good earnest when I went to bed, to think that my expectations had done some good to somebody " (257)
- Local Color   - Charles Dickens used London as one of his locations in the story, parcially because he grew there.
CHARACTERIZATION
1. Describe two examples of direct characterization and two examples of indirect characterization. Why does the author use both approaches, and to what end (i.e., what is your lasting impression of the character as a result)?

- Direct Characterization-  It would have been cruel of Miss Havisham, horribly cruel, to practice on the susceptibility of a poor boy, and to torture me through all these years with a vain hope and an idle pursuit, if she had reflected on the gravity of what she did. But I think she did not. I think that in the endurance of her own trial, she forgot mine, Estella (378)
               
- Indirect Characterization   -  “I noticed that Miss Havisham put down the jewel exactly on the spot from which she had taken it up.”

2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character? How? Example(s)?
- Through out the novel the syntax changes when it is focused on the a certain character. The narration is in plain English but when a character speaks there English seems to be cut off and tend to sound unintelligent.

3. Is the protagonist static or dynamic? Flat or round? Explain.
- Pip follows the qualities of a dynamic and and round character. He is presented as a small young young boy who doesn't will get very far in life. But come to realize he believes that by being given the opportunity then he will be able to grow from his experience to become wealthy and much respected. He grow as a person because he was able to rid the fear he had for the convict, later in the novel it turns out that the convict helps him escape.

4. After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character? Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction.
After reading the novel I had a feeling that I have met Pip. The love with in the novel gives Pip a human quality to him in such a way were we can relate to him. How he expresses his love for Estella is so cute to read. He truly is someone who fell in love deeply and wouldn't do anything to change his feelings for Estella.

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