Great Expectations LAQ´s

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).
Pip is  a poor counrty boy who helps a convict by stealing supplies and feeding the convict. The convict is detained but lies for Pip and says that he stole the supplies. Pip then is taken to Miss Havisham´s to play. She is a rich, old and scary woman who adopted a girl in order to teach her to break men´s hearts. Pip continues to go to Miss Havisham´s until he is ordered to become a blacksmith. He wishes to become a gentleman so he can be with Estella. He is granted his wish mysteriously and goes to London where he finds out the man who gave him the money was the convict, who is also Estella´s father. The convict dies, Pip wants to go and marry Biddy but he discovers that she is married to Joe. They have a baby and name it Pip. One ending is that Pip finds Estella and they live happily ever after and the other is that he is happy with little Pip and she is somewhat miserable.

2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.

Pay back (Karma)- not just bad pay back but good pay back as well. The story relies on ties and connections the characters have, everyone gets what they deserve in the end and the original ending is a much more accurate ending to this theme. Some examples of pay back are how Miss Havisham was heartbroken by a man and so trains Estella to do the same to men. The negative energy that Estella is feed then comes and bits Miss H when Estella tells her how much pain she caused her. Payback can also be seen in how Pip is repayed by his convict by making him a gentlemen. Karma is also present in how Pip doesn´t give Biddy a chance and is ashamed by Joe, because when he finally goes back to marry Biddy, he discovers Joe and her are married. Joe is a great father figure to Pip because he is the opposite of his father who abused him and his mother. This is payback because he is being a better father than his ever was, making the negative energy into good energy.

3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).

Because Pip is reflecting on his past as he tells his story, the tone is somewhat sad and remorseful. When he speaks of Joe the tone is very loving and admiring.

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.)

Personification:

"He gave me a most tremendous dip and roll, so that the church jumped over its own weather cock."

Colloquialism: 

"You fail, or you go from my words in any parickler, no matter how small it is, and your heart and your liver..."

 Simile:

"So, we had our slices served out as if we were two thousand troops on a forced march instead of a man.

"With that, she pounced upon me, like an eagle on a lamb..." 

Foil & Simile:

"By the light of the torches, we saw the black Hulk lying out a little way from the mud of the shore, like a wicked Noah´s ark.  

Allusion:

"...and give us Mark Antony´s oration over the body of Caesar."

 Foil:

Mr. Jigger serves as a foil for Joe and Estella serves as a foil for Biddy.

Apostrophe:

"Ah! poultry, poultry! You little thought," said Mr. Pumblechook, apostrophizing the fowl in the dish,"

Chiasmus:

"Yes a gentleman may not keep a public-house; may he? said I. "Not on any account," returned Herbert; "but a public-house may keep a gentleman."

Anafora:

"...brought you up by hand."

Speaker:

Pip is writing this story when he is older and this allows him to look back without being bias.  He directly talks to the reader when he says "I think it will be conceded by my most disputatious reader..."

 

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: 

When the author first introduces a character, he uses direct characterization in order to describe the characters physical features. We can see this when he introduces Joe as a "mild, good-natured, sweet-tempered, easy-going, foolish, dear fellow...". He also uses direct characterization when describing Estella, "She seemed much older than I, of course, being a girl, and beautiful and self-possessed; and she was as scornful of me as if she had been one and twenty and a queen."

Indirect Characterization:

The author uses indirect characterization to describe a character´s personality. Examples of this is when Estella slaps poor Pip, who cries and is surpries to see she actually enjoys his pain. This leads the reader to believe she is evil. 

2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character?  How?  Example(s)?
3. Is the protagonist static or dynamic?  Flat or round?  Explain.

Dynamic: 

Because Pip becomes a gentleman, his surroundings dramatically change, causing his character to learn lessons that he would never have learned as a blacksmith. He becomes a completely different person when he moves to London and at the end of the story is left as a round character because of his dynamic experiences.

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.

I didn´t feel as if I met a person maybe because I didn´t become very fond of Pip´s character after he became a gentleman and still kept on pursuing Estella just because I really didn't like her.