Culture Shock- West Side Story

The classic Romeo and Juliet reference. West Side Story. Two kids, one Hispanic and one Italian, meet and fall in love, but it's not destined to be. Their parents don't want them to be together so they are forced to go behind their parents' backs. It sound very familiar, doesn't it? Where have I hear this before? Maybe it's that book we read in class that seems to be popping up everywhere. Everyone references the forbidden love and tragic death. You can't turn without seeing it, but it seems like West Side Story is one of the references that everyone knows and talks about in reference to Romeo and Juliet. This is the new take on a classic tale that never seems to get old. It is the revival of Shakespeare. It will not go away.

Great Expectations Skits!

Next week we are doing skits from Great Expectations. Here are my top three choices for scenes for skits:

• The first time Pip goes to see Miss Havisham. It is when Pip first gets told that Miss Havisham's heart is broken and his first impression of Estella. It should include Pip telling Miss Havisham what he thinks of Estella. I think this would be good for a skit because it introduces the characters well and gives you an impression on what they are like.
• Pip walking down the street in his village when he goes back to see Miss Havisham and keeps running into Trabb's boy. It is so amusing as well as shows how much Pip has changed since he was last in the country.
• Pip's first visit with the Pocket family. Everyone is so scattered and completely different from what he is used to, along with being his first real encounter with higher raised people. It would be an amusing scene to watch, that's for sure.
  

More Questions

One of the things that confused me about this week's reading was why Pip went to ask Miss Havisham to help Hebert. Pip says "Miss Havisham, if you could spare the money to do my friend Herbert a lasting service in life, but which from the nature of the case must be done without his knowledge, I could show you how" (387). I understand that Pip wants someone to keep helping out Herbert, but why should he have to ask Miss Havisham and not someone else that would be more willing to help him? Miss Havisham obviously has shown no interest in Herbert, so why now?

Question About Chapter 27

In chapter 27 of Great Expectations, Pip talks about the Avenger.

I had got on so fast of late that I had even started a boy in boots- top boots- in bondage and slavery to whom I might be said to pass my days. For, after I had made this monster (out of the refuse of my washerwoman's family) and had clothed him with a blue coat, canary waistcoat, white cravat, creamy breeches, and the boots already mentioned, I had to find him a little to do and a great deal to eat; and with both of these horrible requirements he haunted my existence. (233)

I understand that this was discussed in class on Monday, but since I wasn't there, I have no idea what it is talking about. It mentions how it is a slave to him and how he has clothed it. Could someone please explain to me who exactly the Avenger is and why it is mentioned in context with Joe's visit to Pip in London.

An Image of Great Expectations

This photo to me is a representation of how once the day comes for Pip to leave his home, time speeds up and it seems to take no time before he is gone and on his way to London. Pip says "We changed again, and yet again, and it was not too late and too fat to go back, and I went on (171)." It seems to me that at the last minute he wished that Joe would come or he could go back and say goodbye one last time, but before he could, he was gone. After he is far enough that he can not go back, London seems to be in front of him immediately.

Great Expectations First Stage

At the end of chapter 9 of Great Expectations, it closes with the following paragraph:

That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But it is the same with and life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.

The day that Pip is referring to in this quote is the day where he first meets Miss Havisham and Estella. After this day, he is no longer willing to live his life as a mere blacksmith. Estella spends the day bringing him down with her comments on her thick boots and coarse hands. He is determined to be worthy of Estella and this day will forever change the course of his life.

My experiences in life have been very different then those of Pip, but there have been some days that seem to shape the rest of my life. One day that I particularly think of is a day in the fourth grade. When children are young, they rarely think of how they compare to others in terms of school work. Before this day I didn't really think of my self as smart, or that I was good at math or reading. Our fourth grade class had so many students and the fifth grade had so few, that our teachers decided to move some of the fourth graders on in reading, math, or both. I never thought that I might be one of those lucky students, let alone one of the four that got moved on in both subjects. From that day on, I realized that I could succeed and was good at school.

Three Points

The three points that I am making in my body paragraph are how similar Miss Prism and Chasuble's personalities are, how they both have occupations that encourage their formal personalities and don't encourage them to express how they truly feel. Also I included how they also have different experiences before they met that, even though are discouraging, shows them that even when they make mistakes in their lives, they are still the same people that they thought they were before Chasuble knew that Miss Prism lost a baby that she was taking care of. I believe that my points and my commentary elaborates on our thesis and help make our point.