Child Characters in Great Expectations Essay -- Great Expectations Es

Child Characters in Great Expectations      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The first part of Dickens' novel, Great Expectations, is an account of the childhood of, Pip, the main character of the novel.   In these beginning chapters Dickens paints an extremely vivid picture of childhood.   The reader is able to enter Pip's mind and see the world through the eyes of a child.   This is possible because Dickens understood the thoughts and feelings of children and applied this to Pip's every thought and action when he wrote the novel.   Dickens had an obvious gift for creating child characters in his works.   The word "pip" itself refers to a seed from a plant.   Seeds need to be nurtured if they are to grow and flourish.   In order to understand both Dickens' talent and his compulsion to write about children it important to realize that through the characters in his novels he took up the plight of all children.   In Dickens' view of childhood, he felt that children have certain needs: guidance in a nurturing hom e, to be free from emotional and physical abuse, to have a good education, and to be allowed to use their imaginations.   In order for children to succeed in life he felt these needs must be met.   Through his portrayal of child characters in the novel, Great Expectations, Dickens' demonstrates how adults rarely, nor adequately provided for the particular needs that children have.    Dickens often wrote about children in his stories who were crippled, such as Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol.   However, Dickens chose to create most of his main child characters with no physical maladies.   As Collins points out, these characters were impeded emotionally in some way: "Most of his child heroes and heroines are born sound in wind and limb... ... be unhappy.   One may wonder why Dickens always seemed to make the world weigh so heavy on the little shoulders of so many of his characters.   One reason is that Dickens appears to have created these suffering characters was that he wanted to protest the injustices toward children that he saw in Victorian society.   He illustrated what these children needed and what they were missing.   Just as a "seed" that is not nurtured cannot grow, children who are not loved and cared for can not grow up to live happy lives. Works Cited Bell, Vereen. "Parents and Children in Great Expectations." Victorian Newsletter 27 (1965): 21-24. Collins, Philip. Dickens and Education. New York: St. Martin's P, 1964. Rawlins, Jack P. "Great Expectations: Dickens and the Betrayal of the Child." Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. 23 (1983): 667-683.   

Analysis of The Lesson

The Lesson, by Toni Cade Bambara, is a brief narrative story that captures a turnkey moment in a young girl s life. Sylvia vividly recalls the day she learned a life lesson that was initiated by Miss Moore. The central idea of this story is that actual life experiences are the lessons that make the most impact. Sylvia recollects the day with the mentally of that she would rather go to the pool or to the show where it s cool, than on Miss Moore s educational field trip to the city. Once in the city Sylvia notices the financial affluence of the people there and how much that defers from her own. Sylvia suffers sticker shock in the expensive toy store and that is where Sylvia gets mad and the wheels in her head start to turn. On the way back home Sylvia thinks about how her mother would react if Sylvia were to ask for the clown she saw at the store. At the end of the day Sylvia s attention is not of going to get a half a chocolate layer with her cousin Sugar, but instead Sylvia wants to be alone to think this day through. It is at this point Sylvia determines that ain t nobody gonna beat me at nuthin. The central character of this story is Sylvia who is also dynamic. Sylvia who never thought much beyond her own ghetto neighborhood has to rethink her situation after going into the city. This is a bitter pill for Sylvia to swallow yet she initiates a mental change at the end of the story. Miss Moore s character is static in that she is an unchanging mentor of the children and wants to educate them. The other kids in the story are minor characters that are stereotyped by their names like, Rosie Giraffe and Fat Butt, and remain static throughout the entire situation. The additional minor characters of the children s parents and relatives also remain static. One conflict in this story is an external one Miss Moore has with the kids. Miss Moore tries to make an educational impact on the children. With her lectures and analogies like; where we are is who we are, but it don t necessarily have to be that way, Miss Moore attempts to better educate the neighborhood kids, yet they seem to continue their lives unaffected. The main conflict in this story, brought on by Miss Moore s educational field trip to the city, is Sylvia s own internal struggle. Once in the city Sylvia feels a shame on the inside and she begins to question herself on this feeling. Sylvia, at the end of the day, takes time to think about what she had experienced in the city, and makes strong mental adjustment.

Compare and Contrast Five Stories to A Dolls House

Compare and Contrast In â€Å"A Doll’s House† Torvald Helmer and Nora start out to seem as a happy married couple with three young children. In the beginning Nora is seen as woman who cares about her children and her husband but someone who also cares greatly about money. Torvald is seen as a man who is important in the society. Nora was portrayed as a very caring wife when it is revealed that she borrowed money illegally from Krogstad to fund the trip to Italy to try and save her husband life because he was sick. Once Krogstad begins to try and blackmail her Nora tries everything in her power to prevent Torvald from discovering the truth so that his pride and reputation would not be hurt or challenged. When Torvald finally discovers the†¦show more content†¦Norma decides to break up with Leroy just like Nora did with Torvald. Norma says that it is her mothers and his fault; she said â€Å"she won’t leave me alone-you won’t leave me alone† and also that â€Å"I feel eighteen again.† (Mason). This is similar to Nora when she broke up with Torvald she felt that she was her father’s doll and then she became Torvalds doll when they married. Both felt as if they were not themselves when they were with their spouse. In the short story â€Å"The Gift of the Magi† Della and Jim is a young married couple who love each other very much. Della makes a sacrifice of cutting her long and beautiful hair so that she could have the money to buy her husband a chain for his watch. This is contrasting to â€Å"A Doll’s House† because in the story Nora instead of telling her husband what she wants for Christmas she asks Torvald for money so she can buy herself a gift. Jim does the same thing as Della did he sold his watch that was passed down from his grandfather and his father so that he could buy a comb set for Della for her beautiful hair. The personal sacrifices that each made was similar to a sacrifice that Nora made she borrowed money illegally so that her husband and dying father could be spared the stress of having to deal with the borrowing and lending of money. (Porter). â€Å"TheShow MoreRelated‘The Offstage Area Of The Naturalistic Theatre Is Just1654 Words   |  7 PagesNaturalism represented freedom from the conservative five act play and additionally represented theatre as a space to reflect on the natural aspects of life – to depict life as it is lived (Esslin 68). Many authors came from this era, one of whom was Henrik Ibsen, a Norwegian playwright who published a praised and controversial play in 1879 entitled A Doll’s House (Ibsen). 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