Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Harper Lee and Truman Capote, two of the greatest 20th century authors, were once prodigious best friends. And best friends share everything; their thoughts, their dreams, but most importantly, their ideas. So could it be possible that Capote, a prolific writer, could have played a role in writing Lee’s esteemed novel, To Kill a Mockingbird? Doubtful. Through comparisons of Lee’s only work to Capote’s “A Christmas Memory” it can be seen that despite similarities, these friends’ works differ too greatly in the way they set the tone, emphasize their themes, and utilize imagery for them to have worked together on her novel.

From the novel to kill a mockingbird we are going to experience some of the economic inequality problems that they have faced and the tolerances that they were going through that time of history. Like the economic classes they face like weather they are poor ,middle class or rich or racist thing that people went through at that time of history.

Charles Dickens’ aptly titled novel Great Expectations focuses on the journey of the stories chief protagonist, Pip, to fulfill the expectations of his life that have been set for him by external forces. The fusing of the seemingly unattainable aspects of high society and upper class, coupled with Pip’s insatiable desire to reach such status, drives him to realize these expectations that have been prescribed for him. The encompassing desire that he feels stems from his experiences with Mrs. Havisham and the unbridled passion that he feels for Estella. Pip realizes that due to the society-imposed caste system that he is trapped in, he will never be able to acquire

Can you stand the sight of innocent people getting hurt everyday? In wars, bomb blasts, or even in local or personal issues. They are innocent people who do nothing but help us or they just don 't bother us, just like a mockingbird.…………………………. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Boo Radley and Tom Robinson could both be the symbolic “mockingbird”.

In Charles Dicken’s Great Expectations Pip does not appreciate the surprise fulfillment of his dreams and only becomes selfish and condescending toward those not as fortunate as he. Pip’s character deration as a result of his inheritance is evidenced by his desire to serve “a gallon of condescension, upon everybody in the village” (Dickens 151). Dickens uses Pips ungrateful attitude toward his home town to illustrate the corruption of aspirations when one did not have to work for his success. Pips continued under appreciation of his success and subsequent failure allow Dickens to rebuild Pip through hard work to and achieve “happiness “and fulfill his dreams meaningfully (Dickens 487). Dickens informs the reader that meaningless wealth and success is worthless, and that true success comes from hard work and passion.

Robin Gilmore writes in his article “The Pursuit of Gentility” about Dickens’ writing skills and his way of describing the upperclass without really having been born into it. Dickens was able to incorporate his experience into his novel Great Expectations when he describes the character Pip and how he wants to become a gentleman (Gilmore 576-582). Furthermore, Gilmore adds an important argument when he talks about the Victorian age and how people may be able to work themselves up to higher classes but never manage to become equals to those who were born “a gentleman”. Classes of that time were slowly merging together and this is the real reason why Pip was able to reach his status of a “gentleman” in the end. However, people of that time were still aware of the discrepancy between classes and were afraid of losing their status as wealthy and understood people of upper class. Pip’s guardian Mr. Jaggers once claims that you have to have a certain education, knowledge and behavior in order to become accepted as a member of the upper class, “It is considered that you must be better educated in accordance with your altered position, and that you will be alive to the importance and necessity of at once entering on that advantage” (Dickens 110). This shows that education has a huge impact on what you become. However, more importantly, the family you are born into decides whether or not you will have the privilege of receiving this education of higher standards. Pip is surrounded by a multi-layered society that influences him throughout his life. All the circumstances of ongoing change in society as well as technology etc. have a huge

Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations chronicles Pip’s struggle to improve his status in English society. He is originally taught that his happiness directly correlates to the amount of wealth he accumulates. Two characters he encounters—Joe Gargery and Miss Havisham—help him realize that this notion is an unfortunate misconception, and their experiences show Pip that he not live his life by such norms.

We as humans tend to have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. We look for knowledge about everybody and everything that surrounds us from our day-to-day life. Sadly though, we must accept that in the grand scheme of life we (as a society) tend to put pleasure above our quest for knowledge. The pursuit of knowledge tends to take time and energy, two things we call invaluable, and it also shows us things that might depress us. Contrastingly, ignorance takes no time and energy. Also, (as the common saying goes) ignorance is bliss. It keeps ugly truths away from us. But that is no reason to forsake knowledge for ignorance. In the early 1900’s, two books were published that would eventually be referred to the pinnacle of classical literature.

Since the beginning of time, humans tend to develop the common misconception of those who possess wealth and fame posse’s happiness. The average numbers of wealthy people interviewed every year report back describing them as being miserable and never truly happy despite their wealth. This misconception that any common man would believe is due to the fact that one can never know true wealth unless he has it .When people come upon wealth and start climbing the social ladder, they tend to lose their moral ethics and become more corrupt by changing their life style in becoming less humane. Since the discovery of wealth and social power, society has been separated into two classes, the ruler and the ruled, the rich and the poor. Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations and F. Scot Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby contradicts the relation of wealth and happiness in their books because they both show that in order to be truly happy, one must reject superficial things, such as one’s position in the caste system of society, and pursue one’s true desires.

In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem and Scout grow up learning how people in Maycomb treat one another. In a large portion of the novel, characters of the rich and the poor are involved in Tom Robinson’s case. Some characters are mockingbirds (someone or something that only does good), but nobody was able to see how they could be. Maycomb is infected with racism and prejudice affecting how people view one another including the mockingbirds and the innocent: Mr. Dolphus Raymond, Mayella Ewell, and Walter Cunningham.

Have you ever realized how far society has come in accepting others and their differences, or saw that behaviors haven’t changed, but have gotten worse. In To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, these issues are displayed. This literary merit showcases these social injustices form a child’s point of view, in order to make the author’s purpose for writing stronger, as well as an eye opener. In society, there is a divide of the sexes, races, and within those divisions is a dimension between financial standings.

The Victorian era class system was founded upon three distinct social classes – upper, middle, lower – with marginal upward mobility granted to those of the lower and middle classes. Society in 19th century England determined an individual's value largely by the social class that individual belonged to, and by extension how much power and wealth that individual held. Naturally, primitive lower classmen such as Pip would struggle to find a respectable identity in a society founded upon social titles. Through a refusal to accept that social worth is determined at birth, Pip defies the predated victorian-era class system and proves to himself that hard work and self improvement is the true measure of self worth.

Charles Dickens, author of Great Expectations, provides a perfect example of the hope of class mobility. The novel portrays very diverse and varied social classes which spread from a diligent, hardworking peasant (Joe) to a good-natured middle class man (Mr. Wemmick) to a rich, beautiful young girl (Estella). Pip, in particular, elevates in the social pyramid from a common boy to a gentleman with great expectations. With his rise in society, he also alters his attitude, from being a caring child to an apathetic gentleman. During this process, Pip learns how he should act and how to become a real gentleman. Social mobility and wealth, furthermore, carves a disposition and how a character is looked upon.

As a boy, Dickens himself grew up with a father who didn’t make a lot of money and lived a lower class lifestyle. When we was only 12 he was forced to work in a factory so he could make the money he needed to bail his dad out of jail. Therefore in Great Expectations, he shows how he sympathizes with the lower class. The main way Dickens shows how he feels about the classes is through pip. One example of Dickens's expressing his feelings towards the class differences is through Pip’s realizations towards the end of the book. “...pondering, as I went along, on all I had seen, and deeply revolving that I was a common labouring-boy; that my hands were coarse; that my boots were thick; that I had fallen into a despicable habit of calling knaves Jacks; that I was much more ignorant than I had considered myself last night, and generally that I was in a low-lived bad way.” (113). By Pip realizing that being accepted into the upper class depends on how he actually lives not just how he appears, Dickens shows his belief that class is determined by more than just surface qualities. Similarly, this shows how Dickens believes that the class status of a person doesn’t always show a person's true personality. To illustrate his view of class education differences Dickens uses Pip’s transition from a uneducated blacksmith to a gentleman. Dickens also shows how he feels about the class wealth difference through a difference between Miss Havisham, and Joe and Pip. Miss Havisham had plenty of money but didn’t live the happiest life. On the other hand, Pip and Joe were rather poor and didn’t have a lot of money, but always found a way to pay off debts and live a decently enjoyable life (36). This proves how Dickens thinks that, while the classes might be determined by things like money, wealth isn’t a necessity to having a good life. While some

Social class is conveyed through many points throughout the novel by the characters and the way in which they present themselves throughout society. It is evident throughout both pieces that social class is unfair and prejudiced by the way in which it is determined whether you 're popular or not. This in comparison to Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen provides a similar view on social class; despite still