Peer Pressure In Great Expectations And Cormac Mccarthy's The Road

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

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is a coming-of-age story written from December 1860 to 1861. Great Expectations follows the life of Phillip Pirrip, self-named Pip; as his “infant tongue could make of both name nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.” (I, Page 3) The story begins with Pip as a young child, destined to be the apprentice of his blacksmith brother-in-law, Joe Gargery. After spending time with an upper-class elderly woman, Miss Havesham and her adopted daughter, Estella, Estella, with whom he has fallen in love, he realizes that she could never love a person as common as himself, and his view on the social classes change. Pip’s view of society grows

In the bildungsroman - coming of age story, Great Expectations, written by Charles Dickens, the first stage of the novel reveals little about Pip’s fate and whether or not he will finally mature and resolve his inner conflicts. However, we can identify several conflicts and predict whether or not they will be resolved in the end of the book. Pip’s major conflict is his feeling of hate for the position he holds in society. One character that has greatly impacted Pip’s life (and began the conflict) goes by the name Estella.

Charles Dickens uses his own opinions to develop the larger-than-life characters in Great Expectations. The novel is written from the point of view of the protagonist, Pip. Pip guides the reader through his life, describing the different stages from childhood to manhood. Many judgments are made regarding the other characters, and Pip's views of them are constantly changing according to his place in the social hierarchy. For instance, Pip feels total admiration that, later, turns to total shame for the man who raised him, Joe Gargery. The primary theme in this novel questions whether being in a higher social and economic class helps a person to achieve true happiness. This idea is shown through Pip's innocence at the forge, visits

Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens that thoroughly captures the adventures of growing up. The book details the life of a boy through his many stages of life, until he is finally a grown man, wizened by his previous encounters. Dickens’ emotions in this book are very sincere, because he had a similar experience when his family went to debtor’s prison. Pip starts as a young boy, unaware of social class, who then becomes a snob, overcome by the power of money, and finally grows into a mature, hardworking man, knowing that there is much more to life than money.

In Great Expectations, throughout Pip’s childhood and adulthood, he develops expectations and conceptions of others around him. In addition to Mrs. Joe Gargery, there is another character who influences Pip’s decision to pursue a lavish lifestyle in London. Mrs. Havisham is a wealthy, unmarried woman who requests to see Pip several times throughout the novel. Estella, Miss Havisham’s adopted daughter who Pip falls in love with early on, degrades Pip for being part of a common family. She represents this degradation through several rude commands and statements. “ ‘With this boy! Why, he is a common labouring-boy’ ” (Dickens 61). After being devastated by Estella’s comments, Pip begins to question the way Joe, his brother-in-law and father

Throughout Great Expectations, Pip undergoes many changes in his values and goals. Early in the story, Pip visits Miss Havisham and Estella. After this, he starts to think about how he is just “‘a common laboring-boy’” (65), and he becomes ashamed of his social status. This day sparks his aspiration to marry Estella and “‘be a gentleman on her account’” (129). In the end of the novel, Pip realizes that he doesn’t need to be wealthy to enjoy life and that he had everything he needed to be happy, but he threw it away for money.

Great Expectations, occurs in the early 1800s over three major settings: his sister’s house in the Kent marshes, Satis House, and London. Pip describes his first home with his sister and brother-in-law as, “...the marsh country, down by the river...this bleak place” (1). Pip regards his hometown to be dull and boring. This symbolizes how plain Pip’s life was before his benefactor’s generosity enabled Pip to go to more thriving places and have more lively experiences. Here, Pip spends his days gloomily, as his sister always scolds him, and he cannot escape it. However, one day, Mr. Pumblechook gives Pip an opportunity to be whisked to Satis House, the residence of Miss Havisham and Estella. Miss Havisham lives an isolated, restricted life which can be seen in the architecture of her house. It was “...of old brick, and dismal, and had a great many iron bars to it” (54). Miss Havisham’s residence represents her well because the worn bricks show how old and tired she is of life, and the iron bars symbolize how she lives as if she were in a prison. She mainly keeps to herself and does not step outside her house. In Miss Havisham’s manor, Pip’s life changes as he meets Estella, his beloved, and he encounters people different than him. Pip then travels to the metropolis of London with Mr. Jaggers and money from his benefactor. Pip, at first glance at the enormous city, “...was scared by the immensity of London...rather ugly, crooked, narrow, and dirty” (161). During the early

In the book Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Pip was an orphan living with his sister and her husband Joe Gargery who was a blacksmith. Pip was met by a convict. The convict scares Pip into stealing food and a file for him. Pip meets Miss Havisham and Estella. Pip falls in love with Estella, but she can’t love anyone. Miss Havisham raised Estella to degrade men because she was left at her wedding, so she’s getting payback. Pip wants to be a gentleman because of how Estella is rich and silky and not dirty. One day Pip got an anonymous enormous amount of money so he decides to leave for London to be trained like a gentleman. Pip’s wealth and position changes him to a dissipated life of idleness.

The overall central idea of social class is a constant theme of the novel Great Expectations. During one of Pip’s first encounters with Estella, he comes to the cold truth of who he truly is in society; a common boy. Pip has never thought much of his appearance or where he came from before Estella had rudely informed him of the common and labor intensified personal and attire he

“Great Expectations” is a famous novel written in the structure of a bildungsroman written by Charles Dickens. The novel is written in the view of the protagonist (Pip) and is set in the Victorian era of England and starts off in Kent although moves throughout the novel. The plot of the novel covers Pip’s humble beginnings of his simple life which is interrupted when he is at his parents grave and he encounters a convict. Pip helps the convict which the police and Pip’s family later find after their Christmas dinner. After the Christmas dinner Pip’s Uncle Pumblechook takes him to see a rich eccentric lady called Miss Havisham where he meets her and her adopted daughter Estella. The two ladies don’t treat Pip well even though Pip liked Estella

The classic novel, Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens portrays a wide array of themes and morals as it follows the coming of age life story of Philip Pirrip, otherwise known as Pip. Considered one of the greatest English authors of the Victorian era, Dickens title of his thirteenth novel not only raises the expectations of his audience, but also lives up to their great expectations with the unexpected events in Pip’s unusual yet thrilling life. His life story can be summed up as a chase for a one-sided love and a wealthier society, and an escape from his squalor in the marsh village in which he grew up. Due to his desires, Pip formulates multiple expectations of the world, many being rather impractical in terms of how society is depicted

In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens satirizes the upper class’s view of the lower class and how easily it could change by showing how Pip is treated during and after he receives his wealth and status of a gentleman.

The main character, Pip, raised an orphan and destined for blue collar work, becomes determined to “rise” after meeting and becoming enamored with a beautiful girl named Estella. He immediately begins to think of himself as beneath her. “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” (Dickens 62). Even after Estella treats Pip thoroughly harshly and makes him feel ashamed of who he is, he is charmed by her. He later learns that the reason she is so harsh is because she was taken in by Miss Havisham and trained to feel no compassion, remorse, or any sentiment at all; when Pip and Estella are grown and walking in Miss Havisham’s gardens, Estella remarks to Pip, “‘Oh! I have a heart to be stabbed in or shot in, I have no doubt,’ said Estella, ‘and of course, if it ceased to beat I should cease to be. But you know what I mean. I have no softness there, no—sympathy—sentiment—nonsense’” (Dickens 263). As the perfectly beautiful, perfectly high class woman, Estella shirks anything that could truly fulfill her. She is not interested in marrying for love, or friendship, or family; Estella is concerned with money and class, first and foremost. Miss Havisham pleads for Pip to love her; she says, “I developed her

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