While reading chapter one of Great Expectations, I had many reactions. Charles Dickens did a great job of depicting how hard Pip’s life was. For a start, it would be very hard loosing both parents as a young child. In addition, he also had five siblings that died. As he is remembering his diseased family, a strange man approaches him. When he is beat up and bossed around by this man, it seems like Pip is pretty accustomed to an abusive or controlling situation (As we later find out, his sister is very controlling). In fact, he doesn’t really hesitate to agree to bringing a file and wittle. This is most likely because he was threatened, but he still handles the situation pretty well.
Charles Dickens helped my visualize this scene through terrific imagery. I was able to picture the graves and the strange man. He also did a good job in telling us what happened previously in Pip’s life. He did it in a way where I had an idea what happened, but it still left me wondering. Dickens overall did a great job of hooking the reader by leaving series of unanswered questions. It keeps you wanting to find out what happens next. In conclusion, I enjoyed reading the first chapters and am excited to find out what happens next!
A blog Orr not? 
Interesting analysis of the effects of Pip’s sister’s abuse. I would love to see more analysis in the observations you make of the story.
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Faith, you did a great job! I never thought the reason Pip handled the old man so well was because of his sister. I thought he was just scared but it helped me because his sister his put him in many of those situations many times before. I agree with you that Dickens used great imagery with him words. i think Dickens was using foreshadowing with the old man. It would keeping the readers wondering why Pip handled the situation so well. thanks for you outlook on chapters one and two.
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Great job Faith! I agree with you on that Pip’s sister is very controlling as she abuses her husband and younger brother, but I think what bothers me more about her is that she is so two-faced. As I was annotating chapters 3 and 4 I grew increasingly agitated at her character because she acted so well towards her guests, but abuses Pip and Joe with a heavy hand. Anyway, that’s just my thoughts. Overall this post was descriptive of the happenings in the chapters and I appreciated your outlook. Good job!
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You made some great observations in this post. I agree with you that Dickens wrote with a great balance. He was descriptive, but still left a little to the imagination. Also, I agree that you could tell early on that Pip was abused. It was clever of Dickens to tell how willing Pip was to do as the man said. This showed how Pip has been trained to do as one says because otherwise there will be violent consequences. Good post Faith!
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