Wrapping Up Great Expectations

After reading Great Expectations, there are many themes that could be taken out of it. Which theme is the most important is completely a matter of opinion. Personally, I think the most important theme is this: appreciate what you have because you won't realize how great it is until it's gone. This is an idea I think that virtually anyone can relate to. Almost everyone has had an experience where they had something great, but they didn't know how special it was because they were too busy longing for something else. And by the time they'd noticed how amazing it was, it was too late and it was gone (like Pip, wishing so desperately to be a gentleman that he didn't see just how great his life with Joe was until all his ties to home were broken). I think that I identified with this theme very strongly because this is a lovely little life lesson that I seem to keep having to revisit. While I was reading, I can't say that it really jumped out at me immediately. But once I began to think about it, and tired to find something meaningful in this story that I could relate to. This by far overpowered themes like keeping those you love close to you, or monetary wealth is no substitute for happiness because those seem like obvious, regular life no brainers. But appreciating what you've got while you've got it is something people genuinely struggle with, and can be a very hard learned lesson. So I think readers, if they are going to take anything away from Dickens' novel, should take Pip's struggle with this idea to heart and learn to love what they have and not spend time pining over what they can't and/or don't have.

Thoughts on Reading

To be honest, I did not enjoy Great Expectations. I wasn't particularly compelled to read to book to solve the mysteries. I didn't care all that much. Dickens' style of writing was much too drawn out and wordy for my taste. And part of why I didn't like it all that much is that I felt no sympathy or connection with Pip, and I think it's important to have that with the main character of a novel. I thought that he was just shallow and overly obsessed with silly things (like Estella; she was terrible to him and he let her basically control his life after meeting her once). Little of the reading actually stuck because it was just so dull. After I did my reading, I had to check Sparknotes almost immediately after just to remember what happened. That website was a life saver; without it, I probably would have had to reread all of the chapters at least twice.

Because I was so tired of Dickens' novel, reading and annotating was difficult. I tried to read every night, but that usually consisted of me glossing over the chapters after reading the first few paragraphs. I had to do a lot of catch-up reading on weekends, too.During the week, I'd be so busy with other homework, I would completely forget about reading the next few chapters. I woke up around 5:00 on a few occasions to finish the reading (which was not fun at all, especially considering my lack of coffee). I can't say that Great Expectations had compelled me to read any more Dickens stories. My family had warned me that it was slow and dull, but I had no idea it would be this bad. Maybe this is only my opinion because I'm too young to appreciate sophisticated writing... but I can't see myself voluntarily rereading this book or any of his others in my lifetime.