Great Expectations Chapters 7 - 11

For chapter 7 I chose the couplet "...whatsume'er the failings on his part, remember reader he were that good in his hart." (pg. 42) This couplet was very clever thing to come up with on Joe's part, especially since he never went to much school and came up with it all by himself.

For chapter 8 I liked the quote "Her contempt for me was so strong that it became infectious, and I caught it." (pg. 55) because that was a main role with one of the characters in the book and it can be a true fact in real life as well.

For chapter 9 I liked the quote "If you can't get to be oncommon through going straight, you'll never get to it through going crooked." (pg. 65) because it is great advice and very thoughtful of a quote, once again, from Joe.

For chapter 10 I enjoyed the quote "...and then he made his shot, and a most extraordinary shot it was." (pg. 71) because it showed the impact it made on Pip at that one moment. The action of the stranger caught Pip quite hard by surprise and this is able to show that in one sentence.

For chapter 11 I chose the quote "The mice have gnawed at it, and sharper teeth than teeth of mice have gnawed at me." (pg. 81) because it was an interesting comparison the old lady made between mice teeth and life. You can see from this statement that life had not been good to her at one time or another.

Great Expectations Chapters 1 - 6

For chapter 1 I thought the quote "As I never saw my father or my mother...my first fancies regarding what they were like were unreasonably derived from their tombstones." (pg. 1) was interesting. This shows what an imaginative boy the main character was. He takes the time to sit there and ponder what his parents can look like and make decisions on his own.

For chapter 2 I chose "I may truly say I've never had this apron of mine off, since born you were." (pg. 8) as an important fact in the book, it seems, and even in real life. Children are no walk in the park and the main characters sister found this out, though it was quite unwillingly on her part.

For chapter 3 I thought the quote "In all of which particulars he was very like the dog." (pg. 17) the most interesting comparison between human and animal. With this thought though you can easily see how ravenous the man was but also see that the boy was thoughtful as well.

For chapter 4 I thought the quote "...be grateful, boy to them which brought you up by hand." (pg. 23) interesting to see that that thought is still used today. Respect was what they were talking about at the time and I found it quite amusing how I could see myself being in a conversation of a similar thought today.

For chapter 5 I chose "Then, the ends of the torches were flung hissing into the water, and went out, as if it were all over with him." (pg. 36) because Pip once again shows quite a comparison between a live human being to something else.

For chapter 6 I thought the quote "In a word, I was too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong." (pg. 37) was a very thoughtful insight. Not only for Pip in this case though, but also that is a very good explanation of how many of us act when we do something wrong.

Shakespeare and Macbeth

     After reading Macbeth I found I was reminded, once again, of how much Shakespeare enjoys killing people in most of his stories. It seems that if he isn't making it comical then it has to be tension filling with the use of death. Othello is also a good example of this. Besides that I didn't think Macbeth was too bad of a story. It kept me interested on what would happen next and it was a different kind of story because of the fact that a main character becomes a insane murderer fairly quickly at the beginning of the story. I have to admit though, Lady Macbeth started to annoy me due to the fact that she would give her husband so much trouble about being a man and tell him to do the bad deeds yet she wasn't even following through to what she said she would do herself. Next thing you know she is going around, unable to really sleep, feeling guilty even though she was the one to push everything forward in the first place. She bit off more than she can chew and was quickly becoming a hindrance more than a support for her now evil husband.
      I also ended up wondering what kind of twisted view of a 'man' they used to have back then. From what I got from the story a lot of people thought that if you were able to never show sadness and can kill someone then you are considered a man. That is a little twisted, in my opinion, but the entire story of Macbeth seems to be filled with twisted people anyways. I loved the fact how Macbeth went to the witches and got the prophesies which left the reader wondering how the story will end since it seemed impossible for those prophesies to happen. I thought it was clever how Shakespeare handled that in the end.