English 123: Blog 11

I am almost done with Mister Pip now and I do have to agree that the book so far is quite depressing. However, there have been several passages of the book that I have really enjoyed because of their hidden meanings and ideas.

The first passage occurs at the end of page 20 and continues through page 21.
"When Mr. Watts read to us we fell quite. He read slowly so we heard the shape of each word. " 'My father's family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name being Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.'" There had been no warning from Mr. Watts. He just began to read. He kept reading and we kept listening. It was some time before he stopped."
This passage reminded me of exactly what the first day of class was like. This passage took me back to those initial thoughts and memories and caused me to realize how much everyone, not only me, has changed drastically from that first day. We have been to 19th Century London and back and met many characters along the way, including ones in ourselves we never knew existed. I enjoyed reading this and recalling the first day and the huge impression made by Professor Sexson when he read the first chapter of Great Expectations. I remember the voices of the different characters that brought them alive, similar to Mr. Watts. This helps me to develop a personal relation to Matilda since I can say I have personally experienced the same first day of class with Mr. Sexson as she did with Mr. Watts.

The other passage in Mister Pip that grabbed me by the collar and got my attention is on page 64. Matilda is talking about the class visitors when she says, " We wanted our cousins and our mothers and grandmothers to tell us stuff. We didn't want them to be scared to come to class. But we also saw how fear and a shame of looking stupid was never far from the surface and this is what kept some at a distance."
This quote is unbelievably true when it mentions people holding back for the fear of looking stupid. I do not know about other people, but the fear of looking stupid has stopped me from doing a few things in my life that I regret not doing. The fear of looking foolish should never stop a person from achieving their goals and aspirations. For example, everyone in the class wrote and read a personal sonnet in front of their classmates. That takes courage. I am sure many people, I know I did, felt stupid about their sonnet writing skills but no one let that stop them from sharing something they created. I find that to be wonderful that our class has overcome the fear of looking stupid in front of each other and instead does things anyway!