English 123: Blog 4

Today in class it was mentioned my Mr. Sexson that in some way or another it seems the majority of people are unhappy with their lives. He used examples such as Don Quixote and Madam Bowvery (not sure how to spell the name) as two people who were so entirely bored with their lives that they became immersed in novels and characters. They lived vicariously through the lives of the characters that they read about in the books; somehow their lives were not anywhere near their expectations of what they should be so they sought lives of others. I return to the word expectations and I think well Pip was not happy with the life he was going to lead involving being an apprentice to Joe. It was not until he learned of the fortune he was gifted that he became excited to live his own life rather than someone else's .
So I ask the question.....why is everyone so unhappy with their lives??? I think it is because most of someones life is not how it appears to be in movies and books. In many movies, as we watched with the ending in Great Expectations, the two lovers always end up together; the conflict is always resolved; and the good guy gets the good girl. By watching movies and reading people become obsessed with the stories and become almost depressed that their lives are not that interesting or romantic. SO WHAT! It irritates me when people complain about how boring their lives are when they do not take any action to change it. In my personal opinion, life is what you make of it...if you want to make your life all about laying on the couch eating eating cookies watching the Simpson's then that is a choice but if you do not want your life to be like that then you have the ability to change it.
I was reading everyone else's blogs and I agree with what Ryan wrote about how Great Expectations and the lessons and issues dealt with allow the story and the novel to remain relevant. A good novel takes into consideration the issues at the time and thinks about if they will still be issues centuries later. Take for example Romeo and Juliet, two lovers whose parents do not want them to be together. Although today their might not be the death of the two lovers but the underlying issue still exists. Great Expectations is able to do that through Mr. Dickens genius. He confronts the issues of "the importance of holding friendships high and not the root of all evil, money and greed. Another theme is kindness and genuineness. To value people for who they are and not what they can do for you financially" (from Ryann's Blog). All of these issues are the reasons Great Expectations is still relevant to people in the 21st Century.