I See the Expectations, But They Are Not So Great

After only reading the first ten chapters of Dickens' "Great Expectations", I already feel emotionally connected to Pip. He is threatened, abused, and neglected by most of the people in his life, but he still feels like he belongs. Pip's personality sends a great message to the reader by saying that you can dream and that you can set great expectations for yourself. In the first ten chapters, Pip's mannerisms are that of a young boy. As a kid, your instinct is to respect your superiors, which is what Pip does when he steals food from his family for the homeless man. This week in my Spanish class, we are watching an Argentinian movie called "Valentin." This movie is about a young boy named Valentin, who is much like Pip, and is set on pleasing his superiors. Like Pip's aunt, Mrs. Joe, Valentin's father abuses him and does not care about him. Pip's love interest, Estella, is not the nicest girl for Pip, but the fact that she is mysterious, and most importantly not interested in him, Pip still goes after her. It's strange for me to feel such an emotional connection to a fictional character, but Pip is my exception.

Why Did I Take AP Lit?

If someone told me that I would be taking AP Lit my Senior year a couple years ago, I would have called them nuts. Every time someone asks what class I'm in and I tell them, they say that I'm too smart. I respond by saying that I did not take AP Lit to make myself seem smart, I took it to gain more knowledge about many different types of literature. I never found reading fun at any point in my life, it just seemed like a waste of time to me. "The Great Gatsby" was the first book that I liked to read, so I ran with it. During my Junior year, my English teacher opened me to a new world of fantastic books and poems that no one ever showed me before. By reading books I liked, I began to enjoy reading more and more. Now, in AP Lit, I'm not just reading books that prepare me for the AP exam, I'm reading books that I like too! I took AP Lit to be in a class full of people that want to learn English as much as i do. In the past, there was always those people who didn't care and interrupted creative discussions with irrelevant statements. I love the AP Lit atmosphere because I learn while having fun with others who have the same passion as I do.