Sani Patel Period 2
3/8/12
Composition In works of literature characters sometimes make decisions that you yourself wouldn’t, of course I have had the same encounter. My encounter with this occurred when I was reading the novel Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. The protagonist, pip was a small young boy at the beginning of the novel and a full-grown man at the end. Pip had pulled through the death of his parents at a very young age, with only his older sister and her husband to look after him. Our protagonist encountered a “convict “one day in the forest, which he gave food and shelter to. A few days after Pip had received a message from a well-known lawyer in London; Jaggers. The letter declared that pip had inherited a large sum of cash from a mysterious benefactor. Without thinking of who had done such a thing, Pip had gone off to be trained as gentlemen in London with a few other boys his age. In London Pip was given a roommate to stay with, Herbert Pocket. So far Pip was living the good life, learning his manners, getting great food, large living space, and in a great city. Things started to go downhill when a mysterious man showed up and Pip’s apartment, claiming to be the convict Pip helped years ago in the forest. Now this would be hard to believe to anyone, but not only was this man the convict from years ago but he was also Pip’s benefactor from whom he inherited all of his wealth from. Shocked, Pip asked the man (Abel Magwitch) how a lowly convict got to had so much money. Magwitch was sent to Australia after he was recaptured; there he worked on a farm. When the original farm owned died he was left with it, in a few years he had made a plentiful amount of cash, which he sent to Pip in return for helping him years ago. Magwitch wanted to see the boy grown up as a man, but at a cost. Once prisoners are sent to Australian they are forbidden from returning, if they did return they would receive the death penalty. After Pip realizes what would happen to the man who gave him his wealth, he immediately decided to help him escape. This is where I disagreed with Pip’s decision to help Maqwitch escape. While it is true that Pip is trying to do the right thing by helping this poor man, but considering his cold and unheartly behavior towards his older and her husband, Pip was in no position to play hero. Not only did Pip get involved with this criminal but he also got his friends involved, Herbert and Startop were dragged into