Luke Leslie
4/24/24
Topic H
Pip is still a young boy growing up and maturing in his pre-teens. He has not had it quite easy with the fact that he’s being raised by his abusive sister and her husband. A character that shared similar experiences that we've read about this year is Liesel Meminger, the main character of the novel Book Thief. She was a young girl who had also lost both her parents and had to live during the tough times of WW2. She was adopted by two foster parents and had no remaining siblings to live with. If I had to argue who had a worse childhood, I would say that Pip has because he was not adopted by loving foster parents and has not been able to make as many friends as Liesel Meminger managed. The connection between the two books is the lack of blood family in either of the main character’s lives. Instead, they are both left to grow up more independently and learn life lessons with and through others. Another relationship between the two novels are the mother figures of both families both behave similarly. Although Liesel is not physically punished by her mother like Pip is by his sister, both Mom’s seem to angry and frustrated with life more often than not. Both parents love their child and try to do what is right for them, but both families are going through tough times, especially with Hitler, and both parents unintentionally find in outlet in their household. While both novels share those similarities, they are both different and exciting reads.
Luke, I agree with you Liesel and Pip both had rough childhoods. Though, Liesel’s foster mother, Rosa, is a little more kind and makes her good intentions more apparent earlier. Both Pip and Liesel lost both their biological parents and had a hard time coping, but eventually turned out all right. I feel Pip’s sister had it harder than Pip; she had to raise him when she was about 16 with no parents. She married young to be able to provide, Rosa and Hans were more advanced in age and had a relatively steady source of income, even if it was meager.
ReplyDeleteI would disagree that Pip had a harder childhood than Liesel. Pip was a baby when he lost his mother and father so he really didn’t have to deal with losing them, but Liesel actually witnessed the death of her brother and losing her mother. While Pip’s surrogate parents might not be as good as Liesel’s, they were still in a better overall situation. Living under the 3rd Reich was a lot more difficult and oppressive than life in England during Great Expectations. While England wasn’t perfect at the time, it was a lot better than life under Hitler’s Nazi regime.
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