Connections and Gentlemen

With the plethora of information in each of our classes I can't seem to find a sensible place to start this post. I guess the beginning...the first note I made on Wednesday was...How is one thing connected to another? There may not be an exact answer...we are all connected to everyone and everything through a multitude of ways. Pip is connected to the convict through the graveyard and he is connected to Mr. Jaggers through Miss. Havisham and so on. The gun that is pulled out of the bag, in a book yet to be written, is connected to the to victim through an act of treachery. Like I said there is no one way to be connected, but so it happens that one thing is connected to another and baffling as it may be the idea of Six Degrees of Separation is becoming more and more convincing. I found a website the created a game based on Six Degrees of Separation, where you try to stump the game...check it out at www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/six_degrees_game/index.html .   

As I continue to work my way through Great Expectations I feel more and more connected with Pip. A blacksmith's apprentice wanted to become so much more, although it's for the sake of a girl. He knows that he can become so much better and he's trying, and finally he can with the handsome property he has come into and the help of Mr. Jaggers and Mr. Pocket.  As Mr. Jaggers tells Pip and Joe, "...it is the desire of the present possessor of the property, that he be immediately removed from his present shpere of life and from this place, and be brought up as a gentleman -in a word, as a young fellow of great expectations." (pg 107) I just don't think that Pip realizes yet how those expectations are going to affect him and who he is.  WH Auden said "How do I know what I think until I see what I say?" Pip thinks he wants to be this gentleman, but with only being in brief contact with other gentleman, he doesn't know who he is going to become. I guess I'll find out tomorrow  when I hopefully (cross your fingers) finish the book!