One more thing that I have found in Mr. Pip that I noticed in my notes while studying for the test. Mr. Dickens, Pip and Mr. Watts are all orphans who don't know who their parents are. Matilda relates to all these people because she thinks she is an orphan and also she finds Mr. Watts and Pip as more understanding people than her own mother.

Charles Dickens=Mr. Watts=Matilda=Me=someone else

We are all connected and we will always be connected in reality or imagination!

The timing of this week could not be worse. I am 20 minutes away from the final and I have had minimal sleep, about 3 hours, because I am in the process of moving. My check out of my house was today at 11:45. I have spent all week moving and cleaning. But like the theme of this class, we have hard times and we suffer so we can write about it and learn and help other people learn how to be strong. I have had a wonderful time in this class. In the course of my college career I have been really disappointed with my teachers at MSU. In high school I had some memorable teachers, ones that have changed my life and that I will never forget. I can honestly say that Mr. Sexson has been one of the best teachers I have had at MSU. Even though he is a bit on the old side and my first impressions were that he was going to be old fashioned in his teaching, he has proved to be very "with the times" and hip as a teacher. He taught us the classics but integrated modern techniques, such as the blogs for example to mesh with the technological generation.

This class has helped me further understand the power of stories. All we are are the stories we have. Sometimes the funnest part of an adventure is the aftermath and the opportunity to tell that story to other people. Some of the most enjoyable moments of my life is not partying or doing extreme activities, but its sitting with a few friends exchanging stories with them. The story is a powerful tool. It can teach, inform, entertain, enlighten, and save us from the trials and tribulations in our lives. Mr. Dickens knew this, Mr. Watts knew this, Matilda Knew this, Mr. Sexson knew this and now I know this. I am a storyteller.

I finally received a reply from Jennifer. The girl who helped me in my time of need in a storm. I sent the Sonnet to her not through the mail but I set it on her doorstep. She emailed me back saying that she appreciated the poem but didn't understand some of it. She also said she was in South Dakota and her car died and someone helped her out when she needed help and she is all about good Carma and helping others. 

The whole time after that even happened you realize that there are good people out there. Ones with compassion and good intentions. We live in a society where grown men are afraid of looking at young children for fear they will be labeled something or other. I had a friend who for his photography assignment photographed children on a playground. He had no ill intentions at all but in the public eye, he looks like a pedophile. Its great to have people to help you. A could have a shitty day and the whole time I am just miserable and depressed and all it takes is one smiling face and one good person to turn it all around. Thank you Jennifer.

In my paper I talked about Anne Frank and Neil Peart. Two completely different people living in two different times. They both have experienced loss and they both wrote about it. As a filmmaker, I write scripts and stories of my own, but it was only possible through reading other scripts and watching other peoples movies and stories. First a writer must sit back and "Listen" to a story or several stories before he/she can gain a story voice. Just as Matilda did in the novel Mister Pip, She found her voice and wrote her story. Mr. Watts helped her find the storyteller in her by reading her the story of Great Expectations. Mr. Watts showed Matilda the power of the story and the power of reading stories and hearing stories. That was Mr. Watt's legacy to Matilda and that is the legacy many authors give to us through books. They teaching us about their stories, but also we can learn to tell our own stories through others.

Ryan Coombe           

08 – 04 – 08

ENGL 123

 

The Novel is Dead?

The Great Expectations of Matilda

The Booker Prize author V.S. Naipauls was once quoted saying “The Novel is Dead”(Conversational Reading). This country as well as the world is more literate than ever, but society chooses to read magazines, newspapers, and blogs instead of books. Many people believe that classic literature is irrelevant to modern day culture and it has no meaning in their lives. Perhaps there is an alternative reason why these books are called literary classics and have stood the test of time. Mister Pip is a novel about a girl named Matilda living on an island in Bougainville who begins to read Great Expectations with her class. The novel itself was written in 1860 and its story content takes place in 1812, but Matilda finds this book to be more relevant than anything in her whole world even her friends and family. Novels and stories can be more real, powerful and meaning than reality itself and this idea is expressed thoroughly in Mister Pip.

Mister Pip explores a large variety of themes including the institution of family, the intensity and power of imagination and finding ones identity. Literary characters from Oedipus to Jack Worthing from The Importance of Being Earnest have beseeched the question “Who am I?” Matilda seeks the same answer in her own life on the island, but cannot discover her identity. It took the help of a fictional character named Pip to help her through her identity crisis. Pip is raised poor in the marshes, but then comes into much wealth but at the cost of forgetting who he is and who his friends are.  Matilda draws on Pips experiences and suffering and relates it to her life. She feels a connection to Pip and admits to feeling more of a relation to the character, Pip, than to her own ancestors (p.76).  

Great Expectations not only helps Matilda find herself, but also helps her survive and get through the darkest time in her life. Stories often serve as survival devices to those who face sever hardships.  In 1001 Arabian Nights, Shahrazad uses the power of story to keep her and her sister alive for over 3 years telling a story every night to the ruthless king Shahrayar (p.16).  Matilda with the help of her teacher, Mr. Watts, establishes that when everything is gone in ones life, one still has an imagination.  Mr. Watts said, “We have all lost our possessions and many of us our homes, but these losses, severe though they may seem, remind us of what no person can take, and that is our minds and our imaginations” (p. 123).  Matilda discovers that listening and reading about Pips hardships makes her hardships a little bit more bearable because she feels she’s not alone and that everyone suffers.

Not only are reading about character’s hardships helpful, but personally writing about ones experience is just as therapeutic and also a survival technique in itself. Ghost Rider is a book about the Rush Drummer, Neil Peart, who within 6 months looses his daughter in a car accident and looses his wife to cancer. He choose to embark on a yearlong motorcycle journey around North America and decided to write about it. Peart used the experience of the journey to get past the death of his family but more importantly writing about the healing process saved his life. The Diary of Ann Frank is another example of a young Jewish girl going through great adversary who discovers the saving power of writing and telling the tale about their struggles and sacrifices in hopes that their stories might help someone suffering somewhere else.

The Diary of Ann Frank and Ghost Rider are true stories about life and loss, but Great Expectations and Mister Pip are works of literary fiction. There are those who believe in storytelling as pure forms of entertainment and not educational. Matilda’s mother would have approved of her reading Ghost Rider or The Diary of Ann Frank because those stories actually occurred, but she would have no regard for fiction because it was “made up.” Dolores, Matilda’s mum, believes in only one book, the Bible. However the Bible is a story. It has real people and factual events but it is a story nonetheless. The same lessons can be extracted from the bible as can be taken from any novel. Pip never existed along with Matilda, but does that make the story and the message any less meaningful? If The Diary of Ann Frank was discovered to be farce and without truth, does it make the book worthless and irrelevant? Matilda will remember the name Pip long into her life and perhaps will never forget that name. Even though Matilda is a fictional character, hundreds of thousands of people have read Great Expectations and the novel has largely impacted many of their lives.

At the end of Mister Pip, Matilda finally realizes the awesome power of storytelling. She has survived the island and the redskins and has coped with the deaths of her beloved friend, Mr. Watts and her mother with the help of Mr. Dickens. She now must become a storyteller herself and become the voice that saved her from the island.  Mr. Watts said to Matilda “No one in history of your short lives has used the same voice as you with which to say your name…your special gift that no one can ever take from you. This is what our friend and colleague Mr. Dickens used to construct his stories with” (p. 124). Matilda realizes her connection with Charles Dickens. Matilda believes she is an orphan of sorts and relates to Pip is also an orphan who also is somewhat of a bio-character of Mr. Dickens. Mr. Dickens went through some tough times in his life and wrote a story about his endeavors through a novel that has touched thousands of lives including hers. Now she knows she must share her experience and tell her story to the world. Matilda will come full circle a storyteller. One who has listened to stories and one who can tell her own.

Matilda and Pip along with other literary characters taught people the fact that whether a story is true or completely designed and created is irrelevant and inconsequential to the message and the power it has over people. Imagination separates the human race from any other species on the planet. Stories have the power to inspire, to shelter, to free and to save. Just because the story was created doesn’t mean it wasn’t made real by the reader from the impact it had. Kyle Brofloski, a character from the animated sitcom, South Park, in an episode entitled Imagination land said this about the power of imagination; “ Hadn’t Luke Skywalker and Santa Claus affected your life’s more than most real people…they had more of an impact on the world than any of us. Same as bugs bunny and superman and Harry Potter. They’ve changed my life, changed the way I act on the earth. Doesn’t that make them real? They might be imaginary but, their more important than most of us here and they’re going to be around long after we’re dead. In a way those things are more realer than any of us” (South Park) Today’s culture has forgotten their voice as Matilda did.  If it is not remembered then the novel is dead.

  Works Cited

 

·      Jones, Lloyd. Mister Pip.  New York; The Dial Press, 2006.

·      “Conversational Reading.” The Novel Is Dead. 3 Aug. 2008. http://www.conversationalreading.com/2004/10/vs_naipaul_the_.html

·      Hadawy, Husain and Muhsin Mahdi. The Arabian Nights. New York; Norton, 1990.

·      Peart, Neil. Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road. Toronto; ECW Press, 2002.

·      Frank, Anne. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. New York; Doubleday, 1967.

·      “Imaginationland Episode III.” South Park.  Tray Parker and Matt Stone. Comedy Central. 31 Oct. 2007

In writing my paper, I found more too the book Mister Pip than I ever saw before. I took a quote from my paper. "Mister Pip is a book about what we can learn from books." There are many people who don't believe in stories and books and this country is slowly becoming illiterate. No one reads anymore, especially the classics such as Great Expectations. I believe Mister Pip is a must read because it is the story of Matilda and how when in a messed up world under messed up circumstances, she survived through a story, through a character that didn't exist Just as Shahrazad survived in Arabian Nights, But it did exist to her. It was at times more real that reality itself.

The power of literature is timeless and its relevance never ceases. people can read a book when they were young and not get into it that much and then revisit it again later in life and discover things they never saw before. A good analogy is a young child listening to a love song. They do not know what love is yet but they can appreciate the music. Its not until the experience love that that song has more relevance than they ever realized. 

Outline for Final Paper

I. Intro to stories and education

a. Stress is put on formal education 

b.  Literary Masterpieces are considered irrelevant

Thesis: Fiction may be more relevant and informative to someones life that academic material such as math or science

II. Self Identity

a. Great Expectations is about pip becomeing someone else and fogetting who he is.

b. Mister Pip is about Matilda finding out who she is through the character of Pip

c. Mister Pip is about about learning from other books

III. Connection Between Real and Imaginary

a. Dickens writes about being orphaned

b. matilda becomes, she things, an orphan

c. An imaginary character learns from a character created by a real person. who ever reads Mister Pip will learn too

IV. Representation

a. Matilda's mom represents those who don't believe in the art of storytelling

b. The bible is a story and the children learn from their parents through stories

c. why does a nonfiction story have any more power than a fiction story

V. Matilda learns to create

a. Matilda has survived through the power of being told stories and relating to characters.

b. Matilda will tell her own story and will find her voice.