Lee In ?Cider With Rosie? And Pips In ?Great Expectatio Essay, Research Paper
?Great Expectations? and
?Cider with Rosie? are two very different books as were Pip and Laurie Lee?s
childhood.? In this essay I will compare
their parental figures, how they treated them, and how this affected them. Laurie Lee?s mother is
obviously a very important figure in his life as she features heavily
throughout the book.? Laurie?s father,
however, features very briefly in the book as he was absent from most of
Laurie?s life.? When Laurie does write
about him he makes him out to be a really nasty person.? Whether this is true or Laurie has
embellished on the truth it is hard to say but I think that Laurie definitely
thought more of his mother than of his father, which is understandable under
the circumstances.? It is obvious who
Laurie blames for his dad leaving as he says of his mother: ?She was too honest
too natural for this frightened man?. The way in which Laurie?s
mother and father met was strange as well.?
Laurie?s father advertised for some help around the house simply
stating: ?widower (four children) seeks housekeeper? which was a very
impersonal advertisement and that?s all Laurie?s father wanted from his mother.
Laurie?s mother answered this advertisement and was accepted.? Later on they got married.? What I think Laurie?s father wanted from his
wife was a maid, someone that would tend to his needs and satisfy him but that
was very different from what she wanted from him.? She wanted love and affection from him and that was the one thing
he would or could not give her. Laurie?s mother had all her
life aspired to be upper class, which I think rather ruined her life as this
made her unhappy because she wanted to be someone whom she was not.? The reason that she was attracted to
Laurie?s father was because he struck her as rich, clever and exciting; maybe
someone who could make her an upper class person and not because he was a nice
person who would treat her well.? The
few years she spent with him were what she: ?fed on for the rest of her life?.
Which was a pretty miserable existence in my opinion.? The fact was that Laurie?s mother lived only because: ?through
all that time she had clung to the one fantasy that aged and broken, at last in
need he might one day return to her?. It was only Laurie?s mother?s
optimism, or perhaps her ability to see what she wanted to see and not the
truth, that kept her going, combined with the strong love she felt for her
children who were obviously the only good thing in her life for many
years.? I don?t think this is a very
good way to live but she seemed to be a very happy person.? Whether this was all pretence and deep down
she was in fact really depressed and sad or whether she was happy because you can
be if you live your life for a dream, until you are on your deathbed that is
hard to say.? However, I don?t think it
really matters if you are miserable on your deathbed as you are going to die
anyway so nothing matters then does it??
Perhaps she did have a good life but is was possibly fake happiness and
a false life that she led. Laurie?s mother loved very
deeply and with the whole of her heart.?
She loved her husband even though he had left her, and could never love
another man like she loved him ever again.?
Her love for all her children was equally as strong even for the ones
she was not blood related to.? Laurie
describes; ?her almost daily weeping for her dead child daughter?.? Her capacity to love had no limits and
lasted forever.?? Perhaps this was a bad
thing because when her love was not returned she could accept this and in turn
this could make her unhappy.? It would be easy to describe
Laurie?s mother as a bit of a scatter brain as she was a bit untidy and did not
handle money well but instead of using this against her Laurie loves her more
for it describing her as: ?muddled and mischievous as a chimney-jackdaw?.? When writing about his mother?s lifestyle he
says: ?she made her nest of rags and jewels, was happy in the sunlight,
squawked loudly at danger, pried and was insatiably curious?.? This is a very charming way to describe his
mother who like all human beings had some flaws.? Laurie?s mother was obviously very intelligent with; ?her stormy
temper, her superior wit, her unpredictable mental exercises?. Although Laurie?s mother had
an outwardly happy life, as her death became closer she became withdrawn and
unhappy.? This was because her estranged
husband had died.? About his mother
Laurie says:?? ?she spoke to shades saw
visions, and then she died?, this began to happen after Laurie?s father had
died.? Laurie blames her death on the
long separation from his father saying: ?it was the coldness of this that
killed her?. As I have said before Laurie?s
father only features lightly in the book.?
This itself says something about his relationship with his father as
from this you can gather that Laurie?s father was so unimportant to him that he
was barely worth mentioning.? The only
reason he was mentioned was because he made his mother so unhappy which I think
is the main reason that Laurie dislikes him.?
Laurie describes his father as: ?a rather priggish young man?.? In a sense I think that Laurie?s father
overwhelmed his future wife so much that she could not think rationally and
could not help falling in love with him. I think that Laurie hated his
father although he did not say this outright.?
The chapter in which Laurie’? father features most in was in the chapter
about his mother which shows that it was only because Laurie?s father meant a
lot to his mother that Laurie spoke of him at all.? Laurie writes about his father as someone who his mother loved
and not as his father.? Laurie?s
description of his father is as brief as possible and there is no warmth or
emotion in his words. Laurie describes what his father has as: ?devout
gentility, his airs and manners, bright talk, and undeniable good looks?.? Laurie does not elaborate on this at all and
does not use his normal rich sense of describing people to portray his
father.? Pip?s life is very different
to what Laurie?s rather idealistic childhood was.? Pip was an orphan and so lived with his much older sister and her
husband Joe.? Pip never had a big loving
family who spoilt him.?? He had just Joe
and Mrs Joe his sister.? Even from the
way that Pip had to call his sister Mrs Joe shows that there was no real bond
or connection between them. To have such a formal relationship between the only
close relative you have is hard to imagine. ?Mrs Joe? is a make believe
character and Charles Dickens has really let his imagination run wild.? ?Mrs Joe always had the ?tickler? with
her.? This was: ?a waxed-ended piece of
cane, worn smooth by collision with my tickled frame.? Mrs Joe was obviously the ?boss? of the family you can tell that
Pip looked upon her as this as he says: ?the guilty knowledge that I was going
to rob Mrs Joe? not Joe even though he rightly owned half of what Pip was going
to steal. Joe was more a friend to Pip
than he was a father figure.? Both of
them were rather under the thumb of Mrs Joe and this brought them closer
together.? Each of them looked after
each other as they were both ?brought up by hand? by Mrs Joe.? Pip describes Joe as: ?a Hercules in
strength, as well as in weakness?. By this I think he is trying to say that Joe
was a bit of a gentle giant.? Physically
Joe was very strong yet mentally he was too weak to stand up for himself
against Mrs Joe. As Pip had no real parents
this made him more susceptible to believing in fairy godmothers.? This is what he thought he had found in the
shape of Miss Havisham who was in fact a bitter and twisted old woman, who
simply wanted to get revenge on the male species as her fiancee had left her at
the altar.? Pip was naÏve enough to
believe that Miss Havisham wanted him to marry Estella when really she was
setting him up so that he would fall in love with Estella and then she would
break his heart.? At one time he said
that he thought Miss Havisham said; ?break his heart? to Estella. Pip was not the only one that
was a victim to Miss Havisham?s cruel intentions Estella was too.? Estella was taught not to love men, they
were simply toys to be played with.? Her
toy was Pip: ?a simple labouring boy? and it was clear from the start that
Estella enjoyed playing with him after making Pip cry he said ?the moment they
sprang there the girl looked at me with quick delight in having been the cause
of them?.? Miss Havisham brought her up
so that her heart would be made of stone and did not teach her the importance
of love.? Estella was led to believe
that all men would break your heart the first chance that they got.? Pip?s real fairy godmother was
in fact an escaped convict that he had helped many years before.? This convict was the secret benefactor to
Pip and on discovering this Pip was outraged.?
For a long time Miss Havisham had hinted to him that she was his secret
benefactor. Pip had assumed that Miss Havisham had made him a gentleman so that
he was worthy enough to marry Estella, this was untrue yet Miss Havisham had
simply strung him along the whole time instead of setting him straight like she
should have.? Pip had become a snob now
and to find out that it was just some ?common? convict that had made him who he
was made him feel ?lower class? again, and not the gentleman he thought he was. There are a few similarities
between Laurie?s mother and Pip as both had a strong desire to be upper class
and each wanted the love of someone that did not love them.?? In Pips case this was Estella and in
Laurie?s mothers case this was her husband who she was separated from both
their loved ones were upper classes and not very nice people.?? I think that they wanted to be upper class
because both of them had seen how the upper classes lived.? Laurie?s mother had worked as a maid for a
rich family and Pip had visited Miss Havisham regularly. Both Pip and Laurie Lee had
what some people would call a dysfunctional family.? Pip had no parents as they were both dead and Laurie had no
father figure whatsoever each had one parental figure that loved them Laurie
had his mother and Pip had Joe.?
Although whether Pip looked upon Joe as a father figure or as a friend
it is hard to say.? Both of them came
from families that struggled a bit with money, although Laurie seemed to have a
lot more than Pip ever did even though Pip came from a bigger family. However I
think they are the only similarities between Pip?s and Laurie?s family figures
as Laurie had a more stable relationship with his mother than Pip did with Mrs
Joe and never wanted for anything, but Pip was treated really badly and never
felt that he was really loved.