Dickens's View of Children Exposed in David Copperfield and Great Expectations
Of all Dickens' works, David Copperfield and Great Expectations are considered to be his most autobiographical. Philip Collins writes, "Great Expectations, indeed, though overtly less autobiographical than David Copperfield, is a more searching and self-critical account of Dickens' own inner impulses" (178). It is also true that both of these novels have children as main characters. Dickens had a real talent for creating child characters in his works. In some cases, Dickens' own life history is so closely linked with his fiction, that in order to understand Dickens' interest in the child character, it is critical to be familiar with the major events of his life, as well as how he viewed childhood in general.
Charles Dickens was born February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, to middle class parents. He was the second child, and the first son, of eight children. His father, John Dickens, was an Admiralty clerk. He made a reasonable amount of money but was poor in handling his financial endeavors. In 1824, when the family plunged into debt, John was sent to debtors' prison at Marshalsea Prison. Charles, at age twelve, was sent to a Warren's Blacking House, to manufacture shoe polish. In The Man Charles Dickens, Edward Wagenknect looks at how Charles' experience with the blacking house had a deep impact on him:
Charles seems to have been at this time, abnormally sensitive with some dim prescience of what was in store for him, and he suffered terribly, not only from his uncomfortable surroundings, but even more from the consciousness that he was getting no opportunity to develop his capacities and -...
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...t drawn to portraying children beset by suffering and evil" (117). Dickens also created these characters to testify to the mistreatment of children in Victorian society. Due to his success as an author, Dickens, in many ways, successfully took up the plight of children by creating characters that dew attention and sympathy from his readers. In his works he gave children a voice that they desperately needed, yet never had before.
Works Cited
Andrews, Malcolm. Dickens and the Grown-up Child. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 1994.
Collins, Philip. Dickens and Education. New York: St. Martin's P, 1964.
Rawlins, Jack P. "Great Expectations: Dickens and the Betrayal of the Child." Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. 23 (1983): 667-683.
Tomlin, R.W.F., ed. Charles Dickens 1812-1870. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1969.
The major focus of the book focuses on reconstruction of the events this group of men participated in. According to Browning, the men of Police Battalion 101 were just that—ordinary. They were five hundred middle-aged, working-class men of German descent. A majority of these men were neither Nazi party members nor members of the S.S. They were also from Hamburg, which was a town that was one of the least occupied Nazi areas of Germany and, thus, were not as exposed to the Nazi regime. These men were not self-selected to be part of the order police, nor were they specially selected because of violent characteristics. These men were plucked from their normal lives, put into squads, and given the mission to kill Jews because they were the only people available for the task. “Even in the face of death the Jewish mothers did not separate from their children. Thus we tolerated the mothers taking their children to the ma...
Charles Dickens born February 7th 1812 – 9th June 1870 is a highly remarkable novelist who had a vision to change wealthy people’s scrutiny on the underprivileged and by fulfilling the dream he writes novels. Furthermore, I think that Dickens wrote about poverty as he had experiences this awful incident in his upbringings.
The men of Reserve Police Battalion 101 were just ordinary men, from a variety of backgrounds, education, and age. It would appear that they were not selected by any force other than random chance. Their backgrounds and upbringing, however, did little to prepare these men for the horrors they were to witness and participate in.
Christopher Browning, a professor of history at Pacific Lutheran University, wrote a book focusing on the Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland and named it Ordinary Men. Browning states the historical problems he hopes to solve with his book "the fundamental problem is to explain why ordinary men- shaped by a culture that had its own particularities but was nonetheless within the mainstream of western, Christian, and Enlightenment traditions - under specific circumstances willingly carried out the most extreme genocide in human history". Browning starts out with the approach of recognizing the background and organization of the Reserve Police Battalion 101. This gives the reader to allow time to build up knowledge without making any biased decision just yet to answer the problem given. The author then focuses on the development of brutality amongst the departments of the Order Police and provides the aftermath of the war and to what he believes to be the answer to the historical problem.
Browning, Christopher R. Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. New York: HarperPerennial, 1998.
Unfortunately, the life-saving potential of transplantation is limited by the shortage of organs available for donation. In general, several suitable organs from deceased individuals are not harvested for donation (for reasons that will be discussed later) and this largely contributes to the shortage1. In 1968, the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act gave individuals the right to donate organs and tissue in the United States1. Donors can either be living or deceased. Living donors are individuals who choose to donate portions of vital organs or a single kidney. Their donations can be directed to a specific recipient or can be an indirect altruistic donation; however, altruistic donations are very rare. Majority of donations come from deceased donors2. Deceased donors are individuals who have been medically declared dead, and who have previously registered as organ donors or whose legal representatives (usually their family members) have authorized organ donation on their behalf. One deceased donor can make up to eight donations from different organs, and therefore, can save up to eight lives4. Candidates for donation are chosen based on their blood-type (it must match the donated organ) and their medical need for a donation (the most critically ill patients are more likely to receive donations). The organs that are currently approved for transplantation are the kidney, heart, lung, and liver. Although living donations are a significant proportion of donations in the United States, this paper will focus on increasing the number of deceased
Charles Dickens utilizes his life for inspiration for the protagonist Pip in his novel Great Expectations. They both struggle with their social standing. Dickens loved plays and theatre and therefore incorporated them into Pip’s life. Dickens died happy in the middle class and Pip died happy in the middle class. The connection Dickens makes with his life to Pip’s life is undeniable. If readers understand Dickens and his upbringing then readers can understand how and why he created Pip’s upbringing. Charles Dickens’ life, full of highs and lows, mirrors that of Pip’s life. Their lives began the same and ended the same. To understand the difficulty of Dickens’ childhood is to understand why his writing focuses on the English social structure. Dickens’ life revolved around social standing. He was born in the lower class but wasn’t miserable. After his father fell into tremendous debt he was forced into work at a young age. He had to work his way to a higher social standing. Because of Dicken’s constant fighting of class the English social structure is buried beneath the surface in nearly all of his writings. In Great Expectations Pip’s life mirrors Dickens’ in the start of low class and the rise to a comfortable life. Fortunately for Dickens, he does not fall again as Pip does. However, Pip and Dickens both end up in a stable social standing.
The up-to-date medical advancement has come a long way, including making it possible for donating one’s major organs, blood, and tissues to desperate individuals needing them to sustain life. Organ donation still has problems even with the modern technology and breakthroughs. The majority of individuals need to comprehend to have a successful organ transplant it is essential to have active individuals that are willing to donate their organs. Typically, most individuals or family that consent to donate their precious organ 's desire life to continue. Their intentions are when one life is gone there is hope for another life to continue. Health care is experiencing a shortage in organ donation and the people that desperately need these organs
“Charles Dickens: Great Expectations.” (2 Feb, 2006): 2. Online. World Wide Web. 2 Feb, 2006. Available http://www.uned.es/dpto-filologias-extranjeras/cursos/LenguaIglesaIII/TextosYComentarios/dickens.htm.
Charles Dickens is well known for his distinctive writing style. Few authors before or since are as adept at bringing a character to life for the reader as he was. His novels are populated with characters who seem real to his readers, perhaps even reminding them of someone they know. What readers may not know, however, is that Dickens often based some of his most famous characters, those both beloved or reviled, on people in his own life. It is possible to see the important people, places, and events of Dickens' life thinly disguised in his fiction. Stylistically, evidence of this can be seen in Great Expectations. For instance, semblances of his mother, father, past loves, and even Dickens himself are visible in the novel. However, Dickens' past influenced not only character and plot devices in Great Expectations, but also the very syntax he used to create his fiction. Parallels can be seen between his musings on his personal life and his portrayal of people and places in Great Expectations.
Today, more than 120,000 patients in America are on the waiting list to receive a vital organ that would save their lives. Another name is added every twelve minutes. Far under this number is the number of donors willing to sign a donor card and donate their organs after their death. Only around twenty eight thousand of these transplants are filled every year; the others are still waiting and most are not too fortunate. As the number of waiting lists patients goes up, many people find that signing the organ donation card will bring them no real cost and is a noble deed, but the need for organ donors in America is increasing daily and doctors know that, which, is often an issue. Organ donation is a dominating controversial topic, many think it should be required to donate organs after death in America, however, there are opposing arguments that present a real case against it.
During his childhood, Charles Dickens suffered much abuse from his parents.1 This abuse is often expressed in his novels. Pip, in Great Expectations, talked often about the abuse he received at the hands of his sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery. On one occasion he remarked, "I soon found myself getting heavily bumped from behind in the nape of the neck and the small of the back, and having my face ignominously shoved against the wall, because I did not answer those questions at sufficient length."2
Light is travel to Earth from other galaxies. As the light from that galaxy gets closer to Earth, the distance between Earth and the galaxy increases, which causes the wavelength of that light to get longer. This is similar to the effect of sound waves, which also happens with light waves. It also happens in daily life as an ambulance approaches near us, the siren pitch seems to increase, and as it moves away from us, the siren pitch decreases. If everything in the universe is moving apart from everything else, then those light waves should move further apart and get longer. Longer wavelengths are seemed as red, and that’s why it is called the red shift. This redshift of light gives scientists information on the speed and direction that a star is moving. This tells scientists that stars are not only moving away from us, but they are also moving away from each other. If the universe is currently growing, then the universe was smaller in the past. There must have been some point in time when the universe was half its current size. The further away a galaxy is, the more its light is red-shifted.
13.8 Billion years ago, long before the creation of the popular television show, The Big Bang Theory occurred and is now the most widely recognized cosmological model for the universe. The Big Bang theory is an attempt to explain how the universe we know today began. Over the years, numerous discoveries and research have revealed that our universe did have a beginning, and that there was nothing before the Big Bang occurred. Throughout history there have been other theories as to how our universe began, though the Big Bang still prevails. One of the most exciting parts about the universe is a vast and fascinating place and there are even new discoveries still being made today. The Big Bang theory is widely regarded as the most likely scenario
Presently, the Big Bang theory is the most logical scientific explanation of how the universe began. The majority of cosmologists favor the Big Bang theory and the idea that the expanding universe had an initial, incredibly hot and dense start (Peterson 232). According to the Big Bang theory, at one point in time, more than 12 billion years ago, matter was condensed in a single place, and a huge explosion scattered matter out is all directions (“Big Bang Theory” 403). At the moment of its origin, the universe was infinitely dense and hot, but as the expansion occurred, the universe cooled and became less dense (Narlikar 12). The debris the spewed from the initial explosion became the building blocks of matter, forming the planets, stars, and galaxies (Narlikar 12). Officially, the Big Bang model is called the standard cosmological model (SCH), and it has been the most widely accepted theory of the origin of the universe since the 1960s (Rich and Stingl 1). Most astronomers are in agreement that the universe’s beginning can be traced back to 10 to 15 billion years ago following some type of explosive start (Narlikar 12). Big Bang theorists have estimated the actual bang occurred 13.7 billion years ago and was followed by an inflationary period that created time, matter, and space (Rich and Stingl 1).