Social commentary in "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens.

If we were to go back 150 years in history the technology, social norms, and vernacular language that people use would be drastically different than today. Charles Dickens brings us back to that world in his book "Great Expectations." The book tells the story of Phillip Pirrip, otherwise known as "Pip", and his rise from a humble apprentice blacksmith to a gentleman aided by a mysterious patron. The settings of this book range from a small village in england were Pip is brought up, to the big city of London. Aside from involving a plethora of different settings, this book contains characters of varying social status, and temperaments. The author comments on social norms profusely, devoting whole paragraphs to it. And one thing that I perceived was that, although this book takes place in 19th century england, people's misdirected attitudes towards certain things have not changed in the last few centuries.

For example, one area in which people's attitudes haven't changed is the way they view speaking to children. In the book, Pip's adult older sister is very mean to him. She complains about him to no end, saying that, "He was", referring to Pip, "A squeaker." She also speaks to him in a "Reproachful voice." In addition to his sister degrading him, other adults degrade Pip, saying that the young are, "Naturally ungrateful", since his sister brought him up and they perceive that he is ungrateful to his sister even though they're is no solid evidence of this. They speak of him in a degrading way without thinking about the consequence and without restraint, similar to the way many people speak to their children today. I'm sure that we've all heard a children being chewed out by their parents, while the child sits helplessly doing nothing. This reflects a lack of change in parenting, or child rearing. Parents still overreact and chew out their children and also degrade them in public. They also expect them to respect them while doing this. Children who obey parents like this, obey them out of fear, not respect. The author is using this scene to make social commentary on a system he probably took issue with as a child. He is trying to raise awareness about this issue by having examples of adults speaking normally to children in the book.

Another area in which the attitudes of the characters are similar to attitudes today, are people's attitudes regarding those of other social classes. In the book, Pip is invited to "entertain" Ms. Havisham, an older rich lady. Pip's older sister takes this commission very seriously and prior to Pip's going to Ms. Havisham's washes him very thoroughly and dresses him in his sunday best. Obviously she respects Ms. Havisham, because prior to sending Pip off to "entertain" her, she dresses Pip like she would dress him before sending him to church. We see a complete opposite example of this later on in the book when Estrella, a young rich girl who happens to be at Ms. Havisham's house when Pip is there, degrades him due to the fact that he is a, "Common working boy," and has calloused hands and thick boots. Today we see this in our society, were the word, "poor" is an insult. Dickens includes these scenes in the book to show the difference in how the poor view the rich and the rich view the poor. This is definitely an injustice, since both Estrella and Pip had no control over the way they had been brought up to that point and the class they were born into. To think yourself better than another disadvantaged child is ridiculous. Dickens comments on this by having this scene in the book, showing how this attitude is pervasive to even young children.

In conclusion, I would like to qualify that I am not saying that all have the same attitudes regarding how you should talk to children, and those of other social classes. However these are to some extent still the predominant attitudes for most of the general population. Also we live in America were people are relatively open-minded and not afraid to voice their newer opinions. These two attitudes that have remained unchanged are terrible. But no one is to say that they can't change eventually. After all, major institutions that have been in power for centuries that were in the wrong have been changed. However this is not a matter of changing laws, this is a matter of changing attitudes, something much more subtle and not as easy to do. In order to fix these problems, we need to make a concerted effort as people of this world,