Saturday, August 25, 2012

My Relationship to Great Expectations

Let's just say it hasn't been very good.
Once was doable, but two was just outrageous. Three is... inconceivable.
Let's start at the beginning. In eight grade, it was announced that our class would read Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. I guess I was pretty excited at the time, because I had enjoyed A Christmas Carol. It also was a classic story that is referenced a lot in culture, so, I am ashamed to admit that I was happy we were reading it. Now, I just want to burn copies of the book in a giant bonfire. Dickens was payed by the word, so his language is a bit excessive. I liked the idea of the plot, but once you get into the middle section, it just drags on and on and on. Also, there was the issue that there were 59 chapters, and all of them were so long! Maybe it seemed long because the writing went on forever, but ugh!
I thought I was done with it after I wrote an essay on the book.
I was wrong. Dead wrong.
In ninth grade, guess what we read? Great Expectations. It was a different school, so the curriculum was different as well. This time though, it took TWO WHOLE MONTHS to read. It's really only 500 pages long, so it only should have taken a month as a maximum, but it took forever. We also had to discuss the stuff that didn't happen in the chapters, because nothing really happens in the book, and it was just boring all over again. I probably could have written that book in about 20 chapters. Here's a short summary: Pip, poor guy, gets money, becomes a jerk, and looses all his money. There you go. That's the book.
Now, for tenth grade. Guess what I had to read for summer reading?? Yup. Great Expectations. I changed schools this year, so I had to read it again. AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!! Needless to say, I didn't read it. I'm glad I didn't either. It was just way too much. Hopefully Ms. Mcdermott will find a wan to make it interesting. So far she's been pretty cool.
So that's my relationship to a book that I just don't like. Hopefully, it's the last time that book will enter my life.

1 comment:

  1. Hahahahaha that legitimately sucks. Two months? That's ridiculous. It would be really entertaining (for me, not for you) if you had to read it in college or something.

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