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Now and Then

In the book, //Great Expectations//, there are many themes which correlate with today's world. Things that they struggled with back then are also things that some people still struggle with today. The theme of social classes is a great example.

One of the many themes in this book, //Great Expecations//, is having great expecations. One of his first expectations began when he was 9, he was astonished at how massive and elaborate the house was. When he rings the bell a young beautiful girl namaed Estella greets him. He is wowed by how beautiful she is and is convinced that he wants to be in a higher social class for this girl. When he reaches about 17 years old he has it in his mind that Miss Havisham wants him to marry Estella. When in turn she does not; she doesn't because she wants to break his heart, out of revenge. This theme is probably the most important to the story because it foreshadows the events for the book. This is kind of like in our world today where people are always having their hopes to high and not being able to reach them.

As Pip is exposed to wealth and power, he slowly gets his mind set on reaching it. He is not worried about others of how he will get to be that wealthy; all he is conserned about is what he wants to do. This is similar to our world becase we have people that care more about how they will get richer than how other people will break even. It is also known as greed and, in my opinion, is one of the top causes for people beign paid so little if at all. This sense of self improvement so to speak makes people less knowledgeable of other affairs or problems.

Social classes were a very important part of the world's economy during the time frame of this book. There has always been a wide line of division between being wealthy and being poor. In this novel the author makes it perfectly clear that the socal classes were a very improtant part of daily life back then. This separation of classes makes life hard for those who want to be in a higher class than what they were born into. Such as Pip, when he meets Estella he wants to be with her so bad, but can't because of his social class. This is similar to today because if seems that the rich, get richer and the poor, get poorer; and the gap widens. This causes jobs to be increasingly hard to get and even harder to maintain because there is always someone to work cheaper, even if it means lower quality.

The themes in this book are very much like the daily aspects of life today. There are always peole expecting too much. Some people are more worried about the new car or truck rather than the poor people who won't have food tonight. Mr. Dickens greatly illistrates the use of social classes in daily life back then.