Making Connections

  In Great Expecations there are a lot of themes, but one stands out to me. That is finding satisfaction and happiness with whatever you have. Pip never seems to be content with what he has at any particular moment, and so he is always is looking for something better. He wants to get out of the forge and move on to becoming a gentleman, and when he gets that, he wants to be with Estella. These ideas are similiar to the movie Annie. In Annie the orphan, Annie, isn't happy living under the "care" of Miss Hannigan (similiar to Mrs. Joe). She longs to meet her real parents or to be adopted and leave the orphange. Unfortunately her parents (like Pip's) are dead. Annie tries to be happy with what she has, but still isn't satisfied. It isn't unlike people to want more than we have, but is a message in both of these. I don't know what will happen to Pip in Great Expecations, but I know that in Annie everything works out for her and she is very happy.

  Also in Annie is the theme of pentinance/crime and punishment as in Great Expectations shown with the convicts. In Annie Miss Hannigan's brother, Rooster, and his girlfriend, Lily St. Regis, break the law and Rooster actually tries to kill Annie. They are caught and sent to jail, as are the convicts imprisoned on the "hulks"(prison boats). This is a message that people are constantly reminded of; newspapers, radio, television, internet all broadcast the idea of paying for commiting a crime, so it's not an original idea in either of these tales.

  These two stories are similiar in many ways (same sort of main character, similiar plot line, common themes) and so I am hoping that Great Expectations will have as happy of an ending as Annie has. Everything works out for Annie, so I hope that it will for Pip, too. I also hope that Pip's character will turn around and things will start to look up for him because he isn't being the same sort of lovable character as Annie is!



Miss Hannigan talking to Annie in the 1982 movie.
Not my own picture.