What up G? Welcome back to Thug Notes. This week we keepin it Victorian with
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
This book tells the story of Pip, a street kid who be shackin with his crooked
sister and her hubby Joe. One day while payin his respects at his parents’ grave, a cracked
out convict rolls up to him and demands some food and a nail file to escape his chains.
Pip helps a brotha out, but later sees that fool get got by the po-lice.
Later, an uppity cracker named Pumblechook arranges for Pip to kick it with
a rich broad named Miss Haversham and her adopted daughter Estella. Now Estella may
be fine, but she be actin a straight cock-tease to my boy Pip. Pip be thinkin that Miss Haversham
wanna prime him to get paid like a gentleman, but she shuts his ass down and tells him to
hustle as a blacksmith with his po Uncle Joe. Then one day some lawyer named
Jaggers tells Pip that he bout to get PAID and inherit a swoel fortune. So Pip kicks
Joe’s po ass to the curb and heads to London where he gonna learn to be a playa. Pip be
thinkin that Miss Haversham gave him all dat cash, so maybe she be preppin him to marry
Estella.
One night Pip be visited by some playa named Abel Magwitch, who turns out to
be dat convict from the graveyard. He tells Pip that it was him who gave Pip all dem stacks
of cash.
Now Pip be wiggin out that he ain’t bein primed to marry Estella, so he
rolls up to that ho Haversham’s crib and confesses his love for Estella. But that hood
rat shuts this stunna down.
Years later, Pip dun fu**ed up and ends up boned out. Uncle Joe does Pip one
last solid and pays off all his debt. Now Pip be feelin like a fool for dissin him all
them years ago. So Pip decide to stop frontin wit dem rich folk and keeps it real with the
boy who got his back. Then one day while peepin the old Haversham crib, Pip runs in to Estella
who be off the short lease of her ex-husband and Haversham, and decide she wanna be cool
with Pip. At the end of the book, Pip say he “saw no shadow of another parting from
her.”
Now one of the main things my boy Charlie D tryin to say up in here
is if you makin big ass assumptions about what the future holds, you sho as hell got
anotha thing coming homeboy. You can see this here disconnect between expectations and reality
in the character of Haversham. This broad always wearin an old crusty wedding dress
even though she ain’t married. It’s like she walkin around erry day showin that she
was expectin way more out of life than she actually got.
Likewise, Pip always expectin righteous things to happen like Miss H makin
him a gentleman and gettin freaky with that girl Estella. But this stunna is blind to
the peeps that actually got his back.
For example, when Pip finds out it was Abel that give him those stacks of cash
and not that hag Haversham, he gets all crunk cuz it ain’t what he expected. When on the
real, he should be geeked up that he got himself a sugar daddy.
Another theme up in here is that havin mad money corrupts yo mind
and yo social relations. Before Pip becomes a rich play boy, that gitty cat Pumblechook
be disrespectin him all the time. But after Pip makes bank, Pumblechook starts treatin
him like he da man.
Also, when my boy Pip gets dem fat pockets, he starts dissin Joe cuz he all po.
On page 197, Pip says He would even PAY to get Joe’s weak ass outta his face in spite
of the fact that on page 127, Pip straght up calls this stunna an angel. Mo money, Mo
problems blood.
Consider this sh** right here- conflicting values in this playa’s life
be told trough the images of stars and fire. That trick Estella’s name comes from a Latin
word that means star, whereas my man Joe be associated with da forge and fireplace. Mah
honkie Dickens links that hoe with stars cuz although stars may be pretty, they straight
up unreachable- just like Pip’s romantic expectations. But on the other hand, fire
is of the earth, and Dickens links Joe with fire to emphasize that down-home feeling of
a life in the hood without whack ass delusions.
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