29 March 2018: "She's beautiful and unattainable and empty." --a student in my ENGL 311 class on Estella in Great Expectations, in response to my question about what it is that makes Pip love her. This was such a concise and smart answer. The class has done a terrific job with this book so far, including the complicated character that is Pip.
This re-read has me focused mostly on the "adult Pip" looks back on "young Pip" and "young adult Pip." His voice isn't the voice of someone who has made peace with his past or gotten "past it," whatever that means. He is so hard on himself and the very process of telling these stories and relating his earlier self's thoughts is painful. That adds a layer of pain that largely escaped me on earlier readings. Maybe that's a reflection of my current self looking back on the 40 years behind me and surveying how much peace I had made with earlier selves. I think (hope?) that I am somewhere beyond "adult Pip," but maybe not completely.
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