Comparison Of The Parental Figures Of Laurie

Lee In ?Cider With Rosie? And Pips In ?Great Expectatio Essay, Research Paper

?Great Expectations? and

?Cider with Rosie? are two very different books as were Pip and Laurie Lee?s

childhood.? In this essay I will compare

their parental figures, how they treated them, and how this affected them. Laurie Lee?s mother is

obviously a very important figure in his life as she features heavily

throughout the book.? Laurie?s father,

however, features very briefly in the book as he was absent from most of

Laurie?s life.? When Laurie does write

about him he makes him out to be a really nasty person.? Whether this is true or Laurie has

embellished on the truth it is hard to say but I think that Laurie definitely

thought more of his mother than of his father, which is understandable under

the circumstances.? It is obvious who

Laurie blames for his dad leaving as he says of his mother: ?She was too honest

too natural for this frightened man?. The way in which Laurie?s

mother and father met was strange as well.?

Laurie?s father advertised for some help around the house simply

stating: ?widower (four children) seeks housekeeper? which was a very

impersonal advertisement and that?s all Laurie?s father wanted from his mother.

Laurie?s mother answered this advertisement and was accepted.? Later on they got married.? What I think Laurie?s father wanted from his

wife was a maid, someone that would tend to his needs and satisfy him but that

was very different from what she wanted from him.? She wanted love and affection from him and that was the one thing

he would or could not give her. Laurie?s mother had all her

life aspired to be upper class, which I think rather ruined her life as this

made her unhappy because she wanted to be someone whom she was not.? The reason that she was attracted to

Laurie?s father was because he struck her as rich, clever and exciting; maybe

someone who could make her an upper class person and not because he was a nice

person who would treat her well.? The

few years she spent with him were what she: ?fed on for the rest of her life?.

Which was a pretty miserable existence in my opinion.? The fact was that Laurie?s mother lived only because: ?through

all that time she had clung to the one fantasy that aged and broken, at last in

need he might one day return to her?. It was only Laurie?s mother?s

optimism, or perhaps her ability to see what she wanted to see and not the

truth, that kept her going, combined with the strong love she felt for her

children who were obviously the only good thing in her life for many

years.? I don?t think this is a very

good way to live but she seemed to be a very happy person.? Whether this was all pretence and deep down

she was in fact really depressed and sad or whether she was happy because you can

be if you live your life for a dream, until you are on your deathbed that is

hard to say.? However, I don?t think it

really matters if you are miserable on your deathbed as you are going to die

anyway so nothing matters then does it??

Perhaps she did have a good life but is was possibly fake happiness and

a false life that she led. Laurie?s mother loved very

deeply and with the whole of her heart.?

She loved her husband even though he had left her, and could never love

another man like she loved him ever again.?

Her love for all her children was equally as strong even for the ones

she was not blood related to.? Laurie

describes; ?her almost daily weeping for her dead child daughter?.? Her capacity to love had no limits and

lasted forever.?? Perhaps this was a bad

thing because when her love was not returned she could accept this and in turn

this could make her unhappy.? It would be easy to describe

Laurie?s mother as a bit of a scatter brain as she was a bit untidy and did not

handle money well but instead of using this against her Laurie loves her more

for it describing her as: ?muddled and mischievous as a chimney-jackdaw?.? When writing about his mother?s lifestyle he

says: ?she made her nest of rags and jewels, was happy in the sunlight,

squawked loudly at danger, pried and was insatiably curious?.? This is a very charming way to describe his

mother who like all human beings had some flaws.? Laurie?s mother was obviously very intelligent with; ?her stormy

temper, her superior wit, her unpredictable mental exercises?. Although Laurie?s mother had

an outwardly happy life, as her death became closer she became withdrawn and

unhappy.? This was because her estranged

husband had died.? About his mother

Laurie says:?? ?she spoke to shades saw

visions, and then she died?, this began to happen after Laurie?s father had

died.? Laurie blames her death on the

long separation from his father saying: ?it was the coldness of this that

killed her?. As I have said before Laurie?s

father only features lightly in the book.?

This itself says something about his relationship with his father as

from this you can gather that Laurie?s father was so unimportant to him that he

was barely worth mentioning.? The only

reason he was mentioned was because he made his mother so unhappy which I think

is the main reason that Laurie dislikes him.?

Laurie describes his father as: ?a rather priggish young man?.? In a sense I think that Laurie?s father

overwhelmed his future wife so much that she could not think rationally and

could not help falling in love with him. I think that Laurie hated his

father although he did not say this outright.?

The chapter in which Laurie’? father features most in was in the chapter

about his mother which shows that it was only because Laurie?s father meant a

lot to his mother that Laurie spoke of him at all.? Laurie writes about his father as someone who his mother loved

and not as his father.? Laurie?s

description of his father is as brief as possible and there is no warmth or

emotion in his words. Laurie describes what his father has as: ?devout

gentility, his airs and manners, bright talk, and undeniable good looks?.? Laurie does not elaborate on this at all and

does not use his normal rich sense of describing people to portray his

father.? Pip?s life is very different

to what Laurie?s rather idealistic childhood was.? Pip was an orphan and so lived with his much older sister and her

husband Joe.? Pip never had a big loving

family who spoilt him.?? He had just Joe

and Mrs Joe his sister.? Even from the

way that Pip had to call his sister Mrs Joe shows that there was no real bond

or connection between them. To have such a formal relationship between the only

close relative you have is hard to imagine. ?Mrs Joe? is a make believe

character and Charles Dickens has really let his imagination run wild.? ?Mrs Joe always had the ?tickler? with

her.? This was: ?a waxed-ended piece of

cane, worn smooth by collision with my tickled frame.? Mrs Joe was obviously the ?boss? of the family you can tell that

Pip looked upon her as this as he says: ?the guilty knowledge that I was going

to rob Mrs Joe? not Joe even though he rightly owned half of what Pip was going

to steal. Joe was more a friend to Pip

than he was a father figure.? Both of

them were rather under the thumb of Mrs Joe and this brought them closer

together.? Each of them looked after

each other as they were both ?brought up by hand? by Mrs Joe.? Pip describes Joe as: ?a Hercules in

strength, as well as in weakness?. By this I think he is trying to say that Joe

was a bit of a gentle giant.? Physically

Joe was very strong yet mentally he was too weak to stand up for himself

against Mrs Joe. As Pip had no real parents

this made him more susceptible to believing in fairy godmothers.? This is what he thought he had found in the

shape of Miss Havisham who was in fact a bitter and twisted old woman, who

simply wanted to get revenge on the male species as her fiancee had left her at

the altar.? Pip was naПve enough to

believe that Miss Havisham wanted him to marry Estella when really she was

setting him up so that he would fall in love with Estella and then she would

break his heart.? At one time he said

that he thought Miss Havisham said; ?break his heart? to Estella. Pip was not the only one that

was a victim to Miss Havisham?s cruel intentions Estella was too.? Estella was taught not to love men, they

were simply toys to be played with.? Her

toy was Pip: ?a simple labouring boy? and it was clear from the start that

Estella enjoyed playing with him after making Pip cry he said ?the moment they

sprang there the girl looked at me with quick delight in having been the cause

of them?.? Miss Havisham brought her up

so that her heart would be made of stone and did not teach her the importance

of love.? Estella was led to believe

that all men would break your heart the first chance that they got.? Pip?s real fairy godmother was

in fact an escaped convict that he had helped many years before.? This convict was the secret benefactor to

Pip and on discovering this Pip was outraged.?

For a long time Miss Havisham had hinted to him that she was his secret

benefactor. Pip had assumed that Miss Havisham had made him a gentleman so that

he was worthy enough to marry Estella, this was untrue yet Miss Havisham had

simply strung him along the whole time instead of setting him straight like she

should have.? Pip had become a snob now

and to find out that it was just some ?common? convict that had made him who he

was made him feel ?lower class? again, and not the gentleman he thought he was. There are a few similarities

between Laurie?s mother and Pip as both had a strong desire to be upper class

and each wanted the love of someone that did not love them.?? In Pips case this was Estella and in

Laurie?s mothers case this was her husband who she was separated from both

their loved ones were upper classes and not very nice people.?? I think that they wanted to be upper class

because both of them had seen how the upper classes lived.? Laurie?s mother had worked as a maid for a

rich family and Pip had visited Miss Havisham regularly. Both Pip and Laurie Lee had

what some people would call a dysfunctional family.? Pip had no parents as they were both dead and Laurie had no

father figure whatsoever each had one parental figure that loved them Laurie

had his mother and Pip had Joe.?

Although whether Pip looked upon Joe as a father figure or as a friend

it is hard to say.? Both of them came

from families that struggled a bit with money, although Laurie seemed to have a

lot more than Pip ever did even though Pip came from a bigger family. However I

think they are the only similarities between Pip?s and Laurie?s family figures

as Laurie had a more stable relationship with his mother than Pip did with Mrs

Joe and never wanted for anything, but Pip was treated really badly and never

felt that he was really loved.