Theme Of The Novel Great Expectations Novels & Stories

Wednesday. It was finally time to submit my book report on Great Expectations. As I handed in my five-paged report to Ms. Borja, I breathed a sigh of relief. I went through a lot to finish my report, struggling with a roller coaster of emotions and several all too familiar parallelisms along the way, but I overcame everything and came up with a report that I was proud of. Though it was somehow bittersweet that it was over, I knew that I would always remember the life and love lessons from Great Expectations.

She sighed, her voice tinged with thinly veiled frustration. Dylan, the nerd, straightened his shoulders and coughed slightly. "The central theme of 'The Great Gatsby' is the corruption of the American Dream," he said, his deep voice grating on Lila's already frazzled nerves. "Fitzgerald's critique of the decadence and moral decay of the Jazz Age elite serves as a scathing indictment of the pursuit of wealth and status at the expense of human decency." Dylan's lips twisted into a smug smirk, his chest heaving with pride at having delivered the textbook answer with robotic accuracy. Lila resisted the need to roll her eyes, her fingers twitching with the desire to launch a caustic retort.

Find the pages I annotated last night with marginalia that made sense at midnight and look slightly less coherent now. "Standard themes," I say, keeping my voice level. "Jazz Age excess. Class mobility. The corruption of the American Dream." "Reinvention." He says it without looking up. Then he does look up. Pencil balanced between his fingers. "That is what the novel is actually about. You can dress yourself in money. Throw parties. Surround yourself with every right thing. None of it changes what you are running from." The words land somewhere specific. I look down at my open book and wait for the feeling to pass.