Dicken's Question

1. Read this quote:
"What is it that makes you want to write songs? In a way you want to stretch yourself into other people's hearts. You want to plant yourself there, or at least get a resonance, where other people become a bigger instrument than the one you're playing. It becomes almost an obsession to touch other people. To write a song that is remembered and taken to heart is a connection, a touching of bases. A thread that runs through all of us. A stab to the heart. Sometimes I think songwriting is about tightening the heartstrings as much as possible without bringing on a heart attack." -Keith Richards
2. Answer this question in a post to your blog: 
What is it that made Charles Dickens write the novel you're reading? What in your analysis of literary techniques led you to this conclusion? (Make sure to include textual support illustrating Dickens' use of at least three techniques.)


-- I am glad we did an analysis of Dickens' life before we started reading our novels. This made it easier for me to understand his motives for writing and motivated me to get through the (for lack of better words) boring parts of the book. 


I believe people write songs to express themselves in a way that they otherwise couldn't in colloquial conversation. Songs are a lot like books in the sense that they are unique and each one has a different message. The author of songs are similar to the author of books because they both share a common goal: Causing a "stab to the heart.... to tighten the heartstrings as much as possible without bringing on a heart attack." Some classic songs will always be remembered, for example, Stairway to Heaven; everyone knows that song and it is referenced to all the time. The same literary techniques are applied to classic books such as Hamlet, or the Great Gatsby.


After doing some further research, I came to find that Dickens was going through a rough time when he wrote Great Expectations. One of Dickens' strongest points as a writer was his use of literary techniques to convey his story in a more creative way. Just like in a song, Dickens created a character with a problem and developed him through use of tone, mood, syntax/diction, and irony. Dickens develops Pip as a character throughout the novel, from an orphan to a gentleman. "It is considered that you must be better educated, in accordance with your altered position, and that you will be alive to the importance and necessity of at once entering on that advantage." To me, his development of learning was subliminal, and I didn't notice it until I looked back. He had learned from Biddy, through Joe,  and Miss Havisham.