A comparison between the openings of Great Expectations and Kestrel for a knave

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A comparison between the openings of

Great Expectations and Kestrel for a knave

We have been analysing two stories, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines. There is a tremendous contrast between them in the way that the main character is portrayed to create sympathy.

Plot

In Great expectations the opening chapter is a particular day when something very specific and important happens to Pip. This sets off the whole plot of the story. The convict, Abel Magwitch is portrayed as very petrifying in the opening scene but he is renowned to be the person who funded Pip's rise later in the story. From the opening chapter of Kestrel for a Knave the story is a day exactly like any other in the life of Billy. This evolves into the plot when other events take place that don't happen everyday.

Setting

Great Expectations is set in the countryside on a cold and bleak November afternoon. The opening chapter is set in a mysterious, damp and eerie graveyard with marshy surroundings. Dickens describes this as a 'bleak place overgrown with nettles' and the surroundings are described as a 'dark flat wilderness'. This description of Pip's surroundings creates a lot of sympathy for him, as a young boy of his age should not be wondering around graveyards. Having the graveyard as a setting also establishes the fact that Pip is an orphan as all his family are dead thus creating more sympathy. Quotations like 'As I never saw my mother or father' outline this. Kestrel for a knave is set in an urban area in a drab, cold council house bedroom. The setting is probably in the North as some of the language indicates this-'go on, thar up' and 'switch t'light out then' Hines pays attention to detail, which outlines the fact that Billy is poverty-stricken.' Inside the bedroom the darkness was of a gritty texture'.

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Characters

Pip is an innocent, young orphan. In the first chapter he encounters Abel Magwitch which was a horrific experience that stays with him for life. Abel Magwitch is an escaped convict that Dickens describes as 'a fearful man' and 'a man with no hat, and with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied round his head'. From this description the reader can verify that this character is bad. This makes Pip seem very vulnerable and insecure. Pips conflict with this old, disreputable terrifying character creates a good Vs evil situation that makes the audience take ...

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