Wednesday, November 11, 2009

David Copperfield, Pt 1

Sorry I didn't get this new thread up sooner, but it looks like you guys didn't post anyway. Hope you're reading.

21 comments:

  1. O.o Wow, did David's mom realize what type of man Mr. Murdstone was before marrying him? When she first started seeing him she seemed pretty happy. I took this from her singing and smiling after being around Mr. Murdstone. Sooo I'm not feeling like she didn't. :(

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  2. I know what you mean. If I was David, I would have bit him too.

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  3. Poor David. Now he's lost everything, even his name. :( At least he was able to finally break the ties he had with the Murdstones. How old is he now? About 8 or 9?

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  4. yeah i think thats right. He was around 9 years old

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  5. MORE new characters! It is really difficult to keep track, and we're only a third through. What's going on with Aunt Betsy and her mysterious visitor?

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  6. Nobody's found anything interesting to say about this week's reading??

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  7. It seems like every week David is in love with someone new. lol Poor guy. I love how the Micawbers showed up...again. It's really strange how everywhere David goes he meets someone from his past.

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  8. I find that interesting too. I'm pretty sure it's like a premonition or something like that. Just like Aunt Betsy's strange visitor. I don't know maybe it's David's true love, haha

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  9. Well sratch that last idea, I think that the mysterious visitor is David'd dad

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  10. It's possible. :) Ok, so who is Mr. Barkis?! I seriously can't remember. lol :/

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  11. Mr. Barkis is Pegotty's husband, the carriage driver who was "willing".

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  12. I'd like you guys to choose two characters to compare and contrast. Describe each character thoroughly, including a few examples from the text that shed light on their personalities. Explain why you think Dickens included them in the story. What roll do they play in the building of David's character? What do they contribute to the story and to the major themes of the story that we have already discussed?

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  13. Agnes is a very sensible and wise young woman. She is kind and always comforts David; she has a self-sacrificing nature. When David had no idea how to visit Dora because she refused to see him, Agnes told David to write to Dora’s aunts. This ended up working and Dora began seeing him again. Even though Agnes secretly loves David, she makes sacrifices for him because she knows how deeply he feels for Dora. I think Agnes was included in the story to lift David back up and to always point him in the right direction. Agnes is kind of like David’s good angel; she reminds him of his morals that Peggoty and his mother taught him.

    Dora is a young, spoiled rich girl. All she cares about is playing with her dog. Dora is foolish and refuses to take care of herself. When David told Dora that she was engaged to a poor man, she had a massive breakdown. She decided to stay with David, but she refuses to think about his money situation. After she decided to stay with him, David suggests she read a small cookbook resulting in another extreme breakdown. I think Dora was included in the story as a foil of Agnes. While Agnes is sensible and stays strong, Dora is foolish and very dependant. Dora will help David see the amazing woman Agnes is. Dora shows that because she is so rich she doesn’t know how to take care of herself. Everyone has always done it for her.

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  14. James Steerforth is a very influential person in David's life. They first meet in Salem House boarding school. David looks up to Steerforth and envies him very much.
    From his youth he has always held Steerforth in his highest regard.
    Steerforth takes advantage of David many times and really isn't a good role model for David.
    He has a horrible temper which can explode at any moment.
    During the book, Steerforth catches the eye of Little Emily, and even though she is engaged. He ends up running off with her,and then leaving her because he is bored.
    He proves to be a very unreliable person that tends to be David's bad side.
    Even though everyone tells David not to follow Steerforth, he does not heed their words.
    I think that Steerforth is in this story to let the reader feel like David is so innocent and he is
    always being taken advantage of.

    Tommy Traddles met David around the same time he met Steerforth. Tommy is a good hearted kind of chubby boy that was
    like David's good side. He always tried to be a friend to David even though David never paid much attention to Tommy.
    Tommy always worked hard, but faced allot of obstacles because he was very poor.
    He also does not have very many friends in high places.
    He eventually succeeds and makes a name for himself.
    But he is almost like the very opposite of Steerforth. It seems like David is always listening to the wrong people.

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  15. David and Dora are finally married. David starts to become unhappy once some time has passed and begins wishing Dora had some of the character aspects of Agnes. He doesn't realize that yet and is trying to accept Dora for who she is. He gained hope about Dora becoming more mature when she became pregnant, but sadly the child did not survive. It really sucks that Dora lost the use of her legs not too long afterwards. Do you think this is because she miscarried or because of some illness that just happened to hit her right afterwards?

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  16. i think its because of the miscarrage, they didnt have as clean of an envoirment back then as we do now. I think that they were both from the same illness.

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  17. I find it ironic that Steerforth dies in the one thing he sticks with, which is sailing. He seemed like he would be an invincible person. But I think that was his undoing.

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  18. Why were so many people going to Australlia? I understand that they wanted to start a new life in a place where no one new them so that they could start over, but why Australlia? Wasn't that used as a place of exile? Why didn't they go to the New World instead?

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  19. Ham's death was just depressing. He died trying to save the man that took the love of his life from him. He didn't even get to read the letter from Emily saying she was all right. I'm on the fence about whether David did the right thing by not telling Ham's family about his death. I think they deserve to know, but on the other hand if Mr. Peggoty and Emily heard that news they would be crushed.

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  20. I think that it really showed how much Agnes means to David by how much her letter effected him. She gave him the strength to keep going and she did so in a very wise way.

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  21. I really enjoyed then ending and how David went through and mentioned every character. For some reason, I love that he mentioned Peggoty reading the Crocodile-Book to his children. It really seemed to bring the novel full-circle.

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