(violin music)
What up, G?
Welcome back to Thug Notes.
This week, we're keepin' it Victorian
with Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.
This book tells the story of Pip,
a street kid who be shackin'
with his crooked sister
and her hubby Joe.
One day while paying his respects
at his parents' grave,
a cracked-out convict rolls up to him
and demands some food
and a nail-file to escape his chains.
Pip helps a brother out
but later sees that fool
get got by the police.
Later, an uppity cracker named Pumblechook
arranges for Pip to kick it
with a rich broad named Miss Havisham
and her adopted daughter Estella.
Now Estella may be fine
but she be acting a straight cock-tease
to my boy Pip.
Pip be thinkin' that Miss Havisham want to prime him
to get paid like a gentleman,
but she shuts his ass down
and tells him to hustle as a blacksmit
with his poor Uncle Joe.
Then one day some lawyer named Jaggers
tells Pip that he about to get paid
and inherit a swole fortune.
So Pip kicks Joe's poor ass to the curb
and heads to London
where he gonna learn to be a player.
Pip be thinkin' that Miss Havisham gave him all that cash
so maybe she be preppin' him to marry Estella.
One night, Pip be visited
by some playa named Abel Magwitch
who turns out to be the convict
from the graveyard.
He tells Pip that it was him
who gave him all them stacks of cash.
Now Pip be wiggin' out
that he ain't bein' primed to marry Estella.
So he rolls up to that ho Havisham's crib
and confesses his love for Estella.
But that hood rat shuts this stunner down.
Years later, Pip done f***ed up
and ends up boned out.
Uncle Joe does Pip one last solid
and pays off all his debt.
Now Pip be feeling like a fool
for dissin' him all those years ago.
So Pip decide to stop frontin' with them rich folk
and keep it real with the boy who got his back.
Then one day while
peepin' the ol' Havisham crib,
Pip runs into Estella
who be off the short leashes
of her ex-husband and Havisham
and decide she want to be cool with Pip.
At the end of the book, Pip say
he saw no shadow of another parting from her.
Now one of the main things
my boy Charlie D trying to say up in here
is if you makin' big ass assumptions
about what the future holds
you sure as hell got another thing comin', homeboy.
You can see this here disconnect
between expectations and reality
in the character of Havisham.
This broad always wearin'
a old, crusty wedding dress
even though she ain't been married!
It's like she walkin' around everyday
showin' that she was expecting way more
out of life than she actually got.
Likewise, Pip
always expecting righteous things to happen to him
like Miss H makin' him a gentleman
and getting freaky with that girl Estella
But this stunner is blind
to the peeps that actually got his back.
For example,
when Pip finds out
it was Abel that gave him those stacks of cash
and not that hag Havisham
he gets all crunk
'cause it ain't what he expected
when on the real
he should be geeked up
that he got himself a sugar daddy.
Another theme up in here
is that having mad money
corrupts your mind
and your social relations.
Before Pip becomes a rich playboy
that giddy cat Pumblechook
be disrespecting him all the time
but after Pip makes bank
Pumblechook starts treatin' him
like the man.
Also when my boy Pip gets them fat pockets
he starts dissing Joe 'cause he all poor.
On page 197,
Pip says he would even pay
to get Joe's weak ass out of his face
in spite of the fact
that on page 127
Pip straight-up calls this stunner an "angel!"
Mmm.
More money, more problems, blood.
Consider this sh*t right here.
Conflicting values in this player's life
be shown through the images of stars
and fire.
That chick Estella's name
comes from a Latin word
that means 'star'.
Whereas my man Joe
be associated with the forge and fireplace.
My hunky Dickins links that hoe with stars
'cause while those stars may be pretty,
they straight-up unreachable,
just like Pip's romantic expectations.
But on the other hand,
fire is of the Earth
and Dickins links fire to him
to emphasize that down-home feeling
of life in the hood
without wackass delusions.
Yo, thanks for watching Thug Notes, blood.
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