“Mister Pip” by Lloyd Jones Argumentative

Parent/Child relationships are widely portrayed in the two novels, Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones and Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon. The authors both explore and portray the relationships between the main characters and a parental role differently in relation to the other despite them both being from opposite sides of the world, as well as the story being set in different time periods. In Mister Pip, its Matilda a young black girl from the island of Papua New Guinea with her mother Dolores and in The Curious Incident.. its Christopher, a young boy with Aspergers Syndrome from Swindon along with father Ed Boone. The children on the island in Mister Pip are made to look inferior to the adults earlier on in the novel. Despite being a norm or value, the children in Mister Pip are made to abide all the rules that are set by the adults which often makes them feel less important than the adults. This is established early in the first few pages of the novel “We weren’t worthy of that.

It was as if we didn’t exist” (page 3). Although its the norm in most cultures and societies that the children are raised to respect the elder peers, follow the rules set by them and inherit their general knowlegde, its seems that both the children and their parents are intellectually equal despite the difference in age and observation. “When our ancestors saw the first whit guy they thought they were looking at ghosts..” (Page 5) This shows the intellectual relationship between the children and their parents who mainly base their knowledge of what they’ve observed forcing the children to believe it word for word. However, Christopher in the Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night Time, does not consider the adults superior in the novel when he is being shouted at by Mrs Shears for being on her lawn and holding the corpse of the dog Wellington.

Analyse how one main character changed to become more admirable In the novel “Mister Pip” written by Lloyd Jones, the protagonist of the novel Matilda has faced many challenges through the novel which she has lost a lot of her world. This includes *her mother and possessions which creates one of the main ideas of loss. Matilda’s way of escaping the violence in her world is turning to the book ‘Great Expectations’ which is introduced by Mr Watts which helps them create a new dimension *. Lloyd Jones shows how much Matilda is determined to be strong about the losses in her life and by the end of the novel we see Matilda’s character change which become an admirable quality on how she gets through them. Mister Pip is set in Bougainville, an island which is isolated, cut off from the rest of the world. The people on the island cope by being resourceful making their own fuel, medicine and the necessities in order to survive.

In the novel we read from Matilda’s perspective who is the protagonist in the novel learning on the horrific events and conflicts. Matilda is faced with fear and has a way of escaping the violent surroundings in her life by a book ‘Great Expectations which is introduced to her by the only white man on the island Mr Watts. Matilda has a way of interacting with the book by making the main character ‘Pip’ her friend; it was also another way to use their imagination- show a different dimension. The ideas of the effects of war and coping with a sense of loss have been expressed by Matilda. Bouganville during the war makes the village less resourceful as their possessions are being destroyed with the Redskins who are the soldiers which leaves the village in fear. “The redskins were going to choke the island and the rebels into submission.” With lack of food and medical supply the many children are dying of malaria and men and boys are have gone to fight leaving the women with kids having to survive by themselves.