Moment Essay

“So subdued I was by those tears, and by their breaking out again in the course of the quiet walk, that when I was on the coach, and it was clear of the town, I deliberated with an aching heart whether I would not get down when we changed horses and walk back, and having another evening at home, and a better parting. We changed, and I had not made up my mind and still reflected for my comfort that it would be quite practicable to get down and walk back, when we changed again. And while I was occupied with these deliberations, I would fancy an exact resemblance to Joe in some man coming along the road towards us, and my heart would beat high. – As if he could possibly be there!
We changed again, and yet again, and it was now too late and too far to go back, and I went on. And the mists had all solemnly risen now, and the world lay spread before me.”(Dickens 160).

When someone is no longer able to change a situation, that person is now challenged to change themselves. In the novel, Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens, the main character, Pip, lives a life in which a sudden change occurs. Pip has to challenge himself to change because if he cannot adapt to the change, he will never be happy. As a little boy, Pip had to get used to the change of his parents' death. Also, he was forced to get used to his rude sister having to take care of him. Once he grew up, Pip received the biggest change of his life: becoming a gentleman. As Pip heads to being a gentleman in London, Dickens uses imagery and parallelism to show how Pip's personality will change too.
To show the readers the sudden change that has occurred, Dickens uses parallelism by showing the old Pip and the new Pip in one paragraph. When he first gets on the carriage to London, he cries. This shows us the small and fragile kind of person Pip used to be. It showed that he was saddened to leave Biddy, Joe, and scared of going to London, “So subdued I was by those tears,/ We changed again, and yet