Pip's Character Growth in Great Expectations

In the novel, "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens, we can see that Pip shows large amounts of growth in character through the three different stages of the story. in the beginning of the novel, Pip starts out as just a small, innocent, young boy. This however changes towards the end of part one, where he turns into something of a snobbish, ungrateful little child. In part two, Pip goes from being snobbish, to humble. And lastly, in part three he finishes as a mature gentleman.

Part one of the novel shows us how Pip grows from being his young, innocent self, to very snobbish. We see Pip's innocence by how he unreassuringly steals a file and whittles from Mr. and Mrs. Gargery, to give to the convict. Pip only stole because the convict had threatened that a young man would steal Pip's heart and liver if he didn't. After Pip had stolen the file and whittles, he felt very guilty for his actions. We can see his change to a snob by how he tells Biddy to teach Joe all she knows about reading and writing. Pip only asks this of Biddy because he is embarrassed of Joe not being very educated. From part one, Pip shows growth, but not exactly in a good way.

Part two shows that Pip is then humbled from his snobbish state. We can see how Pip is humbled by the way he reacts to finding out who his real benefactor is. Once he knew who it was, he felt that he could no longer accept money from this man. The reason for this is because his benefactor turned out to be the convict he had stole the file and whittles for. Pip definitely shows growth in part two of the novel by being humbled.

Part three covers how Pip is further humbled. Pip is very grateful when he finds that Joe is there at his bedside in his time of need. Pip had said that Joe should tell him how badly ungrateful he was to Joe. He also told Joe to strike him for his horrible actions towards Joe. By this point, Pip can be truly called a gentleman.

Throughout the three parts of Dickens's "Great Expectations," Pip shows incredible growth. Innocent and young in part one, snobbish then humbled in part two, and turned into a gentleman in part three.