Mister Pip

The story ‘’Mister Pip’’ unfolds as it introduces Matilda, a young bouvilligan teenage girl who develops a trusting relationship with the islands only white man, Mr Watts – known as Pop eye to the villagers, who willingly puts himself forward to be Matilda and her class mates teacher, as all the other people had escaped from the island in time for missing the blockade, along with Matildas father. The two minor characters I am going to explore is Dolores, Matildas mother, and Joseph, Matildas father. Through the story the war runs parallel to Matilda’s education. It is based in the late 20th century on a small uncared for island in the Pacific Ocean. At the beginning of the novel Matilda’s fathers whereabouts is explained with confusion. He is only spoken through the voices of the characters within the novel, but is later on then introduced towards the end of the story. Seeming as Matilda hasn’t seen her dad for a few years, there is a lot of questions about him from Matilda, most of which are answered within Matilda’s thoughts. Matilda’s mother has bought Matilda up on her own since Matilda was 11. ‘’When I was eleven, my father flew off in a mining plane’’ Therefore, she is very impassive and protective over Matilda and the way in which she is bought up and the certain things she gets introduced too in her child hood. Dolores has overzealous beliefs in Christianity, which in some ways made Matilda distance herself which then results to her lying and hiding stuff from her mother.
Dolores is a central character of the novel in as much as she typifies the high moral ground of the fundamentalist Christians of the village. She is spirited and will not give way in an argument even if she may be losing it. She has a frightening authority when she visits the classroom. We know Dolores is angry because of the green scarf she wears like a bandanna. The very first page of the novel grasps our attention with its vivid colour and its quick delineation of a character. Matilda