Dickens

Having read and hated Great Expectations as a freshman in high school, I still have had a difficult time getting into it for the second read. I find it humorous, especially the jokes about Uncle Pumblechook asking Pip to constantly add numbers (and sixteen!). I also like the way that Dickens creates Pip's childlike imagination. The narration and vocabulary reminds me very much of my childhood, when I was still in awe of the world. And of course, we see the modern idea of social inequality, especially at the dinner table. That's all I have for now, but will have more to say once I get more into it.

Poor man wanna be rich, rich man wanna be king, and a kind ain't satisfied til he rules everything

It is interesting to see the development of a passion in the miser. Money, to me, is a medium of exchange. It is not the object of the desire, but merely a way of obtaining what I desire. If I desire a grand piano, I have to work hard to earn money to pay for it. So in a sense, I don't work for the paycheck, but I work for the piano. In Grandet's case, he does not use his money and gold as a medium of exchange. He actually desires the money, which has no other commodity value. He sits for hours locked in his vault, just staring at and admiring his gold. When he is dying, he asks Eugenie to show him some gold. His passion for money seems misguided, because he uses his money very little. In fact, for all real world purposes, he has very few material desires. It could be said that his only desire is to diminish his desires.
Although people in the world today still have a passion for money, a lot of them really have a passion for desire. Yes they love money, but they love money because it lets them buy a fancy car, and a big house, and join the country club, etc... Money is a means to achieve certain desires. Money also becomes a way to achieve sexual desires. Women are attracted to a man with a big wallet. But Grandet again seems very disinterested in sex, and shows very little compassion towards his wife. "All engrossing passions increase in strength with time: and all who devote their lives to one overruling idea, so observers note, whether they be misers or simply ambitious men, cling with the whole force of their imagination to one symbol of their passion (208)." So the way I see it, Grander is obsessed with the symbol of his passion or money. But the ironic thing, is that the symbol is this case represents nothing else. With his money, Grandet still lives in a small house, and gives very small allowances to his wife and daughter. The symbol becomes the object of his passsions.

You may say that I'm a dreamer... But I might be the only one?

"Misers hold no belief in a life beyond the grave, the present is all in all to them. (126)" This line hit home for me about the power of tangibles in the world. People have a difficult time grasping what cannot be shown to them, especially the conservative business types. Abstract ideas, whether it be artistic or a concept of an afterlife, have little meaning to them. If an object is not immediately available to the senses, its essense can only exist in the mind, and some imaginations are stronger than others. In this era of modernity, importance in society is being put upon the senses, as visible in Frankenstein, where Victor wanted to create a tangible being. This theme is more prominent in a more "realistic" novel like Eugenie Grandet. This issue in modernity brings out the constant struggle of the "realist" vs. the "idealist," which is a dominant strugle in literature in characters like Don Quixote vs. Sancho, Emma vs. Mr. Knightley, Victor vs. Society and now Grandet vs. Eugenie.
Grandet lives in a realist world. He wants things now, namely money. He cannot grasp an 'idea' as powerful as money, or something tangible is to him. Eugenie is seeing the impact of an idea, in this case love. She starts to see the world differently, noting its distinct beauty. As someone with an artist's heart, I find more power in ideas. But our society at times is not ready for the fantasy, the ideas, the creations. Victor tried to create the ultimate idea: a living being, but immediately shunned it because he knew society would deem the being ugly and unfit. All you have to do is look out of your window in Manhattan to see the how important 'reality' is, how important it is to accumulate material things (I live in the Financial District). This is the ultimate warning of Rousseau: society and civilization teaches us to live in the now, to only envision a world that is present to us, which in this case is seen in the miser that is Grandet. Today, as we move forward in society and civilization, it comes as no surprise to me that the percentage of atheism in America is growing.