Mister Pip and Bougainville

1. What reasons do you think Mr. Watts has for inviting the children’s parents in to speak in the classroom?
Mr. Watts invites parents in to speak because first of all he wants them to share their knowledge with other children. Their wisdom is something they accumulated during many years of hard work and experience.I suppose he doesn't want to waste or limit it only on few individuals. Mr Watts wants to get to know the parents as well. That is why he invites them in to speak to the children. I also suppose he wants the parents to get used to him as well. He wants to insure the parents that their children are receiving a proper education.

2. Why do you think Matilda says that she will have to choose between Mr. Watts and her mother?
Matilda says that she will have to choose between Mr.Watts and her mother because due to Dolores' hatred towards white man Matilda faces a battle between her mom's and her own wishes.Dolores' despise for white man, provoked by her husband's betrayal, makes her generalize that all white man want to take her most precious things away. She applies the same logic towards Mr. Watts leaving Matilda no option but to choose between the sentiment of love towards her mother and her innocent but complete admiration towards Mr. Watts.

3. What does Matilda’s mother mean when she says that Mr. Watts “is the offspring of a shining cuckoo”? Why does she call him “Pop Eye” instead of “Mr. Watts,” as the children do?
Dolores calls Mr.Watts an "offspring of the shining cuckoo" because as this birds fly south to the lands of strangers and lay their own eggs in stranger nests Mr.Watts is left all alone in God forgotten island. The offspring of the shining cuckoo never meet their mothers.By calling Mr.Watts one of them Dolores wants to create the image of a left-over person. A person with no past, no roots.Dolores calls him Pop Eye in order to show her attitude towards Mr. Watts. She tries to show Matilda that Mr.Watts doesn't belong to this world. She is not able to understand the fact that he was actually a very kind man. Dolores sees just another white man who stole her husband.

4. What do you think Mr. Watts means when he says that he hoped his wife “might eventually grow into her name”?
Mr.Watts thinks that names can mark people. By calling his wife Sheba, as the Biblical character Queen of Sheba who went to king Salomon to ask for wisdom, Mr.Watts hopes that the pain caused by the death of their child would give rise to more wisdom than grief.

5. Choose a passage in the first 105 pages that you connected with or felt that it was important to the story as a whole. Post it on your blog and explain why you connected with it or think it is important.
Two weeks after Gilbert's father dug the bullets out he took Sam out to sea in his boat. It was nighttime and in the black stillness we could hear the slapping of the oars on the water. Gilbert's father's boat had an outboard, but he didn't want to use the last of his fuel; he was saving that. He was gone for two days. We were asleep when he dragged his boat up on the third nigh. And when I saw him the next day he did not look the same. We never saw Sam again.(page 82 last paragraph)

This passage impressed me deeply because I could actually feel the pain Gilbert's father experienced by being forced to kill his own son in order to secure the village from the rage of Ramos. He knew that a son who deserted the redskins would put not only the whole family but also the whole village in danger. I consider that this is one of the most sentimental moments from the first 105 pages. It is very moving and sad. That is why I felt connected with it.

6. Where are the themes of story telling and oral tradition apparent in the novel? To whom are they important and why? List and describe as many as you can.
The themes of story telling and oral tradition are extremely important in order to understand the plot of the story and the social conditions that influenced and brought forth the specific mentality of the villagers. This themes are apparent throughout the whole story.They are important for both defining the characters and understanding the plot. The most visible ones would be the following:
1. Mr.Watts invites parents to share their wisdom with the children.
a. Mrs. Masoi shares cooking tips with the children. She describes how to kill an octopus, cook a turtle and kill a pig.
b. Dolores shares her knowledge and beliefs about God and faith.
c.Giselle speaks about wind in front of the class.
d.Agnes Haripa speaks about sex and virginity.
2. Dolores tell Matilda about her ancestors trying to make her remember all their names.
3. Mr.Watts retells the story of his life in the white world.

7. How does the war affect the people of the village? Think of examples relating to the children AND adults. How do they interact with the Rambo's and the redskins?
The war has a negative impact on the villagers. It brings confusion, misunderstandings and disasters. This idea can be supported by the following examples.
a. The island gets to become isolated. As Matilda says "By now it was also clear that the white world had forgotten us".
b. The redskins destroy the possessions of the villagers due to a minor confusion concerning Pip.
c. The villagers blame and make Mr.Watts take the responsibility for the accident. Later they take and destroy his possessions also.
d. The houses of the villagers are burned and their are left with little food, no medical support and total confusion about what is going to happen.
e. Many parents loose their children due to malaria.
f. Many children become Redskins risking their lives and the lives of their families.