Mr. Pip Chapter Summaries
Chapter 4 20The extreme dark of the island at night. Matilda discovers that you can escape into your head by
reading a book. Theme: the power of literature and story, can travel anywhere, become a new
person, explore new worlds, learn new words, Mr Watts uses voices, he escapes too as he tells the
story. Matilda feels she shares things in common with Pip e.g. both had lost their fathers. Mother is
disapproving when she hears about Pip stealing pie for Magwitch. Wants to hear more about what
they are being taught. Mr. Watts doesn’t know much about other subjects outside of the book. Mr.
Watts decides to invite parents to classroom.
Chapter 5 26Mabel’s mum tells about the lifecycle of the heart seed. Matilda enjoys making her mother wait to
hear the next instalment of the story. Loves new words e.g. ‘It was a rimy morning’. Raises her hand
in class for the first time. Children amazed by the thought of cold. Matilda tells how her name came
from the Australians at the mine. Mother doesn’t ask for any more instalments “worried she would
lose her Matilda to Victorian England.” 30 Theme: culture clash, power of literature. Changes in
Matilda.
Chapter 6 31- The war comes closer
Villagers hide as redskin helicopters hover over the village. Then they return to normal routines.
Gilbert is embarrassed by his large mother, Mrs. Masoi, who comes to school and talks about
cooking. Mr. Watts treats everyone with courtesy and care. Redskin helicopters land and slaughter
animals while villagers hide. A dog called ‘Black’ has been split open with a machete. “Now we knew
what a human being split open would look like. “ 34 The indifference of the natural world – “The
great shame of the trees is they have no conscience. They just keep on staring.” 34 The blockade has
to be faced with ‘patience’. Dolores comes to the class with ‘an air of defiance’ 36 in clothes and
body language. ‘she appeared to be angry most of the time’ 36 comes to talk about faith. ‘Faith is
like oxygen. It keeps you afloat at all times.’ She says you must practise it. She quotes from the Bible
for her ‘no sentence in the world more beautiful “and God said, Let there be light: and there was
light” (Light/Dark motif). Matilda writes PIP above the high water mark in the sand. Her mother is a
mystery to her. 40 the same space Pip squeezes into between his awful sister and the loveable Joe
Gargery cf Mr. Watts and Dolores. Matilda: ‘I knew I would have to choose between the two.’
Chapter 7 41
Dolores tries to interest Matilda in her family history. She calls Mr. Watts the ‘offspring of a shining
cuckoo’ –i.e. sees him as a destroyer of family, a nest robber. She hates him because he is white and
holds whites responsible for all their troubles e.g. the blockade, the damage caused by the mine,
the loss of her husband, the stealing of children’s loyalties and now they were refusing to help end
the blockade.
Chapter 8 43 Range of opinion on the conflict. Mention of environmental and economic effects of the mine. Some
sympathy for rebel cause but most wanting it to end. Death of babies because on no drugs. Islanders
have to rely on nature to survive/eat. Matilda has hope because Pip does. ‘In GE we learned that life
can change without any warning.’ Mr. Watts teaches them what a ‘gentleman’ is. Always good
manners, ‘A gentleman will always do the right thing.’ 46 Matilda considers the importance of
‘home’ cf the forge in GE. Keeps her distance from her mother. She questions her about whether she
misses her husband. Anecdote about court case for drunkenness. “If you really must know, Matilda, I
didn’t know if I was looking at a bad man or a man who loved me.” 48
‘She had more in common with Miss Havisham – Miss Havisham who cannot move on from her
greatest disappointment.’ ‘I had an idea that whatever my dad had said still rang in her ears.’ 49
Chapter 9 50Matilda regards Mr Watts as stuck as a white among blacks. She tries to enter into his mind and skin.
Daniel’s grandmother tells the class about the colour blue. Very poetic view of nature. Mr. Watts
explains she has helped us to see the world as ‘new’. A wide range of island people come to share
their cultural knowledge with the class e.g. Mrs. Haripa’s talk about the lychee - like the lychee ‘a
person’s sweet smile says nothing about a person’s heart. A smile can be a trick’ 54 and the
preservation of innocence. Mr. Watts treats it all with respect. Talk of virginity perhaps a
foreshadowing of what is to come.
Chapter 10 58
‘our black-faced world of superstition and mythic flying fish ‘ versus the white world of GE. Matilda
is trying to understand Mr. Watts better by observing him closely. He teaches in his white linen suit
and stands tall but on the beach he looks skinny and stooped. Matilda realises how old and frail he is
in this chapter. He notices Matilda’s ‘shrine’ to Pip. Discussion about the loss of a big toenail leads to
talk of loss of a house or country. He says ‘you gain as you lose, and vice versa.’ 60 Matilda asks him
about Pip’s wish to change his name to Handel. Mr. Watts explains Pip is like an emigrant, changing
his way of life in a different place. (Parallels with Mr. Watts and Matilda herself later.) He tells her ‘a
secret’ about his wife’s change of name ‘ at a time in her life when she needed to make changes’ 63
in the past to Sheba.
Chapter 11
64
Villagers are frightened by news of fresh atrocities carried out by the redskins. Dolores and villagers
spend more time praying. Dolores also wants Matilda to focus on her ancestry. But ‘ Pip, Miss
Havisham and Joe Gargery were more part of my life than my dead relatives, even people around
me.’ 65 Mother very angry that Matilda writes family names next to make-believe person on the
sand. After Mr. Watts tells his class he doesn’t believe in the devil Dolores arrives in a fury and
claims that it is because he is white he doesn’t feel the need for God’s protection. ‘Mr. Watts, here,
he thinks he is ready for all things.’ 67. ‘What made her blood run hot was this white boy pip and his
place in my life. For that she held mr. watts personally responsible’ 68. Tension and fear increasing.
Christmas Day not celebrated. Sam a young man from the village arrives badly wounded. The village
is nervous about helping him because of reprisals but Mr. Watts helps with the bullet removals.
Chapter 12 72
Mr. Watts recalls his days as a poor young man in England. ‘this was one of those moments that
reminded us of his status as ‘ the last white man on the island. There he stood before us, one of a
kind.’73 Mrs Siep arrives in class and tells them. ‘Stories have a job to do. They can’t just lie around
like lazybone dogs. They have to teach you something. 74 a story about the devil fails to convince
Matilda. ‘My daughter, my lovely Matilda,’ she began, ‘tells me she does not believe in the devil. She
believes in Pip.’ 78 Mr. Watts comments, ‘Pip is an orphan who is given the chance to create his
own self and destiny. Pip’s experience also reminds us of the emigrant’s experience. Each leaves
behind the place they grew up in … Each is also free to make mistakes…’ Dolores asks him, ‘But how
will he know if he’s made a mistake?’ 78
Chpt 13
79-90
The first reading of GE has finished and Matilda doesn't like the way it ends. She sees the story as a
kind of web where connections have to be made. The children feel depressed without its distraction
until Mr. Watts says they will read it again. They are happy because of the escape from the island, it
offers will "save our sanity" 80. Daniel asks him what it is Iike to be white and the chapter
emphasizes the oddness of Mr Watts’ whiteness and his being on the island with them and the
contrast between him and them. He answers, " a bit of what the last mammoth must have felt.
Lonely at times." 81 Theme of cultural difference. The redskins return and take all the villagers '
names which Matilda naively thinks is harmless, " our names were not dangerous in any way - they
were not explosives, they did not contain hidden fish-hooks." 82 Irony of this revealed when the
soldiers discover Mr. Watts and the name Pip on the beach. The confusion of names - Mr Watts
becomes Mr Dickens "you are Mr. Dickens" irony again as he is a kind of Mr Dickens. He doesn't
want to cause trouble for Daniel so his silence and Dolores ' silence bring serious consequences. Mr
Watts arrives in full gentleman outfit - tie and shoes. Acts like a gentleman. When both the book and
Pip can't be found the redskins burn all the villagers’ possessions and say they will return in 2 weeks.
Redskin officer is keen at all times to maintain control and create fear. He is not interested in talk of
a 'made- up character' and books. Symbolizes ignorance v knowledge. However, not a traditional
villain figure? 'He looked like a man sadly resigned to conducting such business' 90. ' He appeared to
sink inside himself, perhaps to a darker place.' 90
Chapter 14
Mr Watts takes the blame for the villagers' losses in the fire but Matilda discovers that her mother
had hidden GE in her father's sleeping mat, choosing to remain silent when the redskin officer had
demanded it. She decides that her mother did this to destroy once and for all the standing of Mr
Watts the 'godless white man' and Pip who was replacing her 'kin' in her daughter's head 93.
Matilda can only remain silent. ' She was stuck, and I was stuck too.' 94 A 'suffocating air of guilt'
develops between them. Loss of precious happy photos with her father. Matilda feels deep
sympathy for Mr Watts and deep betrayal by mother. Ironic that Dolores' Bible has been burnt but
not GE. ' if I had been willing to break my silence ... I would have said 'the devil had gotten into her.'
97
Chapter 15 98
Rising tension as sounds of fighting heard and villagers also squabble. Mr Watts appears in clown
nose pulling a Grace on trolley. Villagers ransack their house searching for GE and as revenge.
Matilda recognizes her own moral confusion and cowardice. ' if I stay inside my own house ... I won't
have to know.'99 mr watts and grace just watch as if this is 'necessary and acceptable'. The redskins
return. ' they came upon us like cats.' Officer seems sick with fever. ' He was tired of being who he
was: tired of his job, tired of this island, tired of us, and the responsibility he carried.' 101. When Pip
is again not produced, Soldiers pour kerosene on houses and make owners strike the match. ' this
time what people lost was their privacy'. ' I discovered the value of four walls and a roof'. 103 'Yet
some things can not be set fire to or shot. ' They still have food, gardens, pigs, water, fish and Gilbert
father's boat. They rebuild their houses, school and Mr a Watts house have been spared as Port a
Moresby respects white property. School restarts with fewer pupils. Grace is sick.
Chapter 16 – Page 106 – Maia Dixon & Morgin Mitchell
In the previous chapter the Redskins come in to Matilda’s village and burn down all the houses and
shelters. Throughout this chapter Mr Watts explains the importance of ‘retrieving’ Great
Expectations after the novel gets destroyed in the fire. Theme: The value of literature and our minds
can take us away from the pain and suffering that reality can force upon us, and can give hope in
times of struggle. Mr Watts encourages his students to enter their newly discovered imaginations
and ‘retrieve’ fragments of Great Expectations and introduces their new project which is to preserve
the knowledge inside the novel produced by the great Charles Dickens. “When we have gathered all
the fragments we will put together the story. It will be as good as new”. The students begin
searching their imagination to reconstruct the novel that is Great Expectations. Mr Watts explains
the importance of saving the book. “Can you imagine if it was lost forever? Just think future
generations could point their finger at us and accuse us all for not looking after what we have been
given to take care of”.
Chapter 17 page 114
Briagh and Emily.
In this chapter Matilda’s mother has gone back to calling Mr Watts, Pop Eye. Matilda kept following
her mother around so she could try and remember the book Great Expectations, because in her
mothers mocking tone about Mr Watts, she could here Estella. Her mother replied with ‘What’s the
matter with you girl? Do you not have a shadow of your own to play with?’ Matilda soon realises this
is a quote from Great Expectations. After realising this she runs to the Watts’ house. When she
arrived at the Watts’ house she was so infatuated by the furniture from outside world she didn’t
register that Mrs Watts was lying of the floor with Mr Watts nursing her. Matilda is so excited to tell
Mr Watts about her fragment, but Mr Watts doesn’t seem too excited about it, but politely asks
Matilda to write it down in his writing pad.
In this chapter Mr Watts has changed from his usual content, self to someone who is tired, had
heaviness and tiredness throughout his voice and quite uninterested in the task he’s set.
Metaphor: ‘I was a mosquito.’
‘I was a tick on a dog’s arse.’
‘I was a bird with a worm caught in it’s mouth.’
Personification: ‘I found myself stalled by the memories it stirred inside me.’
‘The light cast a wide rippled path.’
‘The door flew open.’
‘It almost shone with its filth.’
Oxymoron: ‘It almost shone with its filth.’
This chapter foreshadows the event which Mrs Watts dies.
Amy Mc and Bonnie
Chapter 18
Pages 119-126
“The hardest part was getting through the boredom of the night.” While Matilda is trying to sleep
her mum interrupts her and tells her “I suppose you heard. Grace Watts is dead.” Everyone on the
island gathered for the burial of Mrs Watts and to support Mr Watts. There was complete silence
that was broken by Dolores that offered a prayer for Grace. After that people started reciting their
own memories about Grace. After the funeral Dolores “lay back talking up at the crude roof that
held out the night.” She saved her own memory of Grace to last as she didn’t want to say it in front
of the others. Dolores opened up to Matilda about their childhood and she learnt that Grace was the
smartest of all the children when they were young. Grace got a scholarship to Australia and when
she returned to Bouganville she was a different person and “used her scholarship and used it to
hook a white man” - Pop Eye.
Chapter: 19, Page 126
By Kari and Sam
Mr Watts gets absorbed into the world of ‘Great Expectations’ after the loss of his wife grace. He
begins to merge his pain from the loss of his wife with Pips. The students and Mr Watts use ‘Great
Expectations’ as a way to help forget about the outside world and fall into the world of 19th century
England. This is when the theme of books being an escape from the reality of life is present. “He
stood before us and recited: Pip is to be brought up as a gentle-man- in a word, as a young fellow of
great expectations.”-128 Matilda begins to make connects between her dad leaving her and the
book. She begins to relate to Pip more and says how her father had a Mr Jaggers type of man had
entered her father’s life and changed it, just like Pip. She also wonders if her father has other
characters that are in his life. Matilda gets absorbed even more into the world of ‘Great
Expectations’ as she tries to remember more fragments of the story. Foreshadowing happens at the
end of the chapter when Matilda wonders about why Mr Watts would wear a red nose and tow
Grace around in a trolley. “It was now too late and too far to go back, and I went on….”-133.
Represents something about Matilda or could be foreshadowing of when Matilda leaves the island.
Chapter 20, Page 136
by Laura and Michaela
The Rambo or rebel fighters came upon the village without warning. Gilbert’s father offered the
skinny scraggly looking Rambo’s fruit, but they were unsure of it at first (this shows they were sort of
skittish) ,and somewhere to stay. Secretly the villagers were hoping they would move on. The
Rambo’s threatened Mr Watts and thought he was an Australian government spy sent to spy on
them. Mr Watts explained that he wasn’t and promised the Rambo’s that he would tell them his
story that would take 7 nights to complete. Mr Watts asked Matilda if she would translate the story.
The story was a mix of truth and parts from ‘Great Expectations’. Matilda and the kids recognised
fragments or lines from the story but did not dare to say anything “Sometimes he astonished us kids
by using actual lines from the book – lines we recognised them the moment we heard them.” The
Rambo’s and the villagers were captivated by Mr Watts’s story and did not interrupt Mr Watts.
Chapter 21, Page 144
Holly and Annie
This is the chapter where Mr Watts is telling his story to the rebels who have just come into the
village and demanded to know who he was. The prominent themes in this chapter are the power of
literature and story, clash of cultures, innocence to experience and identity. Mr Watts is paralleling
his life to that of Pips. We learn about the mysterious relationship between Grace and Mr Watts and
how Mr Watts says they came to meet. The theme of innocence to experience is shown through the
fact that Matilda is so innocent whilst Mr Watts is so experienced, he is passing his experience down
through the power of story. Clash of Cultures is shown through the Rambo’s inexperience of the
outside world and Mr Watts telling him his experiences from the outside world.
‘My darling Grace gave me great happiness. None greater then when she gave me a child, a baby girl
whom we gave the name Sarah.’ This changes everyone’s views on Mr Watts as we see that he has
more depth than what has been lead to believe. There is also a change in Matilda, the realisation
that she could understand who she was through memories of her father whilst in turn hoping that
he had not forgotten her. ‘It encouraged me to think about my father. Perhaps he wasn’t lost. Or we
weren’t lost.’ This also shows foreshadowing: The idea that Matilda’s father isn’t lost to her and one
day she will find her way back to him.
A key literary feature found in this chapter is simile, ‘Rooftops were flicked off houses like bottle
tops.’ Also ‘Mr Watts had never seen anyone so black. He had never seen teeth so white or eyes
that sparkled with such wicked fun.’
Chapter 22
Sophie and Kiara
Mr Watts continued telling his story to the Rambo’s and the others as they came out, one after
another, like fish emerging from their holes in the reef. Matilda, Dolores’ daughter, saw Mr Watts
one day up on the hill and he told her that a boat would come take them off the island of
Bougainville. Mr Watts explained “for now, though, it is our secret. Just you, me and the trees.” As
he began to instruct Matilda that this was a secret and she couldn’t tell anyone, not even her
mother, until Mr Watts said that she could. Matilda started to tell her mother about Mr Jaggers to
prepare her. Mr Watts carried on telling his story to the Rambo’s and started to get people talking
about what different colours meant to them. Matilda feels as though she is trapped in keeping the
secret from her mother and an example of this is where Matilda explains she felt her cheeks bursting
with her secret and she felt sorrow. She is afraid her mother would say no to leaving the island. We
begin to see Mr Watts is caring towards Matilda when he says “You have nothing to worry about.”
Chapter 23
Pages 158-169
Tayla and Tyla
Matilda is remembering Graces poems from the wall in the spare room of Mr and Mrs Watts house.
Mr Watts continues to tell the life story of pip to the Rambo’s and the people of the village, he also
adds in details of his past including the sudden death of Sarah, who was Mr and Mrs Watts daughter
who succumbed to disease. Meningitis. Mr Watts was vulnerable talking about the death of Sarah,
“For the first time as he stared into the fire the mask of pip almost fell away” (pg 167-168) . Theme:
the power of literature is shown through the many poems resisted in this chapter; it tells the history
of the world, broken dreams and the story of the mayfly which connects to the symbolism of religion
in the story. The knowledge of Grace’s mental illness is foreshadowed by her pining of the character
Queen of Sheba, she fought out to reinvent herself after the death of Sarah thus she took on the role
of Queen of Sheba in the village by being pulled around on the trolley by Mr Watts.
Mister Pip-Chapter 24, page 170 Shvaughan & Abi
Matilda asked Mr Watts when he was going to tell her mother about leaving the island, she realised
that he wasn't planning on taking her mother, only her. She told him she would not leave without
her. The Rambos left but the following day the redskin soldiers arrived, asking again for Pip. They
said they no longer wanted to be lied to and took Mr Watts. The people heard gunshots and
watched as a soldier dragged Mr Watts and chopped him up with a machete and threw him to the
pigs. An officer asked who saw it. One of the children Daniel spoke and they took him and his
grandmother into the forest. Then Matilda's mother spoke. She said she was gods witness and that
Mr Watts had been a good man. “Sir. I saw your men chop up the white man. He was a good man. I
am here as God’s witness”. She repeated herself twice without hesitation and the soldiers dragged
her to a hut. They took Matilda also after finding out she was her daughter. She came in and saw a
man raping her mother. They were going to do the same to her but her mother protested and told
them she would give them her life for them not to do it. They then took Matilda’s mother to the
same place as they had taken Mr Watts and chopped her up and fed her to the pigs.
Ella Jensen and Lakyn Wingfield
Chapter 25- Pg. 182
After the redskins left, Matilda and the village people killed the pigs and buried them, they also
buried Daniel along with his grandmother. Matilda woke that night alone, to the sound of heavy
rain, wind and thunder. She left her hut and walked into the jungle, not caring about the rain. She
didn’t care about anything anymore. ‘I might not care about anything ever again.’ She walked
through the forest intending to visit Graces grave but decided to avoid were the pigs were buried,
and found herself by the river. ‘I was trying to walk away from these thoughts.’ She was then hit
by something on her knee and when she reached for it the river swept her away. ‘It could catch
me and I wouldn’t care’. She was in a state of depression. As she was pulled under, the thought of
her father teaching her how to swim made her decide she wanted to live. Suddenly she grabbed
on to a floating log and it instantly reminded her of Mr Jaggers, the character who saves Pip in
Great Expectations. The log was her loyal saviour. When the rain stopped, she could hear the
sound of rotor blades nearing and waited for the Red skins to attack. To her surprise she was
pulled off the log and dragged into a boat by Mr Masoi and his family, not the red skins. She was
saved. She was taken to a town called Gizo and then the following morning headed to the capital
of the Solomon Islands, Honiara, where she was seen by a white doctor. When the doctor said she
had a pretty name, she was reminded of Mr Watts.
Themes: Hope, determination, the power of literature (Linking the log to Mr Jaggers), changes in
Matilda (from depressed and not caring, to wanting to live)
Key Literacy Features:
Metaphor- She referred to herself as a heart seed because heart seeds begin their lives in the
water and then end their lives in the water as well. Matilda’s Father taught her to swim at a young
age and now she thought her life would come to an end in the water.
Personification- ‘The river… it’s furious with itself.’
Matilda met her father at the airport in Townsville, Australia. Matilda’s father told Matilda that he
had a birthday cake for every one of the birthdays that she had missed, Matilda started a school
there, at the school she went to the library and found the book Great Expectations. She had found
out that he book Mr Watts had read to her and her class was a much simpler version. Matilda read
the book she round in the school library and found out more about the character Pip, also she
continued to read more books written by Charles Dickens, at school she had won an award for
English. After school Matilda went to a University and graduated, after that her father got a new
girlfriend named Maria. Matilda was very clear that Maria was not her new mum and could never
love Maria as much as her real mum. This links to the theme of Matilda’s mother daughter
relationship. Matilda told her father that she would be working over summer but instead she went
on a search of Mr Watts old life in Wellington, New Zealand.In this chapter Matilda told us about her
father and how he has changed. He had changed from being a black man and acting like a black to
being pretty much a white man, and acting exactly how a white man would act. “His transformation
into a white man was near complete” This was said by Matilda. In this chapter Matilda grows up a
lot. She changes from being a school girl to a girl who has graduated from University, she is now off
travelling to find the former life of Mr Watts.
Chapter 27 Haylee & Olivia
Chapter Ella L and Amy Mills