A sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some fell along the path, and was trodden under foot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns grew with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew, and yielded a hundredfold..

Charles Dickens often wrote of seeds planted in varied circumstantial grounds and their struggle to survive and bloom. His novel Great Expectations is one of these tales: the story of Philip Pirrip and his struggle to find the good soil.

The story opens with a self-introduction by Pip, in which his name is explained as a child’s mispronunciation. …