Book 3 Review

Book Review

               

Kathryn Stockett draws you into the southern world of the 1960s, where the maids are obedient and the ladies cannot possibly get more elegant, in her novel, The Help. Or not.  After you peel back the outer layers of southern society, you get the setting for Stockett’s book, a world where the maids can speak what’s on their mind to a white woman who doesn’t mind listening to bad things about her friends. And quite frankly, that’s something I’d much rather read, don’t you agree?

                The characters in this book are full of life, zest, love and spunk. Some more than others, but all the protagonists have a certain twinkle in their eye that attracts readers like moths to a light. The New York Times writer Janet Maslin also adds, “The two principal maid characters, the lovingly maternal Aibileen and the angry, scrappy Minny, leap off the page in all their warm, three-dimensional glory.” Minny, for example, is known in all of Jackson, Mississippi for her backtalk. It even causes her to get fired from her job working for Mrs. Walters. Aibileen describes Minny’s attitude as, “…worse thing you’n do for your career as a maid is have a smart mouth. Still, she such a good cook, sometimes it makes up for it” (Stockett 17). Throughout the beginning of the book, Stockett sets up Minny’s character as a strong, independent woman who doesn’t take any disrespect from anybody (sometimes even the white women, which was shown in her “Terrible Awful Thing” she did to Miss Hilly). However, towards the middle of the book we see her weakness: her husband, Leroy. He abuses her so badly that she tries to become pregnant so he won’t hit her, albeit she already has a house full of kids to take care of. The way Stockett creates Minny’s tough character and then reveals her frailty is simply brilliant because then we as readers start to take this ideal image that she is and transform that into a rounded character who is relatable and realistic.

                The themes that Stockett slips between the pages of The Help are ones of equality, compassion beyond skin color, and basic friendship. Although the premise of the novel is of the racial controversy in the south during the 1960s, Stockett dives deeper from the surface of that topic and creates more of an emotional tale than one discussing the political pros and cons of segregation. Janet Maslin from The New York Times agrees with me when she states, “Though The Help might well have veered off into violent repression of these maids’ outspokenness… Ms. Stockett doesn’t take it there. She’s interested in the affection and intimacy buried beneath even the most seemingly impersonal household connections.” The violence of the segregation issue is addressed quickly throughout the book when Louvenia’s grandson, Robert, was beaten until he became blind for accidently using a white-only bathroom. However, Stockett directs the novel more towards how the segregation laws affected people of the time, leading the book to talk about more personal issues. The theme of friendship not only applies to Aibileen and Minny, Skeeter and Aibileen, but also to Minny and Celia. This friendship is allowed to blossom because of Celia’s ignorance (or maybe defiance) of how strict the segregation laws are, probably because of her lower-class upbringings. When she first interviews Minny for the job, she offers Minny a drink, something Minny has never had a white lady do her entire life. And throughout Minny’s working experience for Celia, Celia doesn’t mind eating at the same table as Minny or even sharing her personal troubles with her (how the League ladies don’t like her). Through this, the ladies start to bond, and even Mr. Johnny (Celia’s husband) is kind towards Minny. Their relationship is shown when Johnny tells Minny,” You’ll always have a job here with us, Minny. For the rest of your life, if you want” (Stockett 405). This friendship between the Foote’s and Minny shows that there could be friendly relations between whites and blacks, and provides a stepping stone of hope for the novel.

                All in all, The Help is wonderfully crafted novel that fuses the controversial topics of racial equality in the ‘60s with the stories of spunky and compassionate maids and a modern white woman. It not only kept me entertained, but forced me think about a topic in a way I never had before. I highly enjoyed this novel and would give it 4.5 out of 5 stars. So listen to me, go to your nearest library or bookstore today and go get The Help!

                For an interview with the author, click here http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6259944n

Top 5 Presentation

Post 7

Truth in Memoirs, dicey topic right?

                My personal opinion is that memoirs don’t have to be 100% true. I’ll admit, I’ve written a couple memoirs in my time that might’ve been slightly embellished…but whenever I read a memoir I always keep that possibility of exaggeration in the back of my head. I mean come on, who believes everything they read anyway?

                However, I believe there is a distinction between memoirs and non-fiction, and any non-fiction book that lies has no right to keep its title. When an author is selling their novel as a non-fiction piece of work, they have to stand by that title and not misuse it just for the sake of selling more copies. If a non-fiction book is elaborated, what can I go back on to not doubt that the whole book itself is a lie? I understand that the whole job of an author is to “lie” to their readers, but not under the premise of a non-fiction book.

                I also completely disagree with David Shields over his opinion that there should be no lines between fiction and non-fiction. He’s crazy! Of course there needs to be a line, otherwise how can a person know whether the story they’re reading is true or not!

                The facet of whether the story is true or not really affects how much the reader will be moved by it. But just because an author is selling a great story as fiction does not mean he/she cannot still move the readers like a non-fiction novel would! It’s all about the writing quality, and if that is truly good then the label will not even matter.

Blog Post 6

Literary Fiction vs. Genre Fiction

                That’s the big question, isn’t it? Is genre fiction less worthy than literary fiction?

                My answer? No way Jose!

                Sure, genre fiction is less artsy and crafty, I’ll give you that. But let’s consider the reason why a reader would read in the first place; if it’s to just simply entertain themselves, then genre fiction is the way to go. But if a reader is searching for a challenge or something to read that will help them grow as thinkers, then, by all means, read literary fiction! It all depends on the person for one to say which is better for their time.

                Now that’s great and all, but what of the controversy over the type of literature in school curriculum? Well, as a student myself, I highly believe in Readicide. Those “classic” books we are forced to read are great books, I’m not denying that, and they do tend to contain crafts that can aid our brains to think in a deeper and more analytical level, but they’re boring. There, I said it. It’s not they don’t contain an interesting plot, the heart-wrenching story of a girl and her husband’s dead ex-wife becomes quite a suspenseful tale in Rebecca, but judging from the way the author wrote the book, she obviously didn’t consider reader’s entertainment. I feel like she lost sight of the entertaining aspect of the plot, and settled on the “artsy fartsy” aspect of it. That’s the problem with literary fiction, it fails to hold the reader’s attention, and when those readers are teenagers who have to also further analyze the book then, well…

                Forcing this literary fiction on kids in school does not do them much good. As a student, I know that most people just Sparknote the whole book rather than force themselves through that arduous torture. I believe if we went with Gallagher’s idea of a 50/50 policy, half the books we read are genre fiction and the other half literary fiction, then that would help bring back the interest of students.  They would see that reading can actually be fun, and would be motivated to try and read the higher difficulty literary fiction novels.

                An idea to enforce this 50/50 policy is to take a genre fiction book and a literary fiction book with the same themes and have students read the genre fiction book first to identify the theme, and then apply it to the more difficult literary book. For example, the theme of forbidden romance is present in Twilight (a genre fiction book) and Romeo and Juliet (a literary fiction work), so students would read Twilight first and then compare its morals/themes with Romeo and Juliet’s.

                So in conclusion, literary fiction and genre fiction are great, but we have got to remember when the best time for each is! Goodbye until next time!

Hunger Games Trailer

     Hello! Above is the trailer the Hunger Games group created for our book! Enjoy!

Post 4: Adapting the Hunger Games

            Hello to all my fans! I’m back again with some more mind-boggling thoughts!

Would the Hunger Games be a hard film to make? Well, there would be many challenges. A challenge a filmmaker might have into making the Hunger Games into a movie is the fact that the whole setting is in the future. All the buildings in the Capitol have to be created in a futuristic style and District 12 has to have a village-type feel to it. Also, a setting for the arena would have to be found. Another obstacle is that a lot of the actors of the main characters would have to go through training to be able to portray the skills of their characters. All the different technologies of the futuristic world of Panem would also have to be shown.

However, this movie might be easier than some other books to create, based on the fact that there is a lot of action that wouldn’t be too hard to recreate on the screen. I do admit that, especially in the arena, there is a lack of dialogue that would make the scenes become boring, so that is another thing the screenwriters would have to pay attention to.

Some scenes that I believe are essential to the book (that cannot be cut out of the movie) are:

·         Katniss offering herself as tribute instead of Prim and Peeta is chosen

·         Peeta declaring his love for Katniss during the interviews

·         Katniss’ and Peeta’s suicide threat at the end of the Hunger Games

·         Katniss telling Peeta that she doesn’t love him

This last scene (as I have heard from friends who saw the movie) was cut out of the movie, leaving the movie with a totally different mood at the end. I have not seen the movie myself, so I am not able to pass any judgments, but I believe they cut that scene out because they will not be making another movie. That’s just my guess.

Another scene (or scenes you could say) that I heard was cut out of the movie was the relationship Peeta and Katniss carried throughout their stay in the cave. I don’t think that was a good idea on the filmmaker’s part because to many, many fans, that was the best part of the book!! Tsk tsk.

If I absolutely had to cut two things from the book, it would probably be Katniss’ relationship with her father, and how Peeta’s father gave cookies to Katniss before she left for the Hunger Games. I feel like both scenes wouldn’t transition so well into the movie and they might just take up necessary space.

Although I have finished the Hunger Games, I have not seen the movie yet, and looking forward to doing that soon and evaluating if it does justice to the book! Goodbye for now!

Book 1 Project

Hello ladies and gentlemen! My name is Mehak Kalra, and today I’m going to help you all make a lot of money! How? By advertising our book in a way that will gain a wider audience in a fun and memorable way!

We’re all on the same team here, Team John Dies at the End. Great book, am I right? Now I’ve got here 2 fantabulous ideas that are going to help us make the big bucks.

Idea 1

My first idea is that we sell a pair of glasses with the book. Not just ordinary glasses, oh no! These glasses would be fitted with special lenses that, when worn, would show the wearer a series of monsters or supernatural images. This would duplicate the images and unworldly creatures that John and Dave see in the book. However, we’d have to put a cautionary warning on them, don’t we? *chuckles*

For example, the wearers would see a monster like Dave and John saw on page 16 of the novel, “The man-shaped arrangement of meat rose up, as if functioned as one body. It pushed itself up on two arms made of game hens and country bacon, planting two hands with sausage-link fingers on the floor…it stood fully upright, looking like the mascot for a butcher shop…”

The glasses would sort through the images of various monsters in the book in a random order, always surprising the wearer. My engineers are in the lab right now, perfecting the model of these glasses; there are sample prototypes if anyone wants to take a look.

Attaching these to the copies of the book will make the book more appealing on the shelf of a bookstore. More people will see the humorous side of the book, which would attract them to buy it. Also, the glasses will help the reader connect with the book and feel a bond with Dave and John’s ability to see unnatural things. And don’t worry; I haven’t forgotten the dedicated readers who already have the book! Pairs of glasses will be available, without the book, at a low and convenient price that will also bring us in money. http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&gbv=2&biw=1024&bih=677&tbm=isch&tbnid=B6_hEb0jFulMdM:&imgrefurl=http://www.myspace.com/potipoti_berlin/photos/14436073&docid=0RS-8A2Pdy4URM&imgurl=http://a4.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/102/400aa0269e56bfe81bd883590dc9ece6/l.jpg&w=475&h=317&ei=6_p8T6CKE4KY8gS95JTbDA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=451&vpy=283&dur=2422&hovh=183&hovw=275&tx=89&ty=121&sig=102919788086884462555&page=2&tbnh=149&tbnw=205&start=15&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:15,i:136

Idea 2

My second idea to help promote the book is create a haunted house in which each room would correspond to a different scene or location from the book. Who doesn’t love a good haunted house, right? *chuckles* In each room would be the different monsters Dave and John encounter at each location. Not only would this type of attraction entice the adult readers of the novel, but also fans of scary things (like haunted houses) that may enjoy the feel of it and decide to read the book.

One example of a room in the haunted house would be the Morrison’s house that Dave and John go to with Shelly on page 9, “…a simple two-story farmhouse, black shutters on white siding. It sat on an island of turf in a sea of harvest-flattened cornfields. We walked past a mailbox shaped like a cow and saw a hand-painted sign on the front door that read The Morrison’s-Established 1962.” Once the people went through the front door, they would follow a guide that would tell them to go to the basement, like John and Dave did, seeing, “A nice, modern basement. Washer and dryer. A hot-water heater making a soft ticking sound. One of those waist-deep floor freezers.” The guide would explain what happens in that part of the story, and press a button that would play the voices of John and David’s narration in the scene as they come to the realization that Shelly is a monster. Then, the people would be led up the stairs to see, “She burst into snakes…Her body sort of spilled out of itself, falling into a dark, writhing puddle on the ground. It was a tangle of long, black serpents, rolling over each other and down the steps.” The guide would lead them through the rest of the house, and they would encounter the frightening creatures Dave and John did.

Another example of a room in the haunted house would be “Big Jim” and Amy’s house that Dave and John visit a couple times throughout the book. They would see that outside of the house as, “The two-story psycho-style house…would have cost most of a million dollars had it not been run-down and located in a weedy, desolate section of town…Peeling paint, filthy windows, no tire tracks in the driveway” (Wong 258). Then the people would be lead inside, the whole time listening to clips of conversation that had occurred in the book, and “Up a stairway, into a darkened hall” (Wong 261). The guide would direct them into a side door that would be, “…a large room, that in the dim glow from the window, looked like a library of shelves mostly filled with odd shadowy shapes that were not books. I saw what looked like a bundle of cobweb hanging from the ceiling…” In that room they would see a monster described as, “…a bundle of wet string, suspended in the air by nothing at all. It didn’t look so much like a jellyfish as a man-o’-war, the slimy things that float lazily on the ocean surface and let their stringy tentacles hang down in the water” (Wong 261). http://www.google.com/imgres?num=10&hl=en&gbv=2&biw=1024&bih=677&tbm=isch&tbnid=TMjTyuW9M1NI7M:&imgrefurl=http://www.fanpop.com/spots/halloween/images/16050647/title/haunted-house-wallpaper&docid=zSPzzuaSMdboqM&imgurl=http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/16000000/Haunted-House-halloween-16050647-1280-800.jpg&w=1280&h=800&ei=XPp8T_jkIKG10QHt2fSVDA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=313&vpy=385&dur=1309&hovh=177&hovw=284&tx=131&ty=198&sig=102919788086884462555&sqi=2&page=1&tbnh=137&tbnw=253&start=0&ndsp=12&ved=1t:429,r:9,s:0,i:154

So, ladies and gentlemen, as you can see, this haunted house would lead people through the different adventures of Dave and John, providing the real fear they must’ve felt. After this thrilling quest, copies of the book will be available for them to buy at the end of the haunted house.

All in all, these ideas will grab in a ton of money for the book, and are sure-fire ways to catch more people in! Thank you!