The Help

     I'm slowly making progress in this book. So far, Minny has gotten a new job. I still haven't reached the part about the pie...

     I'm going to say that the most important line from this chapter is, "'And she ain't told you why she don't want him to know?' 'All she say is she want him to think she can do the cooking and the cleaning herself . But that ain't why. She hiding something from him.'" (Stockett53-54). This is the most important line from the chapter because it really sums up what is going on throughout the whole chapter. The new person that Minny is working for doesn't want her husband to know that she's hired help. She wants her husband to think that she can do everything herself; as the quote explains. Why? No idea. The book still has not revealed what is going on. Not only does this quote sum up the chapter, but it also sets up some suspense also. Why does she not want her husband to know? What could be worth hiding from him? what is Minny going to do?

     To help you get a little better of an idea of Minny's boss's fear..., "'Miss Celia,'I grit my teeth, 'how come you can't tell your husband about me? Ain't he gone know when the cooking gets good?' 'Oh! I didn't think of that! Maybe we ought to burn the chicken a little." (Stockett 52). This quote shows just how much Miss Celia is desperate that her husband doesn't find out about Minny and the help she's getting. For some reason, Miss Celia is so afraid of her husband...

This is the scene from the movie where Minny tries to teach Miss Celia how to cook.

The Help... again

     
      Alright-y... so a little behind on blogging posts, but I guess that's what happens when your off on a band trip. Being busy these past few weeks, I haven't had much time to catch up on my independent reading. Meaning that I've only read one more chapter. Surprisingly, this chapter was actually kinda sorta really long.

     As I mentioned before (a couple posts back), this book, The Help has a lot of slang in it. In my opinion, it helps bring the time period to life to really represent what it was like back then. To show you what I mean, here's an example, "She trying to get her husband to reduce. She want skillet and green salad. And how many calories do I spec them meringue thingies have?" (Stockett 30). See what I mean? Not only does the author use slang to help bring this book to life, but she also's includes humor as well. Such as when the help/maids talk about and make fun of each other's masters with each other. It also helps me to enjoy the book better. It takes a very serious time and adds humor to make the book enjoyable, but without taking away the seriousness of the matter. Some "scenes" probably didn't happen, of course... but it makes me curious to know...Maybe you've heard of what one maid in particular, Minny, did with a pie...? Yeah, gross. If you don't know, I'm not going to be the one to tell ya. Do you think that really could have happened...?

Left to Tell

     Just so you know, this blog was created with Aya Kraimer and you can find the same post on her blog. We are both reading Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza. While reading the book, we realized that it is important to have hope and faith that everything will turn out okay. You have to keep going even when its hard. We were able to realize this by seeing life through Immaculee's perspective and seeing what she thought as things happened around her. It was as if we could experience what she did, and again, we could see what she thought; making it easier for us to depict a central idea.

This is her sitting in the bathroom
that she hid in with 7 other girls
during the genocide. Isn't it SMALL?

     Okay...So you know what we realized from the book, but you didn't read the book. Let's get you caught up. In a small country called Rwanda, a genocide is going on. There are different groups of people living there. The different tribes that are there are the Hutus and the Tutsis. The main character is a Tutsi, and at this point in the book, The Hutus are killing the Tutsis.  The main character is currently hiding in the bathroom of a priest with 7 other girls. While there they can never make any noise or they will be found. As she experiences this, the reader is able to see how she is trying to stay strong and to keep faith and hope as she struggles through. I mean, she's going through a genocide. That's hard.



This is the author and her family before the genocide.

Immaculee's story reminded me of Anne Frank's so doing some research, I found out how similar they were. Both went into hiding during a genocide. During both of their times in hiding, they had to be very quiet as to not give away their whereabouts. In addition, both girls had some sort of way to cover the entrance. In Immaculee's story, a wardrobe was used to cover the door to the bathroom she was in along with other girls. In Anne Frank's case, a bookcase was used to cover the door to her hiding place with her family. Both girls had to be extremely careful, and keep going. They both had faith and hope that everything would be okay. They both did all they could to stay safe. Both girls had much in common.

Anne Frank