Pretty Little Secrets

Explain why you chose this book.


I chose this book because I really like the ABC show Pretty Little Liars and I'm planning on reading all the books in the series. Even though this isn't the first book, it is written in Alison's perspective, which is different. Even though I know it isn't going to be the exact same as the tv show, it will be relatively alike and I love the story line. This is the book that comes somewhere between the 4th and 5th book, so it will probably give me a brief overview of what happened in the books before it. Would you rather read the books first or see the tv show first?

Fahrenheit 451

-What does the work tell us about how people behave?


In Fahrenheit 451, people don't read books, but burn them. They know they aren't soppose to read them, but it seems some people keep a few stashed away. Guy Montag is a fireman who participates in burning books instead of putting out fires in houses (which they claim they never did). He is starting to question society and if it is really "fair" after his friend Clarisse ends up dead. This story tells how people want to rebel against society to make them somewhat interesting or make a difference, but also seem to go along with what society has to offer (Guy has books stored away but is also a fireman who burns books). Does he have to choose one side, or can he have two oppinions on what to do with the books?

English 1A Final Blog Reflection

Click hereto view my best blog post.

          Out of all the posts on my blogger page this one is the best because it analizes the text, giving an overveiw of what is happening without giving away to much information. It also has picturesand a video to give the reader a visual display of the scene. "For the next two weeks, the three of us arrange ourselves in the same seats in Aibileen's small, warmliving room. Minny storms in mad, quiet down as she tells Aibileen her story, then rushes out in a rage as fast as she came in. I write down as much as I can." This quote from The Help shows a small part of how the characters in the story.
           Next trimester I will no longer be in English, so it will not be mandatory for me to continue to read, but i do enjoy reading so i will continue to do it next trimester. My reading goal for next tri is to read 3 books. My goal on Good Reads .com is 6-7 and I only finished 1 this trimester so i'm hoping to accomplish more. Writing is necessary for almost every class, so I will continue to write but probably not as much as in English 1A. I do enjoy it so I could write for fun too. I am not a very fast reader, so i'm hoping as I continue to read more often I will get faster. My writing skills are not the best and could use work.

The Help *Analysis*

"I've a mind to call that Dennis James on the phone and say, Who do you think you are, spreading lies like that? You can't tell the whole metro area our book is about Jackson! You don't know what town we've written our book about!" Minny says in chapter 30. She gets upset when the man on a talk show starts saying the book was about Jackson, Mississippi. Even though it is, Minny, Aibileen, and Skeeter don't want people to know. Lots of stories are in the book, and if people found out who wrote it, they would be in trouble. I infer that certain people will find out, aspecially is they find a story that seems to fit something that happened between them and their maid.

The Help *Extra post*

                                           Skeeter greets Aibileen after church where they
                                           cheered her on for speaking out and writing The
                                           Help.

 

Celia Foote invites Minny into her house and is very nice to her. Minny decides to take the job and help her learn to cook even though she hasn't told her husband she hired help. They keep it a secret for as long as they can.

The Help *Analysis*

After Aibileen and Minny decide to help Skeeter write her book, they begin to meet all the time after work. Since black women/men aren't soppose to write books they need to keep it a secret or they could be in big trouble."For the next two weeks, the three of us arrange ourselves in the same seats in Aibileen's small, warmliving room. Minny storms in mad, quiet down as she tells Aibileen her story, then rushes out in a rage as fast as she came in. I write down as much as I can." They continue to tell Skeeter their stories of what they deal with when working in a white person's house, taking care of their children, and serving them.

 

I predict that after a while they will get enough maids to fill up all the pages of the book, but also i think they might get caught some how. If white women read the book they write and it has some of the stories that happened to them and their maids, they could figure out that they wrote them.

 

 

"Hour after hour, in Aibileen's kitchen, she reads her writing and i typpe, the details thickening, the babies' faces sliding into focus. At first, i''m disappointed that Aibileen is doing most of the writin, with me just editing. But if Missus Stein likes it, I'll be writing the other maids' stories and that will be more than enough work. If she likes it...I find myself saying this over and over in my head, hoping it might make it so.

The Help *Reading Skills*

In the help, some characters have an unspoken bond, such as Skeeter and all the other colored maids.
When her friends are being rude to them and bossing them around, she is polite and respectful. I think it is because when she was little her maid would take her to her neighborhood to play with some of the black children so she had a different veiw on things while she was growing up. Since Skeeter is trying to get a book published and her publisher told her to write about something she truely cares about, I predict she will ask Aibileen and Minny to tell her their stories and she could write them down and show people what it's like being a colored maid in Jackson. She had already asked Aibileen and she thinks it would be dangerous so she said no. I think she will realize she wants her story to be heard and get the book published.

The Help *tone and mood*

The tone and mood for the hel;p is lightly sad. Skeeter continues to ask Aibileen if she wishes things were different. This makes the story a little more depressing because it's obvious they wish they didn't have to be bossed around by white women but there is nothing they can do about it. If they quit they won't have any money to tend to their families. When Miss Hilly was trying to convince her friend Elizabeth to get an outside bathroom for her maid, she was very happy and acted as if her maid loved having to go outside in the pouring rain just to use the bathroom. Her tone impacted Elizabeth by acting so excited that the colored maids wouldn't have to use the same bathroom they do.

Skeeter *Extra Post*

I think it's good that Skeeter doesn't want to be like her friends and family. She should get a job doing something she loves unlike Hilly and Elizabeth who just sit at home. Skeeter got a letter from the publishing company she want to work for and it said she needed more practice before they would hire her. She was so excited that she went out and got a job immediately writing a column in the Jackson newspaper about cleaning. Even though she doesn't know anything about how to clean and take care of a house properly she is still confident that she can get help, write the column properly and be successful, and finally get a job editing for the publishing company.

The Help *Book Recommendation*

I would recommend reading The Help because it is a wonderful story about how black maids in the 60's were viewed and treated. Aibileen and Minny are two black maids who work for white families and are maid very little to watch their children, clean their houses, cook, and tend to guests. Skeeter, a white single woman living with her parents after getting out of collage, sees black maids differently than her friends and family. She was raised by her black maid, Constantine. Skeeter doesn't want to spend her days being a stay at home mom and let a man go to work, she wants a job as a writer. In order to do that, she teams up with Aibileen and Minny to hear their adventures of raising different white children and how they put up with their mothers. But once people hear that two black women are writing a book and trying to get it published, will it be the end of their attempt to show people how cruel the white women they work for really are? Or will they finally be heard with the help of Skeeter?

The Help *Characters*

Aibileen Clark is a colored maid who has worked her whole life taking care of white women's children and house. She lost her only son, Treelore, which sent her into a great depression. The only person who took care of the single woman was Minny Jackson, Aibileen's best friend who worked for Hilly Holbrooke's mother. Mrs. Hilly is conceited and spread rumors about Minny so that other women wouldn't hire her after she sent her mother to a nursing home. Everyone heard these rumors besides Celia Foote, a cheerful and peppy white woman recently married to Hilly's ex boyfriend. Eugenia, "Skeeter", is a tall, single, educated white woman who has a different view on black maids than her friends Elizabeth and Hilly do. She was raised by her maid, Constantine, who was fired while she was away at college. While Skeeter's friends are off building outside bathrooms for the maids, she is helping Aibileen and Minny get a book published that shows the everyday tragedies that go on in a colored maids work hours.

Bathroom

I think it's horrible that Mrs. Hilly is so rude to the help. Even if they are their maids they are still taking care of their children and their household. Now she doesn't even think they should be using the same bathroom as them! In my opinion, it's fine if she wants to build another bathroom for her maid to use outside, but to try to get the law involved saying everyone should do that is unacceptable.

The Help *Setting*

In The Help by Kathryn Stockett, it takes place in Jackson, Mississippi. It takes place when segregation was popular. This story follows a few "colored" maids through their everyday lives tending to white families needs. The story takes you through the backstories of the maids and where they live when they are not working. They don't get treated fairly and are not paid much at all (only about $1 an hour).

Pure by Jullianna Baggott (Summer Reading)

In my summer reading book, Pure, Pressia lives with her grandfather in an abandoned barber shop after the Detonations, disaster by bomb that destroyed the Earth and fuse everyone to their surrounding item or person. Although, some were saved by a dome that they would live in until the world became "normal" again. Partridge and his father, the owner and inventor of the dome, live peacefully inside along with other important people. Partridge sets off to look for his mother after realizing that she is still alive. He finds Pressia and Bradwell who help him search outside the dome. Along their journey, they discover that Pressia is also Partridge's mothers daughter, therefore, being his step sister. They grow close after finding this out, only to have their mother be murdered by OSR. They learn that as long as they have each other, they can overcome anything.

 

 

This article is an overveiw of "Pure" by Julliana Baggott by New York Times.