Wednesday, April 22, 2015

My Sister's Keeper part 3

 The ending is very hard and for some and reveals all the secrets the characters have, showing us a ending we could sort of believe. We learn about Jesse who does good and not just bad constantly, Sarah accepting Anna's choice, and tells us of Campbell with Julie.

Anna dying in the end felt too sudden and did not feel like a good ending at all. It was too sudden and unnecessary with the shock factor well deserved. It was cheap. The end of the book was fine it most likely left the reader with tears after reading about the characters for so long.

The writing style of the book was neat giving each character their own font so it was easier to tell the characters apart. Learning about the past of the characters was useful and the Campbell's and mother's perspective was mostly taken in the past or only when needed to give some context to the character's actions.

The book was good and well written. I enjoyed it and actually read one of these books all the way through. It was unlike Tales From Earthsea and gave a very different atmosphere not involving dungeons and dragons instead it gave a realistic setting not far off from our reality. This helps with the emotion it gives off really well, probably too well at times.

Thursday, April 16, 2015

The Help blog number 2

The author does splitting the multiple Perspectives in the story really well between Skeeter, Aibileen, & Minny. The multiple perspectives can be very confusing but The Help pulls it off well. The only problem could occur is if a character does not know some fact the other knows and the reader forgets that fact. An example is when Skeeter leaves her bag at Hilly's home and she only tells Aibileen while Minny is left in the dark. But that is mostly the readers fault. Another thing the Author does right is put the names of the perspective character in the beginning other books tend to not do that.



The character's emotions are easily captured in their respective chapters. From Minny's sass to Skeeter's Knowledge the characters are fleshed out and easily recognized. Kathryn Stockett keeps in many social standards around that time decently well and has many examples. For example on page 220 Albileen talks about how she borrows clothes from Hilly and how a white women would get a higher up and force a "Notice of Eviction" on unwanted persons. Or how she knows people that will get others constantly in trouble not only forced to move out but also keep them out. Similar to what happened to Minny after she got fired after working with miss Hilly's mother. Word spread around town that Minny stole some silver and her work career around town was destroyed. There is also the job structure and how people white and black react to each other. It was war for everyone. A little talk about equality back then was very risky and usually left someone shot. There is also talk about Martin Luther King Jr. and the KKK. It helps keep the time line and I like how the book takes place here and actually references to those days that our cultures were split.