To Kill a Mockingbird 3

In “To Kill a Mockingbird”, the plot continues to become thicker and thicker. At the beginning, Jem and Scout had fun with their friend Dill in the summer trying to coax Boo Radley from his house. But as the story progressed, more issues of racism came into play. The trial, as unfair as it seems, was a normal occurrence in the south. But Scout is a character that is against the racism, even just in her town and she knows what is unfair.

Scout’s Teacher, Miss Gates, teaches her class a lesson about Democracy and Dictatorship using World War 2 and Hitler as her example. But what made me physically angry at her was when she begins to talk about how because we are a democracy, we are fair to everyone. She says, “Over here we don’t believe in persecuting anybody.” Wait a minute there. She said that America does not believe in persecuting anybody while all of America and even herself are rude to African Americans all of the time. She lives during the civil rights movement! It is especially not right to say this after the trial that has just taken place. I do not think that it is right for her to be saying that then, but maybe she could get away with that now. But even saying this today would be risky because not everyone is treated fairly. This scene happens while the students are reading current events, but Miss Gates obviously doesn’t know about current events.

Because Miss Gates thought that it was right to say that America treated everyone fairly during the civil rights movement, it makes me think that she is not the only one. Maybe people didn’t include persecuting blacks as unfair treatment. The way I suppose the people think is “they deserve it so it doesn’t count.” But as we know, this is not only unfair, but also untrue. The fact that Scout catches this mistake and asks her father about it says that maybe Miss Gates is off her rocker, but at least some people have some sense.

Miss Gates is an angering character in “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Even before she said this, Scout never really liked her. Scout seems like she is opposite from the community in her beliefs and her style. She does not believe in persecution of blacks and she does not want to become what her society calls a “lady”. So in some ways, she is not a very realistic character, but I think she relates to girls in modern times.

To Kill a Mockingbird 2

In “To Kill a Mockingbird”, the story slowly unravels to a different story. In my last blog post, I said that the story is about two kids, Scout and Jem, who want to get Boo Radley out of his house. Boo has never come out of his house before and there are many rumors about him.  But the story slowly turns into a suspenseful tale about an unfair court case.

Every so often, the story mentions that Scout and Jem’s father, Atticus, is defending an African American in the trial. This is unheard of and is causing much distress in the community. Throughout the whole story, the kids struggle to not fight or hurt people who call Atticus names and tease him, because hardly any white person in the town wants him to defend Tom Robinson. What I find strange, is that no one seems to realize that it was not Atticus’s choice to defend Tom, although he will do a much better job than most. The judge chose him as the lawyer and he could not say no. What is even more interesting, though, is that the judge choses Atticus on purpose because he wants Tom Robinson to win (I’m not guessing----it says this in the story). I find it really interesting that some people try to hurt Tom Robinson, especially the people who go to the jail to try and kill him, while some people, like Judge Taylor, want him to win the case.

 I think “To Kill a Mockingbird” takes place near the end of the civil rights movement because of the fact that some people do care about African Americans, but earlier this was probably not the case. There will always be a few whites that care and do not approve of their harsh treatments, but because in this case it is a judge who cares, it makes me think that this trial takes place in the late part of that time period. Why does Judge Taylor want Tom to win the trial? The book never tells us this much, but I have a feeling that he, just like Atticus, Jem, and Scout, wants the way that blacks are treated to change. He thinks that it is unfair and if Tom wins, then that town is one step closer to integration.

In the civil rights movement, everybody had a different view. This is a theme that comes out in this story. Some people absolutely despise blacks, and some people don’t really care one way or another. Atticus considers them like everyone else, and Judge Taylor feels bad for them. This is what made the times so hard: the fact that every person thought something different. And it makes this story all the more realistic by having this be a theme.

The Help 4

I am still reading “The Help” (because I have to read other books for the book bowl), which is about Skeeter’s book. She writes undercover and interviews maids to see what it is like to work for white families. I think that the book revolves around Hilly, the president of the League. She knows almost everybody in the town and all of the characters are afraid of her. “Help”, the title of Skeeter’s book, causes quite a ruckus in Jackson, Mississippi, and of course, Hilly is in the center of it.

 Hilly is a quirky character. On the one hand, she is very nice to all of her friends and has them over to play bridge and hang out. She has a popular side of her too, the side everyone sees most. She knows everyone in the town and always must know what is going on. But, she has a gossip side as well. Whenever she has the smallest hunch about Skeeter’s whereabouts or anyone else’s, she tells everyone she knows. She hurts many people this way. After Skeeter publishes her book, Hilly spread both true and false rumors about who is in the book. She tells people to fire their maids, and even send them to jail. But because of this, people are starting to realize that Hilly is not such a nice person. One woman, Lou Anne, tells Skeeter that Hilly is wrong and that she would never send her maid to jail, or even fire her. I think that later in the book, this will start a wave of rebels against Hilly. I predict Skeeter will become president of the League because people (only the people who believe what Hilly said about Skeeter writing the book) know she wrote the book, but are proud. Lou Anne already told Skeeter that she was not going to vote for Hilly again. One thing I wonder, though, is if Hilly knows that people don’t like it when she gossips. Does she know that she is only hurting herself though she thinks she is hurting other people? I think that if she did know that, she would stop telling people all of these things. But the fact that she changed her mind and now thinks that the book does not take place in Jackson (it does) makes me think that she knows she is spreading some false knowledge.

Hilly finds it entertaining to hurt people. She is known for revenge and does a good job holding up that title. But if it wasn’t for Skeeter, Hilly may not be liked in the town anymore. The book is making people realize that she is selfish and wants to see people suffer. But that will backfire, and fewer and fewer people will like Hilly, the same thing that had happened to Skeeter.

The Help 3

In “The Help”, the most important character changes often. First, it was Aibileen because she told much of the story which revolved around her. Then it was Skeeter because she had to write a book and find enough people to help her. Her book tells the story of how blacks feel working for whites. People disagree with it because no one has ever done this view before. After Skeeter’s time to shine comes Miss Celia Foote. She is probably my favorite character because she is so unique and outgoing. Miss Celia adds to the story by making it more complicated and adds suspense.

Celia is not friends with many people because she is new to the town. Her maid is Minny Jackson, who did something very bad (but hasn’t told the reader what yet) while working for Hilly. Hilly is a leader and has a lot of power and knows many people, so after this something happened, she tells everyone. This makes it very difficult for Minny to get hired. But Celia had just moved, so Minny gets the job from her. Celia has no idea what Minny did, so I think that she is the one who I can most relate to because she has the same amount of knowledge as the reader does. But no one (until Celia accidentally tells Hilly) knows that Minny works for her. Now Hilly is upset that Minny found work and she is mad at Celia for hiring her. Celia adds complications because now Hilly might tell her what Minny did that was so bad and Minny would have no work. No one else in the town will have her as a maid because of this one thing that she did. But Minny cannot ask Celia because that would give it away if Hilly actually hadn’t told her. Minny doesn’t know if Celia knows about what she did. This makes things very difficult for Minny, and it makes my head spin. This is sometimes what it feels like for me during group projects at school because I am not sure who is doing what or if they will actually do it and well. This makes me better know and understand the confusion in the story, and how each character’s lives get more and more complicated every chapter (or day).

The plot of “The Help” is very intricate with many details that bring the story to life. I think that most of the clutter and confusion is caused by Celia Foote. She adds to the story in so many ways, which is what makes it so complex. But it is also what makes the story so interesting and fun to read. It is probably one of my favorite books, and all because of one character: Celia Foote.