Racing in the Rain Quote

Yes the race is long-to finish first, first you must finish.

Is 'The Help' helping in stereotyping?

I can understand why the book is seen as aiding the stereotype of African Americans in the U.S.. The novel is centered around black domestic maids in Jackson, Mississippi who have to deal with horribly cruel employers and a harsh environment. I get that the author is white and that she writes in a southern dialect that some find offensive. However I don't see the novel as stereotypical as it is only telling it how it was. The author herself was raised by a black maid and wants to tell the story of how unfairly these women were treated. This is really how society treated the African American maids of the south and it was probably worse. The help actually had separate bathrooms in which they were required to use and were forced to return home in fear of violence from white extremists. Unlike Mammy in Gone with the Wind the African American women in The Help are strong and inspiring. The maids know that they are endangering themselves and their families by talking about the injustices done to them but decide that they must take a stand. They are brave women who leave their home and children in order to raise the children of their employers and provide for their family. The relationship between the children and the maids is like that of a mother and daughter or a mother and son and is appreciated by those children when they are old enough to realize who their true caretakers were. They are forever grateful of their maids who raised them and provided them with the affection they hadn't received from their parents. However when it comes time to hire a maid of their own they seem to conform to the mob mentality of society and refuse to treat these women with respect. They are the true cowards as they turn their backs on the women who raised them.

A West Virginia Journal

January 7, 1959

I’m following what the papers been writing about that couple from Virginia, the Lovings. It’s hard not to follow when they’re headlining every paper ‘round. What I’m getting at is the two were married in D.C. ‘cause there ain’t no law ‘gainst it there but then moved back to Virginia. Didn’t they know that in Virginia their marriage wasn’ gonna fly? Virginia is under strict code, has been for centuries, and this code is made to keep the whites and the blacks from mixin’.  They have to know as everybody knows that Jim Crow got his hands gripped tight round the South. They shoulda stayed in D.C. where no one would mind what color they are but now they in deep with the law. Just yesterday the two confessed guilty to violatin’ the interracial marriage ban and were given a year in the state penitentiary. I read that the only way for them to not go to jail is to leave the state. I don’t know what they are gonna do next, but if it were up to me I would get myself out of Virginia. I agree that the law needs to be changed but the way them folks going about it makes me uneasy. Not everyone is acceptin’ of change. All I sayin’ is that these two had been arrested for gettin’ married, not like they robbed a bank or stole an automobile, but it’s gonna take a lot for people down south to change the way they think. They been raised to believe that there ain’t no way a black girl and a white man are equal ‘nough to go on a get married and I don’t think that their mind is gonna change anytime soon. I am gonna keep on readin’ ‘bout these Lovings in the papers and I wish them the best. Who knows what could happen? Maybe this could be one of them landmark events that they teach kids ‘bout in the classrooms someday. I just wish them safety, wouldn’t want for them what happened in Arkansas with them students just tryin’ to go to school and gettin’ the near crud kicked outta them. Wonder whats gonna happen, but ‘til then, I’ll be readin'!

The House Holds All the Humans' Secrets

"If you were to tell the story of your world, your journey, how would you do it?"

 

My walls are far from bare. Pictures, paintings, clocks and even wreaths have found their ways to hooks, decorating each and every wall. I wouldn't say the extra weight is unpleasant, because it's not. It can shield from the sun and protect from the cold, besides, one can learn a lot by the art decorating a man's walls. And the ceiling, don't get me started. It seems as though my inhabitants are blind as the sheer number of lights which penetrate my walls are enough to light an entire football field, which, from my understanding, is quite large as I have never actually seen one myself. When the humans forget to turn out the lights, leaving their blinding shine glaring all night, I am utterly annoyed as I prefer the darkness. The humans with their human eyes, cannot see, if you even want to call it see as I don't have actual 'eyes', what I can. Perspective, in my opinion, is about experience. It's hard to gain perspective, being cemented in the ground, but I'll do my best to make due with the cards I've been dealt. As someone, once again one can argue that I'm not a someone but a something, who is only an observer I find it easy to criticize those who have inhabited my walls. What I'm trying to say, in so many words, is that I've done my share of watching. Now its time for someone to listen. This is my story. I know what goes on in every crack and every crevasse of this place. I've know for decades. This is also the story of the families who've lived within me. Oh, where are my manners? I should be well learned as a pleasant Protestant family with immaculate etiquette has once been residents. They were kind enough, a little dry for my tastes but served me well. The Cambells painted my walls with a lovely, pastel, eggshell purple, a lavender one can argue. But before I'm able to deviate again, I, as I am formally known, am the ranch-style home located at six Annette road.

My story, would be told from the point-of-view of the house.

Who knows the secrets of a family better than the house in which they reside? One can create a façade fooling the public, but once inside the comforts of their own home they return to their true nature.

Pets, becoming a part of the family?

My family's received countless Christmas cards where the dog is right smack in the middle of the picture, next to the smiling children. Americans today are treating their pets as members of their family, a child to care for and nurture. Dogs have come a long way from just being used as hunting companions or sheep herders. Two-thirds of American households own at least one pet, totaling to about 7.1 million. A reason for the increase in pet ownership is that it has become more affordable for Americans with the growth of the middle-class. Another huge reason pets have grown in numbers is their loving nature. Pets don't judge, they don't talk back, and they are completely loyal. They are the perfect companion and provide for a sense of stability in one's life. You know that when you return after a tough day your furry friend will be there waiting for you. They know how to cheer you up, the perfect time to help and what mood you're in. It's no wonder Americans are treating them as a valued part of the family. They care about the family just as a person would, protecting its master the best it can. If unconditional love isn't enough to be considered family, I don't know what is.

Goon Squad Character Map

http://prezi.com/qkuyo10krc70/a-visit-from-the-goon-squad-character-map/

Time's a Goon.

This novel sets out to send a message: as time goes on trends fade, and as those trends fade it is replaced by the next hot topic of discussion. That new topic will eventually become a thing of the past as tomorrow's generation has created something bigger and better. This constant cycle of replacing and adapting is addressed by Egan through an array of characters. She depicts them throughout different stages of their life, well adapt to society's culture and what was expected of them by their generation. As a teen, Bennie was focus on his drive to make it as a punk rocker, complete with a Mohawk and a dream. When he reaches adulthood Bennie is still in music business, however he has lost his drive to make it as a musician. He has become a record executive, conformed to what society expected as having the dream to become a musician is unfitting and unrealistic. Readers see how time and expectation shaped the course of Bennie's life, taking his dreams and aspirations and crushing them, crushing them into thin pieces of gold to be poured upon the coffee cup that is life. Goon Squad is a novel about aging, about being forced to grow up, and being forced to accept it.

 

Why is fitting this book into a defined literary category such an imperative and daunting task? Does it add to the plot discovering once and for all that Goon Squad is in fact a novel? The form is challenged throughout the book only adding to the storyline, so the necessity to categorize Goon Squad only takes away from its overall effect. There needs to be no definite form in literature; unique narrative thrives off the complex blending of genres and writing styles and to constrain such elements is to eradicate innovation in literature. The emotional response Goon Squad draws from its readers wouldn't have been accomplished if the novel was constructed any other way. The PowerPoint, newspaper article, and second person writing style works. It's crazy but they work. We see inside the mind of the characters, they become real to the reader, taking on a persona of their own, one in which a narrator would be unable to capture.

 

 

 Pushing boundaries, breaking from tradition, and separating from the norm, these ideals have become a part of today's society, one that champions originality and encourages creativity. Egan takes the notion of new and unexpected and runs with it, as no one could have predicted the end result. What Egan creates is an innovative novel that captures the reader's attention with its constant spanning of time and characters as each chapter's perspective is up for grabs. I have never read a novel like this before. I have never had the experience of reading a book and not knowing which characters were to be introduced, what stories were coming, and which time period the story was to be taking place. What results is a novel that requires one to think and engage in what's happening and because of the effort required of the readers there is an attachment to the characters as you've become invested in their stories and lives.

 

 

What is going to become of my generation when our children are the innovators? Egan gives us a hint of the future with her final chapter of speculative fiction. She warns of children becoming reliant on technology at a young age and that marketing has become directed to appeal to their age group. This thought scares me. I am afraid to think that I am going to become the grandmother who annoys her grandson, begging him to explain this shiny new contraption or the bright new gadget. Readers are shown how time can pass a person by and how society, with its superficial standards, is continuously striving for the next innovative breakthrough.

 

 

"I used to rule the world, seas would rise when I gave the word; now in the morning I sleep alone, sweep the streets I used to own."

 

Time's a goon.