Ronda B’s Comments (group member since Jul 02, 2011)

Ronda B’s comments from the readHERs group.

Hi Shannon, I have an iPad. Let me know what I need to do.

RB

I'm really enjoying my reading. I've recommended this book to 3 people already. I tried to slow my reading, so I'm now in chapter 20.

-I, too, like how Skeeter is becoming self-aware. As she's been working with the maids, she's learning more about her views on life and her views of herself (Shannon I geeked over you using "dynamic character" because I teach that term to my students). I have to have a lot of patience for Skeeter, though. She has lived in a bubble for so long and this becomes evident when she talks to Elaine Stein. Stein is basically like do you seriously believe, with everything that's going on in Mississippi, you're going to get black maids to talk to you? And Skeeter says, "The inteviews would be conducted secretly. Since you know things are a little dangerous around here." Dangerous was quite the understatement and that's why Stein laughed. And I laughed at the word "secret." Skeeter has no idea of what would happen to those women if what they're doing was discovered. That's the kind of ignorance that gets people killed.

-One line that resonates with me is on page 100. It's when Aibileen is talking to Skeeter about her son's book idea and she asks Skeeter not tell. Skeeter thinks, "Even though he's dead, the instinct to be afraid for her son is still there." This just makes me think about how dangerous those times were. You still weren't safe even in the grave!

-One question I have is do little girls who grow up loving their maids end up hating them to gain affection from their mothers? I ask because Aibileen talks about this at least 2 times. Right now Mae Mobley's dying for affection from her mom. It's obvious Mae loves her even though Elizabeth has nothing to do with her. When Mae gets older, would she purposefully shun Aibileen so that she and her mother could have something in common?

-One more thing--another favorite line pg 176--This is Minny talking, "I guess that's when I understood what shame was and the color of it too. Shame ain't black, like dirt, like I always thought it was. Shame be the color of a new white uniform your mother ironed all night to pay for, white without a smudge or a speck of work-dirt on it."

Now that I think about it, maybe Skeeter's mom knew that her husband wasn't the baby daddy, but Constantine was fired because Skeeter's mom was afraid that people would think her husband had an affair with a black woman.

Aibileen and Minny are my favorites so far. I'm a little skeptical of Skeeter, though. I think the author tries to present her as a likeable character, but I don't appreicate how she's asking Aibileen for help with the column but hasn't offered to pay her anything for it. If a white person would have been helping her, she would've offered to pay. I think Skeeter means well, but she just doesn't "get it." Aibileen even says on pg 12 "Cause that's one a the stupidest questions I ever heard," when Skeeter asked, "Do you ever wish you could . . . change things?" This doesn't make her a bad person; it just shows that she's _____ (ugh, can't think of the word I want to use here).

Hello Ladies. My name is Ronda (18~KO~04). I'm an English teacher and I love reading but what I love even more is discussing great literature. This is my first online book club and I'm excited to be in this group:0)