Summer Reading List

This summer, I have decided to dedicate a great deal of time to reading. I have never been a big reader, mostly because I just haven't had the time to be, but this summer is all about relaxing and enjoying my time. I want to read the books that have been on my list for years and never got around to, as well as a few newer additions to the list. My goal is to read books that will actually benefit me in ways other than just entertainment. For starters, I plan to read all of the Shakespeare plays that I have yet to read. I am going to school for acting so I figure not only will this be entertaining reading, but actually necessary. It is a great background to be able to relate to any other show I am in or any script that I read. Not to mention, I would absolutly love to be in another Shakespeare show, as I have only done one: Much Ado About Nothing freshman year. In addition to Shakespeare, I want to read a couple of other books that I think will be beneficial to anyone interested in film. The books like Atonement and Pride and Predjudice are classics that were turned into films. Not only are these supposed to be great pieces of litterature, but they are also highly acclaimed films and I think it is very interesting to see how books translate onto the screen and how the actors take the characters from a well known novel and make them their own, while still staying true to the characters. Then there are biographies I want to read of actors who talk about their life and how they got to the place they are today. Bossypants is my first autobiography that I plan to read this summer because Tina Fey has becaome a very successful and talented comedian and her book is supposed to be focused on her career more than her personal life. Then there are plenty of plays that I plan to read from more modern playwrites such as Neil Simon, Mary Zimmerman, Tennesse Williams, and Arthur Miller. These are well known plays that any actor should be familiar with. My hope is that by reading these plays, which are all fairly quick reads, I will be able to understand more of what my acting teachers and directors are talking about in college. Finally, I plan to read a couple of books that are going to be made into movies in the near future such as the second and third in the Hunger Games series, in the wishful thinking that maybe one day I will be fortunate enough to be auditioning for these films. And finally, I will be finishing off all of the many books I have started during junior and senior year but never got around to finishing. These include, Love Is A Mixtape, He's Just Not That Into You, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, The Carrie Diaries, and Sugar and Spice. Now, I'll be honest, I don't expect to get all of these books that I have mentioned in this post read this summer, but I will do my best to get as many read as possible!!

The Help, Post # 5: How Important Is a Toilet?

If someone had told me a year ago that I would be reading a book where one of the main conflicts revolves around a toilet, I would have said you were absolutely crazy. In Kathryn Stockett's novel, The Help, the toilets actually play a major role in the central storyline because they are actually used as a way of showing supperiority. The colored workers are no longer allowed to use the bathrooms in their white employers home. Their employers begin building them toilets for outside so that the colored workers don't share their supposed diseases with their employer's family. This idea still continues to baffle me. I can not even try to wrap my mind around how insulting and dehumanizing this would be to the black community. The biggest insult of all occurred when Hilly, the cruelest of all the white women in the town and the one who came up with this "colored bathroom" idea, forced one of the maids to actually thank her for the bathroom. That would be like someone punching you straight in the gut and then having to thank them for it. The conversation was painful even just to read because of how awful it must have felt for Aibileen. 

The conversation went like this: "Aibileen," Hilly continued, "how do you like your new bathroom out there? It's nice to have a place of your own, now isn't it." Aibileen stared at the crack in the dining table. "Yes ma'am." "you know, Mister Holbrook arranged for that bathroom, Aibileen. Sent the boys over and the equipment, too." Hilly smiled. Aibileen just stood there and wished I wasn't in the room. Please, I thought, please don't say thank you. "Yes ma'am." Aibileen opened a drawer and reached inside, but Hilly kept looking at her. It was so obvious what she wanted. Another Second Passed with no one moving. Hilly cleared her throat and finally Aibileen lowered her head. "Thank you, ma'am," she whispered."

This is such cruel and demeaning behavior and the fact of the matter is that these colored workers could not do a thing about it. If they stood up for themselves and spoke their minds about how they were mistreated, they would be fired, black listed from every place of employment around, and there is a good chance that they would be physically assaulted. This was the straw that broke the camel's back for Aibileen, however. After this incident, she finally agreed to help Skeeter with her novel and to give her interviews on what it was really like to work for a white family in Jacksonville. So it turns out, there is something people can do when mistreated to this degree. They can work together for change just as Aibileen and Skeeter decide to do.

The Help, Post # 4: A Daughter's Worst Nightmare

Although it is one of the less prominent themes of the novel, I definitely think body image is a part of Kathryn Stockett's novel, The Help, that can not go unnoticed. It is certainly not the central issue for the character of Skeeter in the novel, but there is an obvious reoccurring theme of Skeeter beating up on herself for not being the most attractive girl out of her friends. And the spark that ignites this insecurity in her is her own mother. Skeeter's mom is constantly pushing the ideas that she needs to fit the stereotypical expectations of the girls in their town. Her mom tells her that she is too tall and awkward looking. Her mom pours chemicals onto her hair that even start to make her scalp burn in an attempt to flatten out her curly locks. She is constantly nagging her daughter about not being married while the rest of her friends are. She discourages her daughter from writing for the local newspaper and focuses more on her daughter's lack of a love life than her true interests in life. The problem that is presented in this aspect of the book is one that is very prevalent in our modern society, even more than in that day and age. I think this issue is one that many girls around Skeeter's age and younger face. The pressures put on them by parents, friends, peers, the media, and their own minds, tell them that it is not acceptable to have any appearance that falls outside of the parameters of perfection. It is this pressure to look perfect that causes girls to develop eating disorders, self destructive behavior, depression, or to even bully other girls for not fitting the stereotypical look that is expected of them. Skeeter's mom was the force pushing her to "perfect" her looks and "fix" her flaws because she didn't believe that her daughter would ever find a husband if she looked so out of the ordinary. Skeeter was tall and gangly with immensely frizzy and curly hair and she was not what would be considered a beauty queen, but she was still a lovely young lady. More importantly, she was one of the most intelligent, kind hearted, and determined women in her town, yet that detail always seemed to get ignored by the other girls around her. This unhealthy obsession about looks outweighed the importance of brains or heart. This is a flaw that our society still faces. Unfortunately, the way to combat this issue is to convince people to believe in themselves and to not take the judgments of others to heart. This is obviously easier said than done, but it starts with each individual telling themselves that it is the inside that counts and that they ARE enough; that they don't have to change anything about themselves in order to find happiness in life. I hope that one day our society can learn to think in those terms, though I question if it can every truely be a reality as long as it continues to come from girls own mothers. Skeeter's mom was the one telling her she was never enough and had to alter her looks to find love. That is the most damaging thing a mother can tell her daughter and perhaps the most flawed part of mother-daughter relationships in our society today.

The Help, Post # 3: The Social Status of Women

Throughout this novel, there are several examples of the poor social status and negative stereotypes that existed for women at the time. Unfortunately, many of these unflattering ideas about women still exist in some people's minds. In The Help, however, this theme is far more prevalent than in our modern and liberal town of Deerfield. The fact that women are looked down upon in their society is made clear at multiple points in the book, whether it be Celia Foote trying desperately to make her home as beautiful as possible and fill her husband's stomach with delicious and flawlessly cooked meals with the help of her maid Minny, or whether it be the judgmental reaction people have to the fact that Skeeter is more interested in working and becoming a journalist than she is in getting married. One moment that particularly captures that attitude of women being inferior to men and not belonging in the workplace, occurred when Skeeter was on a double date with Hilly, Hilly's husband William, and a young, arrogant man named Stuart. Skeeter is the kind of girl that works hard and doesn't let others intimidate or discourage her in the many ambitious endeavors she sets out on. She is working at a newspaper, writing the domestic maintenance column in an effort to work her way up to the role of a news journalist. When she tells her date about her college degree and current place of employment, however, he is less than supportive of her ambition. He makes one snide and insulting comment after another, staring with, "Domestic maintenance. You mean… housekeeping? Jesus. I can't think of anything worse than reading a column on how to clean house, except maybe writing one," (118). He goes on to say, "Sounds like a ploy to me, to find a husband. Becoming an expert on keeping house," (118) and then further insults her by discrediting her college education in journalism by asking, "Isn't that what you women from Ole Miss major in? Professional husband hunting?" (118). Luckily, Skeeter is a quick witted young woman and didn't let him bring her down, simply spitting an insult back at him by saying, "I'm sorry, but were you dropped on your head as an infant?" (119). The most troubling part of this whole conversation is that it is so easy for Stuart to insult a woman and feel as if he can easily tare down her self-esteem when it comes to her right to have a career and be a self sufficient woman without needing a man to lean on and to tell her what to do. Although we have made immense strides in our modern society in America in terms of the status and rights of women and their equality to men, there are many parts of the world where the situation is far worse than even in this novel. Fortunately, Americans have paved the way for women to be taken seriously and to hold even higher places in society than men sometimes. After all, Hilary Clinton was nearly elected for President of the United States of America. So hopefully any women that are spoken to like this in our modern day society have the confidence and self-assurance to spit an insult at the man who doubted her rights and abilities just as Skeeter does.

A Few Good Men

In class, we've been watching the film A Few Good Men. It has been a very interesting story so far and not quite what I expected. I had anticipated a very clear hero and a very clear enemy in the movie. Unfortunately, I think that's more accurate to how real life works. It is not cut and dry. It is not always clear who is guilty or to what degree they are guilty. In this movie, for example, the two men accused of murdering another soldier are debatably good or debatably bad. They did kill Santiago, that I'm not denying. However, they were ordered to do so by their marine officer. At first this did not seem too significant of an excuse. How could a man just kill another man because he was "ordered" to do so. Anyone could say, "hey, Lauren, go kill that guy over there," but why would I ever actually listen to them and commit such a crime? After the lawyers presented their arguments, however, I began to wrap my mind around what these soldiers are trained to do and trained to believe. An order is an order. Following orders are what these men are trained to live for once they become soldiers. To understand who is guilty and who is innocent in a court case is not always going to be black and white. I wasn't sure how Tom Cruise and Demi Moore's characters could possibly be representing the good guys if they were representing the murderers. But sure enough, these men were good men. These killers were not killers at heart, just soldiers. I am not saying that they should be forgiven and let off the hook completely, but they clearly were not the most malicious of the characters in this situation. This film has allowed me to gain a new perspective into the court system and to better understand why not to judge at the first impression. A lawyer, or really anyone in this world, must try to fully understand where another is coming from before we can assess their character and pass judgment on them. Life is far from black and white. In fact, it's mostly gray. That is what this film has pointed out to me. These lawyers had to make clear the difference between how regular men understand an order and how soldiers understand in order for me to comprehend who these men were inside. And when I finally did begin to understand the difference, it was clear that these two men were not murderers, they were just taken advantage of by their superior officer. He was the true murderer in the case.

The Help, Post # 2: Standing Up, No Matter the Challenge

Standing up for oneself is not an easy task in any situation. But a black woman standing up for herself in the racist atmosphere of the south just a few decades ago, that takes more courage than almost any situation I could imagine. In Kathryn Sockett's novel, The Help, Skeeter is trying to write a book that will tell the first hand accounts of the colored women working as maids for white families in the South. She is a young, white girl with a great ambition and honorable motives, as she explains that her reasoning for wanting to write the book is because "everyone knows how we white people feel, the glorified Mammy figure who dedicates her whole life to a white family, Margaret Mitchell covered that. But no one ever asked Mammy how she felt about it," (106). She feels horribly for the black women who are forced to work for these cruel and demoralizing white families. She sees the inequality and the cruelty of it as she explains their relationship with these maids. Skeeter says that "they raise a white child and then twenty years later the child becomes the employer. It's that irony, that we love them and they love us," (105-106), and still the white people "don't even allow them to use the toilet in the house," (106). She sees the injustice and even though it's not her that is being mistreated, she knows that it is her obligation as a decent human being to put an end to it.
Elaine Stein, the woman Skeeter is trying to pitch the idea of this book to, however, sees the nearly impossible challenge of finding women who are willing to take that chance and stand up for themselves against the white families by sharing their personal stories of being mistreated at work. Stein points out the unlikely-hood of finding a woman to share her story in this racist town when she says, "I read your outline. It's certainly… original, but it won't work. What maid in her right mind would ever tell you the truth?" (106). She further pointed out the rare chance of a colored maid standing up against the white families when she questions Skeeter by asking, "this Negro actually agreed to talk to you candidly? About working for a white family? Because that seems like a hell of a risk in a place like Jackosn, Mississippi," (106). Stein, like most people living as bystanders in an unjust society, believed that there was no way around this cruelty and no way to end it. She did not believe that anybody would take the risk of standing up against it.
Later on in the story, however, several maids do agree to actually take part in these interviews. The question is, what is the breaking point that makes someone who was always terrified to take a stand finally find the courage to do so? I believe it was when they felt circumstances simply couldn't get much worse than they already were. They became completely fed up with how the white citizens treated them and decided that they had finally run out of options. It was time to reveal the cruelty they endured from their employers. It was this desire to humiliate the men and women they worked for who treated them like garbage that drove these maids to take a stand. It was the need to unveil the racism that was surrounding them in hopes of finally making a change. Taking a stand is generally done with the intention of creating change. I suppose that's the answer to my question then. It is the desire to see improvement, to see equality, and to see a real change that drives a person to risk their own lives and everything they have in order to take a stand.

What is to come after graduation?

For those of you who don’t already know, I’m a major television junkie. I watch all of your typical teen television shows like One Tree Hill, The O.C., Dawson’s Creek, 90210, Pretty Little Liars, and all of those other CW shows. What do all of these shows have in common, you might ask? The characters were all in high school. It’s not that I expected everything in real life to be exactly as it was on the screen, but I at least had a general idea of what to look for. We saw examples of how to have a romantic first date on the beach, how to cope with a break-up through ice cream and movie marathons, or how to fool your parents so you can sneak out to a rock concert. We saw all of these typical high school stereotypes time and time again on these shows, and they did somewhat prepare us for encountering these events in our own lives.

The problem is, none of these shows prepared me for what to expect in college. Seriously, why do they all skip the college years?! Can the writers really not make a storyline worth watching? One Tree Hill skipped over their college years and went straight from high school graduation to the characters returning after college graduation. The O.C. showed one season of college, but pretty much only showed their time spent at home on school breaks during that year. They only lasted one year of college in Buffy the Vampire Slayer before all of the characters dropped out. Shows like 90210 and Gossip Girl just got too unrealistic and out of touch when the characters went to college, that they weren’t even worth watching anymore.

Now, I am well aware of how ridiculous it must sound to say that I look to television for life advice and to set an example of what to expect in certain situations, but the truth is that we all do it. I looked to TV to know what to expect during my four years of high school, and I expected to be able to look to it for college. The truth is, nothing can prepare us for what is coming our way after graduation. At first that was a terrifying thought, but I finally saw the positive. College will be unpredictable. No tv show can accurately depict college life because it will be such different for each of us. We can study abroad, get internships, play on our college’s sports teams, perform on their stages, or write for their school’s paper. From here on out, nothing is as simple and predictable as it looks on tv. Our futures are in our own hands and we can write any script we want for them. Nobody can plot out what our experiences will be like, what kind of characters we will encounter, or what choices we will be faced with. Our futures are unscripted, and suddenly that’s not such a frightening idea. It’s thrilling. The future is ours to create.

These past four years have been amazing, but the next four will be all the more exciting. College will allow us to take our passions one step further. This is our chance to follow through on our passions and explore our minds more than ever before. These next four years will be unpredictable. There is nothing telling us what we should expect anymore. We can do whatever we want; go whatever we want; and be whomever we want. Our futures are ours to write. Don’t fear the unknown. Welcome the unexpected.