I’m a little late in this whole reading thing…writing has never been a problem for me, somehow..but reading…ehh, not so much. Until recently (like last five years-ish) I’d NEVER completed a novel. EVER. Children’s books are different, obviously shorter…better stated sometimes…and the pictures always helped too. Couldn’t ever focus or stay awake long enough to read an entire book.
Until….something miraculous happened, it’s as though God pressed a button and magically, I liked to read. In a Disney book it would go something like this:
Once upon a time there was a little princess who loved reading books, and looking at the beautiful pictures. As the princess grew older she decided she didn’t want to read books anymore and so she read only as much as she needed to take her tests at princess academy. But one day she was given a big, long novel by her loving fairy God-Mother and told to just try..The fairy God-Mother must have sprinkled her magic dust on the book because the princess couldn’t put it down. She loved to read again! And so she read all kinds of books and told her fairy God-mother all the wonderful stories she’d heard. And they both lived happily ever after. The End. (roll credits)
Yeah, something like that..
My newest book addition was recommended by my sister Mary, she told me about The Help back before the movie was being previewed. She had just read it with her book club and knew I would love it. And I did. Then I found out about the movie. There couldn’t be a better motivator for me to complete a book that if there’s a new movie about it. I will admit there were a handful of times in high school that I would start reading a book, get the idea and then just rent the movie to gain the knowledge in order to take a test/quiz. Admitted. BUT, now that I actually like reading, I was really thrilled especially given this particular book to see the movie.
What are your own thoughts on The Help? Did you catch things that were unexplained and/or different in the movie vs. the book? Anything you were surprised by?
Looking at the whole picture, I have to admit, the subject matter in the book/movie was hard to read and watch for a lot of reasons. Not only is that our own American History…but the kind of lively hood that people put up with is astounding to me. The way men and women of color were able to function under those circumstances is by God’s grace alone. In closer detail, the love shown (especially to children) despite the treatment of some of the people these men and women worked for is such a beautiful testimony.
Did you find it strange that in the book Mrs. Phelan was portrayed as dying and in the movie she didn’t seem all that bad?? That bother anyone else? What about the background on Rachel? I feel like that was kind of major and had I not read the book the gravity of she and Constantine being thrown out wouldn’t have made as big an impact. The dinner with Stuart’s parents was left out, along with some of the details of Minny’s work at The Foote’s.
Overall, I would give the screen-writer and A, seeing as there was SO much material to get into a manageable time frame for the movie. I thought the characters all did a fantastic job being who the book depicted them as. Especially Minny. Lord have mercy, was she perfect! Great book, great movie.
hendersonlane 