Our Dystopian Project

As a group for the past few weeks we have been working on a dystopian project. Out task is to build and create our own dystopian life. We were to include as much information as we could, things like people , cars , life still , etc. for everyone of the above we were to go into more detail.... Hair color, height , and skin color.we throw around a lot of ideas for this city we were to make and we came up with a world run by Apple and Siri was who we listened to. We were to take every command from Siri. There is much more to this story but I don't want to ruin it before we even present. This project has been pretty interesting thought , because it forces you to think outside the box.

The Help

      The first novel I have chosen the read is The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I decided to read this book because after watching the movie i was in love. People always told me that reading the book is better because you get every detail. The Help is a story based on African American women maids who lived in Mississippi in the 1960's , and their struggles with the white society around them. 
       The book is written in many different perspectives , making it easier to understand everyone of the maids thoughts and feelings throughout the process of making the book. The three main characters are Aibileen , Skeeter and Minny. Aibileen is the maid for the Leefolt family , where her biggest job is to take care of their toddler. Minny is the maid that speaks her mind without ever thinking about what could happen. Skeeter just graduated from Old Miss College, she hopes to become a writer, and she does not believe in what is happening in the south. Skeeter believes that it doesn't matter what skin tone you are , you are still a person who should receive respect. Her idea to come up with writing this book came from losing someone very close to her. Ever since Skeeter was a little girl her family had a maid by the name of Constantine , who became Skeeters best friend.  Skeeter and Constantine did everything together , so when Skeeter came back from college and there was no sign of Constantine she decided that she would help write a book to voice these maids opinions. Throughout the book i am expecting to be reading more into depth about each maids experience. 

Les Miserables

In my book, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, the author begins telling us the story of man named M. Myriel, describing him under the title of "A Just Man". Hugo details the story of how this man ended up becoming the renowned bishop of a town by the name of D---- (Hugo doesn't explicitly state the names of the main cities in his novel, probably so that the reader is not tempted to check the historical accuracy of the events, but rather view them as a separate piece of history). Hugo then describes the extreme selflessness of this man, who the townspeople end up calling "Monseigneur Bienvenu" because of the extent of his generosity.

Hugo goes into great detail about this man, but surprisingly enough, this character doesn't even make it past the first-tenth of the book. Rather, the focus is shifted towards a character named Jean Valjean, a galley slave who has recently been freed from his 17-year sentence in prison. Jean Valean meets M. Myriel and is originally seen as a sort of minor character who although pitiable, was an ideal "foil" of M. Myriel, possesing a deeply ingrained hatred of society and mankind as opposed to M. Myriel's love and care for society. Yet the incredible detail Hugo attributes to (what can be seen as) the sub-plot of M. Myriel helps the reader understand the extent in which he is able to impact our protagonist Jean Valjean. M. Myriel shows Jean Valjean extreme compassion, accepting him into his house, feeding him, offering him his most prized possession, and saving him from arrest officers, on terms that Jean Valjean turns his life around and follows the path of God. After rejection from every house and every Tavern in D---, this profoundly impacts Jean Valjean, and our knowledge of the story of M. Myriel helps the reader see exactly how and why.

Almost all the life and actions of Jean Valjean in the rest of the book seem to be directly caused by the effect of M. Myriel on him. By using this tactic of emphasizing a sub-plot in great detail then tying it back into the main plot, Hugo is able to vastly increase the emotional and literary depth of his story and progress the plot and show character changes in ways that most authors are unable to. He uses this interesting technique several times in the text-- almost every time he introduces a major character. In fact, he uses this technique three times (so far, at the point where I am in the story) to describe the protagonist, once as "Jean Valjean", once as "a stranger saving a child", and once as "Monsieur Madeleine", showing the reader different perspectives of  the same character and increasing the reader's understanding of him/her.