Personal Narrative: A Life-Changing Book

A Life-Changing Book I have loved reading ever since I was a little girl. Many times my mom would have trouble pulling me back into reality if I was hooked on a new book. For me, reading as always been a way to escape reality; experience adventure, mystery, and romance without even leaving my house. I think the reason I love to read so much is because I can travel the world, see famous people, and hear stories of life in the past by just opening a book. These amazing objects can convey every possible emotion I could be feeling. This feeling is why I had such a hard time choosing a topic for this essay. There are so many books I like because most of them have impacted or changed my mind-set in one way or another, so choosing a favorite for this essay was very difficult. But, for the sake writing of writing this essay, I decided to write about a book that changed the way I thought about my life and the life of others, The Help. If I had to describe The Help in three words to someone who had never read it, I would probably start by calling it realistic, life-changing, and eye-opening. This book by Kathryn Stockett brings a very controversial subject to a world that might have been too nervous to bring it up before. Many would call her very brave and courageous for taking on this book because it is about how the black people, the maids in particular, were treated during a very hard time in America’s history. In this book, two black maids in the Civil Rights Era write a book about their life and the lives of other maids in the community. Most of the stories written by the women consisted of how their lives had been living with white women, and they were often about how they were poorly treated in this society of white people. The book changes when one white woman is a little different than the rest and the maids actually help her grow into a better person. I never expected this book to have this much meaning to me, but there were a couple topics that made me want to make a change as a person. One specific subject from the book that really made me frustrated is that the white women found it completely disgusting the use the same restroom as the maid. I knew white people at the time thought this was completely normal, but I guess I had never read a book that put this into the perspective of the black person. Most …show more content…
After reading this book, I got an idea of how easy my life has been. When my mom first introduced me to this book, she warned me that there were some subjects and words that I might not be ready to hear or read about. She told me this would open my eyes to a life that I knew little about, and she was right. I was not prepared for how much this book would influence my life. After reading this, I have had such a drive to make sure I never make someone feel as horrible as these people felt back then. I am so much more careful about the words I say and how they influence people. I have a much greater understanding and care for how people are treated around the world. This is a book that I believe everyone should read at some point in their