Chapter9-16

Guiding Questions

Q1 How does Skeeter’s date end?

Skeeter was called major in professional husband hunting. And in the end Stuart was drunk and laughed at the truck she drove. The first date ended in unhappiness.

Q2 Why can’t Celia become friends with Holly’s group?

There's no way those two could be friends. Celia's husband dumped Hilly in college and Hilly was the leader of the League. Everyone was trying to please her and they knew the stories.

Q3 In which way does Aibileen agree to continue the interview with Skeeter?

Aibileen writes down her stories like she writes her prayers, and reads them to Skeeter.

Q4 What do you think of the story(fragmented) Aibileen tells that the injured white boy is sent to a colored hospital?

Aibileen sent that boy to the colored hospital because of her kindness and she didn't know any white ones. However, when she got there, they told her colored doctors won't operate on a white person.

Q5 What is Minny’s attitude towards Skeeter like when she first accepts the interview?

Minny worries about doing this kind of things will get her in trouble and seems to be bossy a lot to Skeeter even though she accepts the interview.?

Q6 Why does Skeeter finally agree to go on a date with Stuart again?

That's the magic power of love! Stuart went to her and showed his sincerity. Skeeter was hesitating but finally stepped forward.

My Ideas

I believe when you read to this part, you've already figured out that Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny are the main characters of this novel. Among all these characters, including Celia, I like Skeeter the most. She has her own way of living her life and treating things and people. That's really hard for girls to even think about it, not to mention she did so at such a period of time. Never give a fuck about others opinion. Never live her life for others. She has the courage to do something different and to change something, like the situation of colored people. As for her attitude towards love, I also stand on her side. Not marry a person just for marriage. But she is also an alive demonstration of do-not-trust-girls theory.?

I like the part when Stuart came to apologize the most.

“Believe me, Mama,” I say, putting on lipstick anyway. “Jesus wouldn’t like him either.” I brush my hair because I know it’s awful. I even wash the typewriter ink and correcting fluid off my hands and elbows. But I won’t change clothes, not for him.?

These internal monologues make me think of the Chinese old proverb:女為悅己者容. The only difference was Skeeter really meant it when she thought so.?

But her minds changed a bit by a bit.

I look away because he’s cute in an overgrown boy kind of way and it’s not something I want to be thinking right now. I want him to leave—I don’t want to feel this awful feeling again, yet I hear myself saying, “What do you mean, not ready?”

This is the first time Skeeter has shown the sigh of falling into love. And when Stuart sent the invitation to her, she thought and said:

I stand there, shocked. His eyes are blue and clear and fixed on me like my answer might really mean something to him. I take in a deep breath, about to say yes —I mean, why would I of all people refuse—and he bites his bottom lip, waiting.

And then I think about how he treated me like I was nothing. How he got shit-dog drunk he was so miserable to be stuck with me. I think about how he told me I smelled like fertilizer. It took me three months to stop thinking about that comment.

“No,” I blurt out. “Thank you. But I really can’t imagine anything worse.”

And then she thought of her first kiss watching Stuart's leaving and said,

“Just give me a minute,” I holler out to him. “Let me get my sweater.”

What a beautiful scene! ?

Expressions

1. latch on(to)

I latched on to this small connection. “So . . . you know what it’s like then.”

latch 既作名詞也作動詞，表示n. 門閂，和v. 把門閂扣上

latch on 在這里表示抓住蚂且、理解、弄懂虚吟、明白御蒲。

=understand

例句：We really don't latch on to what he talked about.

造句：Every time I had the math classes, I didn't latch on to what the teacher talked about.?

2. call one's bluff

I couldn’t believe Missus Stein was already calling my bluff.

揭露某人的虛張聲勢掘剪，就是戳穿了。

3. purse

I pursed my lips. “She has agreed. Yes, she has.”?

purse 我們知道是女士的手提袋蜀备，但是在這里作動詞使用关摇，表示使皺起，使縮攏碾阁，就是撅嘴。

例句：She pursed her lips with disgust.

4. have a fit

“Please, Miss Skeeter. Miss Leefolt have a fit if she find you giving me cash,” Aibileen whispers.

fit做名詞時有壞脾氣的意思 n. a display of bad temper?

have a fit 也指大發(fā)雷霆些楣、大發(fā)脾氣脂凶，通常用在口語中

原文中還出現(xiàn)過幾次，不過都是Aibileen說的愁茁，她每次說的時候都有語法錯誤蚕钦。

5. excruciating

She doesn’t know about my date tonight and if she somehow finds out, the next three months will be full of excruciating questions like “Did he call?” and “What did you do wrong?” when it doesn’t work out.

excruciate?v. 折磨；使苦惱鹅很；使受酷刑嘶居，所以-ing和-ly分別是它的形容詞和副詞形式

例句：It was just an accidental bang to my arm but the pain was excruciating.?

造句：It's turning cold these days and my headache is excruciating.

6. beam

“Francis the First is just dreamy,” I beam. “Why, I pull those forks out all the time just to look at them.”

If you say that someone is beaming, you mean that they have a big smile on their face because they are happy, pleased, or proud about something. 綻開笑容

我們知道beam通常作為名詞指一束光，鐳射等 比如a beam of light 促煮， 或者作為橫梁邮屁。但是在這里作動詞，用來表示滿臉笑容菠齿，展開笑容佑吝。

例句：Frances beamed at her friend with undisguised admiration.

造句：The mother beamed when she saw her son coming back home.

7. whisk off

Hilly whisks me off to her dressing room and we both start groaning. It’s just so goddamn awful.

whisk本身是指攪動、拂绳匀、撣等芋忿，brush or wipe off lightly?

在這里指take away quickly and suddenly

8. slip

這個詞在全書中總共出現(xiàn)了50詞之多。

大家還記得在文章開始的時候講到的Treelore滑倒被車撞的情形嗎疾棵？

He slip off the loading dock, fell down on the drive.

這里slip off是指滑倒戈钢，滑落。再來看另一句：

Finally, I slip out to the hall, pray nobody see me.

顯然是尔，這里slip out是指溜出殉了，悄悄溜出來了。

And I feel all the breath slip out of me.

I slip past Mother in the dining room, invisible Pascagoula dusting pictures in the hall, up my steep, vicious stairs.

“I’ll be right back,” I say and I slip into the kitchen, carrying my satchel with me.

還有很多嗜历，就不一一列舉宣渗，大家在后面閱讀的時候可以留意，很多時候梨州，作者很多時候都是用來表達悄悄地溜痕囱，有點類似sneak