Book Review: The Help

A few months ago I was visiting my grandparents and my Grandmom handed me a few books that she got from the used book swap at the retirement community where they live.. She always gets really current books in really good shape because I guess once you’re retired you buy it, you read it, you’re done with it. That particular day she handed me Water for Elephants and The Help because she knew both were being made into movies. I had already seen Water for Elephants (even thought I hate hate hate seeing the movie before reading the book) but loved it!! But I promised myself I would read The Help before it came out this summer… well I started it and didn’t immediately get hooked. It seemed like it was just going to be a collection of stories from both points of view and I didn’t see much of a plot. Once I saw the trailer for the movie and realized there really was a plot, I knew I had to keep reading. Plus a good friend of mine said she was totally hooked and I had to push through and get into it. So I put it on my Summer Bucket List. And this past week I finished it. And I happened to be at work. And I sat there at the desk with tears running down my face because I couldn’t believe it was over. It was that good.

And so today, in honor of the movie coming out, I’m throwing a book club… actually it can only be a book club if people leave comments and their opinions (so do that!!). Otherwise it’s a book review… which is a little less exciting but still quite fun.

 

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Help takes place in Jackson, Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement. The author flips back and forth between many different women in the story. Some are the African American maids and some are the wealthy white women for whom they work. The white ladies go to their league meetings, play cards with their friends, swim and play tennis at the club, smoke cigarettes, and that's about it. The African American women, aka the help, cook, clean, raise the children, etc. etc. etc. Basically they do everything for the white families and get treated horribly. And at the end of the day they go home to their houses on the other side of town and have their own mouths to feed, their own homes and children to take care of, and their own problems to deal with.

While this story is taking place, Rosa Parks has refused to give up her seat, people have organized “sit-ins” at local white establishments, and Martin Luther King Jr. is becoming a household name. But “separate but equal” and the Jim Crow Laws were what everyone went by, and the white community had every intention of keeping it that way.

There is one white woman named Miss Skeeter, who is single and still lives at home, that wants to become a writer. She is encouraged by an executive in NYC to write about something that matters. And that is when she turns to one maid named Aibileen. She decides to write an anonymous book from the view of the help. But as you can imagine, the African American women want nothing to do with it. When their neighbor gets shot in his front yard in front of his children, when their friend’s son gets beaten so badly he ends up blind, and when they know that they can be fired on a dime and won’t be able to find another job in town because of the way the white women talk, they do not want to get involved at all. Yet it is the terrible treatment of their friends and families that encourages them to start opening up to Skeeter. But it comes with a very high price and a ton of risk. And the story really takes off from there…

Not only does the book writing cause Skeeter to view her friends differently and cause the maids to view white women differently, but it causes the reader to compare their situation to current day life. Just as the women courageously write this book to bring awareness to the atrocities made against one race, Kathryn Stockett courageously wrote this book to bring awareness back to America in 2011.

Sure, we have Black History Month. And we can all sit on the same bus, use the same bathroom, and eat at the same restaurants. We even have a black president. But in some places in America, African Americans are still treated as though they are inferior. And since horrible acts have been made against black people in America, especially around the Civil Rights Movement, we don’t like to talk about it. Sure we learn about the Civil Rights Movement in Social Studies Class. We learn all about Rosa Parks and the Little Rock Nine. We watch footage of the fire hoses and the dogs being set loose on peaceful marches for about 2 seconds. And that’s it. We don’t like to talk about it because it makes us uncomfortable. We don’t want to think about it for too long because we don’t want to have to even wonder if we still live with a separate but equal mentality. We don’t want to get too close to the issue because that would mean we might realize we view ourselves as superior. And then we might have to change how we think. And how we live.

I understand that where we are today is significantly better then where we have been before. And I grew up in a very very diverse high school and a diverse town. So when I learned about this in school I never really thought twice about how this issue was still prevalent in America today, because it wasn’t prevalent in my world at the ripe age of 15. And in many places, I’m sure it isn’t a problem. But I think it still exits. And I think it exists more than people want to admit.

I think this book is wonderful because the purpose that the ladies’ book Help serves in Mississippi in the 1960s serves the same purpose as Stockett’s book The Help in America in 2011. And in addition to being a book that makes you step back and think and encourages you to treat everyone with respect, it is a wonderful story. The characters are so real you feel like you know them. The way that Stockett writes causes you to hear the women speak exactly as they would with Mississippi accents. And the stories that they women share and the events that unfold during the story make you laugh, cringe, anticipate, and cry. They also help you to realize that women in 1960 are no different from women today. Children in 1960 are no different from children today.

I strongly encourage you to read it. Even if you’re 7th on the waitlist for it at the local library, or you see the movie before you get your hands on a copy. It’s a must read. You will thoroughly enjoy Minny’s spunk, have compassion towards her home life, and appreciate her care of Miss Celia. You will feel sorrow towards Aibileen’s loss, swell with pride at her bravery, and connect with the love she feels towards Mae Mobley. You will want to slap Hilly into the next century. You will want to look into Skeeter’s eyes and tell her she’s doing the right thing no matter what the cost.
You will get hooked and you will not be disappointed.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book:

Few days later, the mayor comes on the radio again. “Jackson, Mississippi, is the closest place to heave there is,” he say. “And it’s going to be like this for the rest of our lives.”
-Aibileen

Bu truth is, I don’t care that much about voting. I don’t care about eating at a counter with white people. What I care about is, if in ten years, a white lady will call my girls dirty and accuse them of stealing the silver.
-Minny

These things I know already, yet hearing them from colored mouths, it is as if I am hearing them for the first time.
-Skeeter

…and listen to the song. It is better than anything I’ve ever heard.
…you’ll sink like a stone
For the times the are a-changin’
…I feel a rush of inexplicable relief. I feel like I’ve just heard something from the future.
-Skeeter

Maybe I ain’t too old to start over, I think and I laugh and cry at the same time at this. Cause just last night I thought I was finished with everything new.
-Aibileen

also here a link to the book
and here is a link to the movie trailer

 

Have you read The Help? Did you like it?
Did it cause you to think about the issue as it relates to today?
Let me know!!