The Help

I LOVE books about women who won’t be told what to do.

In 1960s Mississippi, black women were "the help." Other jobs weren’t open to them. They cooked and cleaned for white people, and they raised their children, but they weren’t allowed to use the same bathroom. And they couldn’t be friends with the children they’d raised when they were adults. 

Enter white would-be journalist Miss Skeeter aka Eugenia Phelan, who wants change, not least so she can find Constantine, who raised her, then disappeared. Enter Aibileen and Minny, black "helps" also wanting change, especially for their children. They recruit… show more.

I admit that I was annoyed with this book after the first few chapters.

I had just settled into the rhythm and style of the story, told by one of the main characters. But after a few chapters, the novel switched to the voice of a different main character. This happened throughout the book, as the story is told from the perspective of three main characters. It was annoying at first. But as I continued reading, I began to appreciate the change. 

Each character has individual struggles, and each character has something to learn. Having three different voices magnifies the… show more.

It feels strange that a book written in the time of my youth is historical fiction, but it is so!

I found great resonance in this tale set in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960s. Like Skeeter, I was confronted by the disparate roles of black women caretakers who nourished my early years counterpoised against the cruelties and injustices of the world they lived in. Unlike her, I didn’t really comprehend it or write about it until I was much older.

Fighting the pressures of her family and society to settle down and marry, Skeeter determines to tell the stories… show more.

The Help is set in Mississippi in the 1960’s, and is about an unusual friendship between three women, one White and two Black. The two Black women are maids. The White woman is a recent college graduate. All three find that they don’t fit within the strict confines of Mississippi’s rigid social structure, a structure that’s been around since before the Civil War. Some may think The Help is another ‘White woman to the Rescue’ story, but it’s not. Stockett brings her characters alive and tells their stories with pitch-perfect acumen.

The Help stayed with me. I could relate to the mixed emotions of loving parts of your job, but hating other parts, and shoving down that uncomfortable feeling you get when you know you’re not treated right, but could lose everything if you speak out. I can only imagine how this must feel when it’s because of racism and segregation.

It’s about how even small acts of resistance can change the world. A story about women who question the status quo, and who, at the risk of their own livelihoods, say, enough!