The Help Book Review

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The Help

By: Kathryn Stockett

3/5

Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan is a new graduate from Ole Miss who has returned to her parent’s cotton farm in Jackson, Mississippi. It’s 1962 and Skeeter is the outcast of her group of friends. She’s an educated woman who is not married with children and who does not have a steady boyfriend. She attends weekly bridge tournaments and Junior League meetings with a smile on her face, wondering if things have to be the way they are.

At this time, the racist attitudes of white American’s towards African Americans were particularly harsh in the South, especially Mississippi. If you’re a white American during the Civil Rights Movement, like Skeeter and her friends, you likely fell in to one of two very similar categories. You either went out of your way to treat African American’s with disrespect and disgust, or you remained naïve and complacent, thinking there’s no issue and that this is how things are supposed to be.

One day during a bridge match, Hilly publicly announces to her friends that in order to stop the spreading of specific 'African' disease, she is making it her mission to ensure that every African American domestic servant has an outhouse. This leaves a sour taste in Skeeter's mouth and she starts to wonder how that would make the maids feel. Her curiosity grows over the days and she starts to think about what it’s like to feel both wanted and not wanted? To raise children who love you one day and then grow up treating you as an inferior. By no means an equal, just the help.

All these questions fill Skeeter’s head and give her an idea: why not write a tell all book about these experiences?  Why not write about the help?

At first, there is only one maid on board; Aibileen. Having lost her son at an early age, Aibileen feels she has nothing to loose and is excited by the idea. However, at a time when African American’s are being murdered for their opinions and for challenging the laws, other maids with families are just too afraid to speak out.

Stockett combines fiction with prominent historical moments from the Civil Rights Movement. She describes the impact on the people of Jackson when they discover that Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King Jr were murdered. She goes in to detail about how it felt for black community members to constantly hear about the unjust criminalization and abuse of their neighbours due to a he said she said scenario. The white voice always reigned supreme. 

When one of the local maids is incarcerated for four years over a personal attack, the maids slowly realize that change isn’t going to happen on its own and agree to be a part of Ms. Skeeter Phelan’s book.

The risk Skeeter takes is similar to the one Kathryn Stockett takes. A southern-born white author speaks from the point of view and in favor of African American domestic servants, siding with them not the white folk. That was unheard of in the 1960's and frankly, is probably not as favourable in the South today.

Mid-way through the novel, Skeeter hears a song on the radio by an artist named Bob Dylan. The track is called “The Times They are a Changin’, “ a perfect symbol for the optimism Skeeter, Aibileen, Stockett, and the book embody.

The Help will make you laugh, cry, cringe, and ultimately make you wonder how our ancestors could have been so cruel or on the flip side, how they could have endured so much.