'The Help' by Kathryn Stockett, 8-19-10

'The Help' is set in 1960's Mississippi and it told from the point of view of three women. Two of these women are black, who have been maids and nannies since they were teenagers. The third woman is white who comes home from college to find that her family's maid and the woman who basically raised her is gone and no one will tell her why.

The story takes place over the course of almost 2 years. The white woman, who goes by Skeeter, has returned from college with an education in writing, but no husband. A fact that bothers her mother to no end. She is an awkward woman, tall and slender with wiry hair. Her mother points this out at every possible occasion. Skeeter is involved in all the appropriate activities for someone of her age and upbringing, the ladies' bridge club, the country club and a Junior League Society which holds benefits and fund raisers to raise money to feed the poor starving children in Africa.

During one bridge club day, Skeeter's two best friends, Hilly and Elizabeth, are discussing the fact that Elizabeth has to share a bathroom with her colored maid. Hilly is quick to point out that colored people carry all sorts of diseases that white people don't have and convinces Elizabeth to build her maid, Aibileen, a separate bathroom so that Elizabeth's family does not catch anything. After some discussing Elizabeth's husband agrees and Aibileen gets her very own bathroom, which is built out of plywood and is in the carport.

After that, Hilly wants to put an initiative in the league's newsletter encouraging everyone who cares about their family to have separate bathrooms for the colored people. Skeeter happens to be the one who writes the newsletter and she holds off on that as long as possible because she knows that the ridiculous facts her friend Hilly came up with are simply untrue.

Skeeter soon gets a job writing for the local newspaper a column about housecleaning tips. However, Skeeter is a white woman who grew up with a maid and she knows nothing about cleaning. She does finally convince Aibileen to help her with her column. The two are nowhere near being friends or anything like that because of the separation of people in 1960's Mississippi.

What Skeeter really wants to know is what happened to her family's maid, Constantine, and she thinks Aibileen knows.

Through series of events Skeeter convinces Aibileen to help her write a book of interviews of maids in their town, to tell from their perspective what it is like working for white people. This is all done it totally secrecy because of the laws regarding interaction between blacks and whites and the legal ramifications of what could happen to everyone involved. Aibileen convinces 12 other maids to tell Skeeter their stories as well. In the end, the book is published, with names changed to protect everyone. Their little pocket of the world is changed. And Skeeter finally knows what really happened with Constantine.

I loved this book on many levels. Being born in the late 70's to a liberal hippy, I never saw racial discrimination like that described in this book. I was never afraid to tell my friends and family exactly what I thought about things. I cannot imagine the stress of walking on eggshells all the time and having to careful word everything you say so you don't offend anyone. I cannot imagine having totally disregard for another human being the way most of the white women have for their maids.

Being a history major in college however, I read about this sort of thing all the time. It seems like the civil rights movement is ancient history to me because I wasn't around before or during it. But reading this book really helped me realize that all this happened 50 years ago, which wasn't that long at all and if you look carefully at the world around you you can still see the effects of the civil rights movement.

Parts of the story angered me, parts made me happy, some even mad me cry. I highly recommend this for anyone who wants to experience what living in a different time would be like, or anyone who wants to gain a different perspective from that time. Enjoy.