The Help Book Review

Book Review of The Help by Stockett, Kathryn

We have all read this story delivered in the very popular book entitled "The Help" before in some capacity and some are old enough have lived through it first hand, however, Kathryn Sockett manages to re-tell the story in a captivating way. The book does have its moments but overall it is a good read.

The book takes place in the early 1960s and during the racially hostile, Southern town of Jackson, Mississippi. At the core of the book are the three main characters, Skeeter Phelan, who is a rather idealistic young white woman, Abileen a lovingly maternal, black maid and the sarcastic, feisty Minny, another black maid. These women narrate their respective chapters in their own distinctive voice. It was a rather bold move on Sockett to attempt to capture the language that may/may not have been used by Southern black women and although she is not consistent throughout the book as she does switch between thick, dated dialect and current, non-dialectic vernacular at intervals but this is only a small misstep that is easily forgivable within the grand scheme of the novel. The characters are well-developed and three-dimensional, which is an amazing feat for a debut novel (Harper Lee is perhaps one of the few that got it right the first time).

The stories of the black maids who worked for white women in Jim Crow South is captured by Skeeter, who in her wide-eyed idealism wants to shed light on the treatment of the black women that she has grown close to at the vicious hands of their white employers. The cruelest of their bosses is Miss Hilly, who is always accusing Minny of stealing. She has an unsavory disposition towards blacks and race that mirrors many of the beliefs held by whites during slavery. She is proud of her antebellum ideals and tries to get everyone she knows to share in her opinions. Interestingly enough, she also goes on a campaign throughout the living rooms of Jackson to have extra toilets installed in the white homes who employ black help. This is of course to keep the women from using white toilets. She shows such disdain for the workers while not even considering that these women are privy to all of the white employer's family secrets, town gossip, and how the women raise their children. Not only that, notwithstanding the fact that the maids do their jobs expertly and even go above and beyond in some instances (Abileen raising young Mae Mobley) she still cannot see them as much more than half-human.

In a particularly poignant part of the novel, Skeeter hears the music of Bob Dylan (who is kind of foreign to her) and she hears the lyrics to "The Times They Are A-Changin"" and she is galvanized into action to try and do something about the conditions of the women she has grown fond of as well as race relations altogether. There are some tumultuous moments but this book details the humor and beauty of Southern life as well as her ugly secrets. Ultimately, the novel demonstrates how interwoven all of our lives really are.