The Help

I devour books. It’s a habit and not one that I’m looking to break anytime soon. I have to thank my mother for telling about this book- as it had not been for her, I probably would not have heard anything until the movie release this coming August. She, (my mother- not the cat’s mother) picked up this book after the cover caught her eye in a book shop. It was marked half price- so she though. So when the sales assistant told her that it had been put back to its original price and was the offer was no longer available, she decided to leave it- she was in a rush with the demands of being a wife and mother too great for her to stand there debating with a 17 year old assistant. Even though it was well within my mothers statutory rights to have the book at the marked price.

So, like the geek that I am, I found out a little more about the book. I read the blurb and some reviews and then decided to part with 799 pennies and purchase a copy. And I can say, my hands have been glued to it since page 1.

The story is told in the voice of three main characters, Aibleen, Minny and Skeeter. Two of which are maids for affluent rich white women in the heart of Mississippi and the latter a white female who falls into the “rich white woman” category purely because of her race. However, It is Skeeters’ determination for change that stirs up the passion with these women merely known as ‘The Help’ to challenge the system that has held the suppressed for so long. And through it all a beautiful friendship is formed with the most unlikely people. The era is the 1960 and the scene is Jackson, The South. A place now racially integrated but has had it’s longstanding troubles with issues of race. ‘The Help’ challenges the stereotypes that were in place at that time and the irony that these hired black women raised the children of the wealthy white community but were not trusted not to steal the silver.

After I finished reading the book I had to find out more about the author Kathryn Stockett. She has been know to say in interviews that the real reason for writing ‘The Help’ was to cure her homesickness as she was a girl from the South now living in the Big Apple. The enormity of what it must of cost her own childhood Help, Demetrie, growing up had now been more apparent to her and the hidden voice of all these women who raised babies completely different races to themselves when many of them had either numerous kids of their own they were struggling to feed or had lost children through misfortunate events and stillbirths. Yet they cared. Yet they nurtured.

Although I don’t think of myself as a softie there was a part of the book that made me weep- The account of Callie talking to Skeeter, relaying past experiences as being household help, (page 260)

“When Miss Margaret die of the lady problems thirty years later, I go to the funeral. Her husband hug me, cry on my shoulder. When it’s over, he give me an envelope. Inside a letter from Miss Margaret reading ‘Thank you. For making my baby stop hurting. I never forgot it.’ Callie takes off her black-rimmed glasses, wipes her eyes. If any white lady reads my story, that’s what I want them to know. Saying thank you, when you really means it, when you remember what someone done for you” She shakes her head, stares down at the scratched table- it’s so good.”

Kathryn captures so beautifully that amidst all the guilt some readers may feel about having domestic help from another race and the segregation between two communities- saying thank you is of human understanding regardless of colour of creed. And it is clear to understand that this is her thank you to ‘the help’ that raised her. It was not every white household who treated ‘the help’ roughly- and this is noted throughout. Kathryn Stockett also highlights that as ‘the help’ became established within the family the more needed they were- life could not function without them, for who would cook? Clean? Play with the children? Feed them, bathe them? Do all the ironing, washing? And still use the coloured bathroom out in the garage, sit alone at lunchtime- just to make the segregation even more distinct and then either walk miles to get home on blistered feet only to wake up the next morning and do it again.

This is not a book of guilt- Stockett, I believe, is not playing a guilt trip to anyone from the south who had a black maid but rather it is a novel circulating the love and belief that justice prevails and for women to realise, “We are just two people. Not that much separtes us. Not nearly as much as I thought” Quote from Skeeter.

I read somewhere recently, that you as a writer you should never write about a topic because its in fashion but rather write about the thing that irritates you or is pressing hard on your heart because then you can help people see your view even more so when your passion is running through it. I may not know Kathryn Stockett personally but 444 pages had lead me to believe that she is a woman so fuelled by the silence of these women and the contrast of her life to theirs as she grew up that she decided to step into their world and help tell their story.

Analytically, from knowing a little more about the author it is clear to see that certain elements of particular characters within the book ,such as Skeeter and Mae Mobley reflect little parts of Kathryn and by reading it you can see that Stocketts’ heart and soul has gone into this novel. That even if she never writes another novel- I hope this book helps to validate her career as an author and do for her what ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ did for Harper Lee.

The movie, with the same title is out August 2011- let’s support it because I have no doubt that it will be end up in the classics category with Gone with the wind and The Shawshank Redemption. But before you settle down with your popcorn- buy the book and read it, because you know that after the release of the movie sales will be rocketing and at least you can be one of the few who would have read the book even before the trailer ends up on our screens.

Rating: 5/5

Some stills from the upcoming movie: