The Help

The Help by Kathryn Stockett, is about Skeeter Phalan, a girl who has little confidence in her appearance and thinks she is just the opposite of her beautiful mother.

The story takes place in Jackson, Mississippi in 1963.  Skeeter back home again, meets with her friends to play bridge once a month.  She questions some of the practices these white, elite women have with their black maids.  She decides to write a book from the maid's point of view and tries to get some of them to tell her how they feel about their situation.  This is a dangerous subject and could cause the death of a maid who would speak out, as well as putting Skeeter herself in danger.

Some critics have questioned how Stockett could know how these maids feel.  I think an author has the right to make her characters feel however she wants them to feel.  The best thing she does, in my opinion, is bring to a new generation of people what it was really like in 1963,

I lived in Memphis, Tennessee, in the 50"s and I can say I remember the black and white water fountains, black and white bathrooms etc.  "Being a Western girl, I got on a bus and sat in the back seat.  At once the driver informed me I couldn't sit there as that was for the "colored."  I was shocked at this difference.

A reviewer on the Internet said there were issues that tarnished "The Help.{  One of the comments said the black male was a stereotype , downgrading black males.  I agree, she didn't show one good black man.  In the movie, I don't think men were even mentioned. 

She also wrote a dialect for the black, but not for the white.  Katie Couric's interview with the author,(CBS-Katie Couric:  Katheryn Stockett  on the Internet) Katie asked her why.  Stockett replied she could hear the differences.  I'm not a Southerner so maybe I'm not as in tune as the author, but to me the black and white both sounded the same to me when I lived in the South.

In the Vancouver, Washington daily "Columbian ", newspaper, an article by Leonard Pitts, a black man, said, "The Help stirred up complicated feelings.  He pointed out that a black woman in those times was more than just a maid, she was "a fully formed human being with a life, and dreams and dread of her own."

I think the book was well written, included some humor which really made me laugh, and a story that certainly made one think/  We are all God's children.  some he made black and some he made white.  After all, people are like houses, if we were all the same color it would be pretty boring.

I would highly recommend this book.  It's one of my favorites.

Until next time,
Be kind to one another

PS.  If you are on my face book, I have posted Kattie Couric's video.