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For me, reading The Help was an experience much like reading Curtis Sittenfeld's American Wife. Good character development, and a good insight into the world of women older than I am, but not that much older.
Glad to see people still reading Stockett's work. I haven't heard if she is working on another novel or not. Anyone?
The Help has contributed to a lot of great discussions where I live. My neighborhood is so diverse, as a Southerner, I find myself in a minority here. I was asked just recently, pool-side, why there seems to be such a broad divide when it comes to how Blacks were treated years ago. I couldn't come up with an answer that satisfied me, until just recently.
There were no Blacks in my classroom with me, as a child, until I was in the 5th grade. This would have been about 1965. After that, it was no longer such an oddity, but it didn't mean the 'racist' talk stopped. The race riots in the early 1970s are some of the worst memories of my own growing-up years.
Without wanting to pick a fight with anybody, I think how we look at others, and treat people who are different, has to do largely with education. Perhaps I offer that as an answer because I am a retired HS teacher, but it does seem that with more education, we become more tolerant of others. That, and I think, maturity -- as we experience more of life, ourselves, we can slip our feet into someone else's shoes.
I also think we make conscious choices to either emulate what we are around, or we don't.
I think how we look at others, and treat people who are different, has to do largely with education. I also think we make conscious choices to either emulate what we are around, or we don't.
I don't know. Neither Abileen nor Minny had any formal education. And what about Hilly, who had a college degree? (Not as common in 1963 for women anywhere in this country as it is today.) Hilly and Elizabeth were ignorant and chose to be. But I agree with you that maybe it has to do with what one has been taught in his/her family.
I just finished this book. I thought it was heartbreaking when Mae Mobley choses not to tell her father about who actually taught her the game she was playing with her little brother ("you're Rosa Parks and you sit right there"). She was what, not even four years old? Having read plenty of non-fiction about this time, I thought it was interesting that this story could so accurately portray the fact that these black women, who were so oppressed, had ten times the common sense of the families they worked for.
Anyone reading the fictional novel, The Help, by Kathryn Stockett?
I can't put it down! Set in the early 1960's in Jackson, Mississippi it's a very real portrayal of life for whites and blacks at the beginning of the civil rights movement in the deep south.
I finished it a month or two ( or3?) ago. There were many mentions of this book on this forum.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading that one as well! I had heard of it, but from the many people suggesting it here, I sought it out and was glad I did. That is one of the main reasons I enjoy this forum- there are many books we may not know about or remember- but at least at the computer, I can reserve it at my library online.gotta love that!
I finished it a month or two ( or3?) ago. There were many mentions of this book on this forum.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading that one as well! I had heard of it, but from the many people suggesting it here, I sought it out and was glad I did. That is one of the main reasons I enjoy this forum- there are many books we may not know about or remember- but at least at the computer, I can reserve it at my library online.gotta love that!
Finished it last night and can't stop thinking about it
I'm obviously in the minority but I didn't like this book at all. I found it very condescending. The characters were not at all realistic but instead were all stereotypes - from the stoic loyal servant Abileen who would never think of being disrespectful to her "betters" (read: not "uppity"), to the sassy Mammy-like Minny with a ton of kids and the abusive husband, the southern belle bigoted Hilly, the white trash floozy Celia, and the obtuse do-gooder Skeeter (how was she totally unaware that her mother was sick? And that her best friend was a bigot? And her other best friend a child abuser?). They are nothing but caricatures.
And speaking of the wife abuser - Leroy (are all black wife abusers named Leroy?) - there were really no likeable male characters in the book. Maybe the senator? Certainly not his son. And maybe Skeeter's father. But neither played a major role in the book. Just window dressing.
I also disliked the fact that only the African-American characters spoke in dialect (my family is from the deep south and believe me- the whites in the south have a different but just as unique dialect as the blacks). I also found it completely unbelievable that the educated and hard working Yule May (her character even spoke correctly) would steal from her employer in order to get her second child into school. This seemed to be just an easy way to get the plot moving even though it meant having the characters act completely contrary to how we would expect them to act.
Neither Ms. Stockett nor her editors did a very good job of verifying "facts" (re: the Medgar Evers assassination - at one point she says he was "bludgeoned" in his front yard; in fact he was shot). The reference to "Shake and Bake" (hadn't been invented yet) and the Bob Dylan song (about a year or so off from its release).
I am just amazed that so many people like this book. I read it for my book group or I wouldn't even have bothered finishing it. So unfortunate, as it could have been so much better.
I'm obviously in the minority but I didn't like this book at all.
You know, I read the book and although I thought it was a nice story, I wasn't blown away with it like many others, and I didn't think it was a life-changing book for me or anything like that. I felt like Stockett was trying too hard to write a best seller. However, I completely understand why this book was a best seller and it doesn't bother me at all that book is so popular. I think I might watch the movie after it comes out on dvd just to see how the book was translated to screen.
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"The Help"
