The Help, a book based in the mid-1960s, is an astonishing read in which the author, Kathryn Stockett, brings to attention three very different lifestyles. In The Help, Aibileen Clark, a black maid who takes care of a white child named Mae Mobley Leefolt; Minny Jackson, a black maid who is insistent on speaking her mind; and Euginia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan, a white amateur journalist who reaches out to Aibileen and Minny to write what it is like to be a black maid. The book starts in the August of 1962, in Jackson, Mississippi; a time when the colored people were free, out of slavery, but were still treated like trash, for the most part. It was exponentially worse in the southern states because no one thought that the blacks should be associated with the whites.
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While I was reading it, I could not help but feel the emotions of the characters through the words, and that, to me, makes an alright book, an exceptional one. It took me a while to get into the book, though. I would start reading it, get bored, then go do something else. After a couple times of starting and stopping, I could not put the book down. I was amazed at how Stockett could write in several points of view and somehow still have everything make sense. There were several points where I laughed out loud, and several points where I almost cried. My favorite part was Minny’s “terrible awful” thing she does, I laughed about it for about two days (398-399). My least favorite part was the ending. I abhorred the way Aibileen just walks away from Hilly, Mrs. Leefolt, and Mae Mobley, leaving Mae Mobley balling, without a fight (516-522). This, along with leaving Mae Mobley without a good mother figure, left Hilly with a sense of accomplishment; she was rewarded for lying about stolen
While I was reading it, I could not help but feel the emotions of the characters through the words, and that, to me, makes an alright book, an exceptional one. It took me a while to get into the book, though. I would start reading it, get bored, then go do something else. After a couple times of starting and stopping, I could not put the book down. I was amazed at how Stockett could write in several points of view and somehow still have everything make sense. There were several points where I laughed out loud, and several points where I almost cried. My favorite part was Minny’s “terrible awful” thing she does, I laughed about it for about two days (398-399). My least favorite part was the ending. I abhorred the way Aibileen just walks away from Hilly, Mrs. Leefolt, and Mae Mobley, leaving Mae Mobley balling, without a fight (516-522). This, along with leaving Mae Mobley without a good mother figure, left Hilly with a sense of accomplishment; she was rewarded for lying about stolen