The Help
Kathryn Stockett
Penguin
Set in Mississippi at the time of the equal rights movement, The Help is a sumptuous tale of courage and determination to right what is wrong.
In Jackson Mississippi, segregation is a way of life. While Martin Luther King marches in Washington, the black Americans living in Jackson, continue to live a life of quiet desperation. The laws ensure the two races do not mix outside of the master-servant relationship. For three women suffering under the laws that defines their lives, the time has come to make a change.
Skeeter, young white daughter of a wealthy plantation family, returns home from graduating college to discover her beloved maid Constantine has left and no one will tell her why.
Aibileen and Minny, two African-American maids working for white families, struggle daily with the humiliation of living in a society entrenched in segregation and governed by laws that offers them no protection.
The three come together under the most unlikely circumstances and agree on a project that threatens the status-quo of the town they live in forever.
Poignant and moving, The help effectively cuts through the outer layers of race and culture to reveal the bare bones of humanity. The characters wonderfully narrated are well rounded and believable. Stockett’s loving tribute to her own maid Demetrie rounded the book nicely, leaving the reader with the resonating message that even though we are each individuals with our own separate consciousness, deep down our hearts still beat to the sound of the same drum. 3.5 stars
Kathryn Stockett
Penguin
Set in Mississippi at the time of the equal rights movement, The Help is a sumptuous tale of courage and determination to right what is wrong.
In Jackson Mississippi, segregation is a way of life. While Martin Luther King marches in Washington, the black Americans living in Jackson, continue to live a life of quiet desperation. The laws ensure the two races do not mix outside of the master-servant relationship. For three women suffering under the laws that defines their lives, the time has come to make a change.
Skeeter, young white daughter of a wealthy plantation family, returns home from graduating college to discover her beloved maid Constantine has left and no one will tell her why.
Aibileen and Minny, two African-American maids working for white families, struggle daily with the humiliation of living in a society entrenched in segregation and governed by laws that offers them no protection.
The three come together under the most unlikely circumstances and agree on a project that threatens the status-quo of the town they live in forever.
Poignant and moving, The help effectively cuts through the outer layers of race and culture to reveal the bare bones of humanity. The characters wonderfully narrated are well rounded and believable. Stockett’s loving tribute to her own maid Demetrie rounded the book nicely, leaving the reader with the resonating message that even though we are each individuals with our own separate consciousness, deep down our hearts still beat to the sound of the same drum. 3.5 stars
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