Book Review: The Help

The Help

Kathryn Stockett

Fiction

Published February 10, 2009 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons

451 pages

2010 Southern Independent Booksellers Association’s Book of the Year

2010 Indies Choice Book of the Year – Adult Debut

“You is kind, you is smart, you is important.” –Aibileen

Character Descriptions 

Aibileen Clark works for Miss Elizabeth Leefolt, mother of Mae Mobley Leefolt Aibileen had a child of her own, Treelore, who died two years ago at 24 years old. Treelore died when he slipped off of the truck bed unloading after work. A passing tractor trailer didn’t see him, and ran over him. Aibileen raises Mae Mobley, Miss Leefolt’s daughter, as her own from the time she is born. She teaches her to love people even if they’re different.

Minny Jackson works for Miss Walter, Miss Hilly Holbrook’s mother, who hardly eats, but likes having Minny around.  Minny has 5 kids of her own and is married to Leroy, an abusive drunk who is always beating on Minny. When Miss Hilly, the president of the League, tells everyone that Minny Jackson is a thief for stealing her silver, Minny loses her job at Miss Walter’s and gets chased off of people’s property before she can even finish a sentence.

 Aibileen and Minny have both been working as maids since their teenage years. Aibileen worked with families until the children were grown, and Minny has worked for many different families, getting fired because of her attitude.

Hilly Holbrook is the president of the League, married to William Holbrook, and mother to William Jr. and Heather. She is a great mother, but her children and her husband are the only people that she is actually civil to. She is even horrible to Elizabeth and Skeeter, her best friends and sorority sisters.

Elizabeth Leefolt is mother to Mae Mobley Leefolt, pregnant with Ross Leefolt (later on), married to Raleigh, and Aibileen’s employer. Elizabeth is probably the worst mother; she doesn’t pay any attention to Mae Mobley, even when Aibileen isn’t working. She spends all day at her sewing machine making herself dresses to wear to fancy events held by the Leagueand hanging out with her frieinds.

Skeeter Phelan is editor of the League newsletter, Hilly and Elizabeth’s best friend, the new “Miss Myrna” journalist for the Jackson Journal, and an aspiring novelist. When she comes home from college, the first thing she does is apply for jobs at places like the New York Times and Harper and Row. Skeeter is one that appreciates her help; she doesn’t treat them any differently than she would Hilly or Elizabeth. She even thinks of them as family. Her old maid Constantine was her best friend growing up, but when Skeeter returns home from college at Ole Miss, she is devastated to find out that her mother has fired her.

Celia Foote is wife to Johnny Foote, and disliked by the entire League because Johnny is Hilly’s ex-boyfriend. Celia is Minny’s employer, and appreciates everything that Minny does, especially the cooking lessons. Celia is one who loves to talk to and be around her help. She even makes Minny coffee when she gets there in the mornings. She spends many months hiding Minny from her husband because she wants him to think that she’s a great housewife. 

Review

 The Help is a book about segregation in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960’s, during the civil rights movement, written in the perspectives of three main characters, Aibileen Clark, Minny Jackson, and Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan. Being black in Mississippi in the 1960’s most definitely means if you’re female, you’re going to be a maid, and if you’re male, you’re going to be working in the fields. Aibileen and Minny are black maids who work for women who don’t take no for an answer and who have absolutely no problem treating their black maids horribly and bossing them around specifically because of their skin color.

When Hilly decides to start ‘the Home Help Sanitation Initiative’, Skeeter gets fed up with how she’s treating them different and gets to thinking about how she could help change how bad segregation is. She calls Miss Stein at Harper and Row, the publishing company that she talked to about a job, if they would be interested. Ms. Stein says she will think about it, but she has to have at least 12 stories. She asks Aibileen, who is already helping her with the Miss Myrna column for the Jackson Journal, if she would be interested in telling stories about working for white people. Good and bad stories, about the children she’s raised, and how the adults treated her. Of course, being a black maid, and blabbing stories about your white employers could get you in a lot of trouble in Jackson, so that is a definite no. After a while though, Aibileen decides maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, as long as they’re very careful about concealing their identities and that no one would ever find out about the stories or that she was working with Miss Skeeter.

Aibileen asks around, seeing if maybe any of the other maids want to help, but they all say no, even Minny. When horrible things start happening to black people around town, the maids decide that it’s time for a change. They agree to help with the book, telling their own stories about raising white children and working for white women. The women, 12 maids’ total, spend many months gathering and reliving stories, good and bad, about their working lives. The good stories are great, and the bad stories are just plain horrible, nightmarish even.

This story is probably one of the best stories I’ve read so far. It’s definitely on my ‘must read’ list. I recommend this book because not only does it tell about how bad segregation actually was, it’s a book about friendship and how women of different colors work together to change their community. Telling how black people really feel, being treated like slaves, and caring for another woman’s children while their own children were at home by themselves. These women took a big risk doing what they did, Skeeter spent almost every night in Aibileen’s house, worrying that they would get caught, worrying what would happen to Aibileen, Minny, and the other maids. Worrying about what would happen to her. But still, they carried on.

My favorite character had to be Aibileen because she was always thinking about how things could be different, how she could raise Mae Mobley to love everyone, regardless of their race. She never treated anyone differently; she was always loving and caring toward everyone. She always told Mae Mobley how kind she was, how smart she was, and how important she was. Things that Mae Mobley’s own mother never said to her.

The only thing I didn’t really like about Aibileen was that she never stood up for herself, Minny on the other hand, she did. And that’s what I loved about Minny. Aibileen was afraid to stand up to Elizabeth; it was always “Yes Ma’am” to her, even when she disagreed. Even about having her own bathroom out in the garage. She told Elizabeth she ‘would love to have her own bathroom’ that ‘it would be great’. Her real thoughts were the complete opposite. Why did she need to have a ‘colored bathroom’? She didn’t have any diseases. She’s been using the guest bathroom since she started working for the Leefolts’, why the sudden change? I know she ‘couldn’t’ stand up for herself, but it would have been nice to see her try.

I didn’t like how the maids and the field workers had horrible grammar, in parts where they were talking like Elizabeth or Hilly, they spoke with correct grammar. So you know that they could speak correctly, they just didn’t. That was really the only flaw I found with the book though, it was very well written, the storyline flowed, it was enjoyable, and overall just a great book!

I’ve wanted to read this book for a while, and I’m glad I finally did! I wish I had read it sooner! This will be one of my most recommended books from now on. It’s now on my list of favorite books! The book is a great example of friendship, civil rights, and how people can have an influence. Minny, Aibileen, and Skeeter all became great friends, they spent nearly every day together, they worked together to get the book revised and written, and they all worried about what would happen if they got caught together. Talking about the consequences frequently, and all of them saying they weren’t going to just leave the others behind if something did happen. That is real friendship!

Stockett, Kathryn . "Praises and Reviews ." Kathryn Stockett. N.p.. Web. 25 Mar 2014. <http://kathrynstockett.com/praise-and-reviews/>.