The Help

I just finished NYT #1 Bestseller, "the Help" by Kathryn Stockett for a book club - I don't think I would have ever thought twice about it other wise as I don't follow the bestsellers, just recommendations. This book was so thought provoking and as real as fiction gets... I finished it three days ago and am still craving more! The basic premise follows three different narrative points of view. All three are female and the time is early 1960's in Jackson, Mississippi. Two maids (one older by twenty years than the other) and one early twenties plantation owner's daughter straight out of college. I can very much relate to one of the characters because of her struggle to fit in herself while trying to point out the social injustices for others - while ostracizing herself more. Segregation and class separation were a huge main character of this story - the class separation more of an underlying theme. It's amazing to me how frustrated I was getting as I read more and more b/c I don't know how many people will stop and realize just how recent all of that was - how fresh. I wanted to shake one of the characters (Hilly) b/c of how much she needed to drag others down - and it wasn't just the ones who were 'colored' (as she pointed out often) but also the ones who she deemed beneath her, by class, family, or color. It wasn't enough for her to dislike certain people in town (and in the state for that matter), it was her civic duty to spread her opinion as gospel like a wildfire in July! This story takes place in my mother's early teens - that is where it hits home for me... and my mom is pretty young (hasn't even hit her sixties yet). As I said, it was fiction but anyone who reads it sees the factual events intermingled throughout to keep it brilliantly real.

I guess when I think about what makes me unnerved by the whole thing (story and theme) is the fact that although the law isn't technically behind this kind of thought process any longer, there is still so much negativity based on class and color. It used to confuse me and I couldn't relate to these thoughts in any way - mainly b/c we were constantly around people of different races and classes growing up because of my mothers various friendships, coworkers, and volunteer opportunities. Now, although I still can't agree with the opinions, I do see in people the ingrained beliefs with which they were raised - they truly believe these things in their bones (just as much as I disagree). In 'The Help,' there were lots of women and men who were simply a product of their time and grooming. In college I took an African American Literature class my junior year. Within the first two days of class, I sat and stewed over things my professor was saying about race and race relations because I thought she was generalizing and lumping me into a category within which I did not belong. It was only after I decided to sit and truly listen to the discussions without judgement (that and it was too late to get into another class to satisfy my lit requirement!) - I began to love this class, not just tolerate it. To this day, I don't think anything has made me think so much about the freshness, cruelty, and brutality of the happenings in the south in the 20th century. It's not just before the civil rights movement unfortunately. The civil rights movement did wonders for making the actual laws change but a lot of thoughts are still the same. The book led me to look up Jim Crowe laws on my own and see what they were really about - meaning the laws that were devised to keep underground laws going without going through the actual lawmaking process. Some of these laws had people beaten and sometimes killed for using the wrong bathroom or water fountain (really) or have someone arrested or brutalized for talking to someone in public who was not the same color as you - talking! I'm not trying to preach my opinion (although it seems like it) - I'm just hoping to get people thinking a little bit - I consider myself to be open to discussions (not barking your opinion at me only) but this book and the time lines got me putting some things together. At the end of the day, it's not about opinions - it's about civil liberties. What people are 'allowed' to do and say - whether or not you agree with someone, who they are, are married to, or where they live - do they deserve any less civil liberties as any other American? It's these same people who wave their American flags or wear their American flag lapel pin who are sometimes the most specific on what makes an 'American'...

Hmmmm - this started out as my take on a book - I should've known better... at least I held back a lot of what I wanted to say about the topic... baby steps! Go read 'The Help'- the 444 pages seem a little daunting at first, but as a slow reader, I can say how quickly you'll go through it...