Book: The Help
Author: Kathryn Stockett
Pages: 544 pages (paperback)
Publish Date: February 10th 2009
Start Reading Date: November 7th 2018
End Reading Date: November 28th 2018
Good reads Rating: 4
As I have said countless of times before I am not a massive fan of Multiple characters narrating a book but it works really well in The Help, and I figured out why. The chapters are longer then in most multiple characters narrating, that you can still get used to the characters in the two chapters they have. It’s equaled out nice that you don’t feel that the characters are rushing in telling their stories, or you have to remember what they said before. You can get used to how each character speaks, Acts and conducts themselves without having to change the font of the text.
What I love about the book is that it’s trying to break the stereotypes that happened in that time, and that area and that not all people believe in the same way. It’s a book that shows diversity when there wasn’t any. It’s breaking down stereotypes of both black and white people. That black people are nice and shouldn’t be treated the way that they were, and that there are some white people at that time who think and act different then other white people.
Something that I noticed in the book is that some of the whole families are actually kind of caring. Not massively but still have some sense of decorum. Like helping one of the help when her grandson was injured. Or inviteing then to weddings. But like most things it’s on their terms.
It’s a book that I feel that is needed, not only to show how much had changed in almost 60 years, but that we can still keep changing our views on how we treat people that are different then we are.
It’s a book that has opened my eyes and made me laugh, cry, love, hate, and want to wrap my arms around those who have struggled.
I know that it was the time when people used words against black people. But I hate the term "high yellow". It’s just as derogatory as any other racist words.
One person who I did feel for throughout the book was Elizabeth. While I think she could have been a better mother to her children and a better person to Aibileen she was 100% influenced by Hilly, she knew deep down that what Hilly was doing wasn’t right, you could tell she was uncomfortable with situations that surrounded her when Hilly was speaking and that her views were completely different
