Book #96: The Help

Book #96: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

July 14, 2014


I think I've written on this blog before about how I am turned off by hype. I do the opposite of jumping on the bandwagon with most trends, especially when it comes to popular fiction. I jokingly told a coworker of mine (after sucking down a Long Island iced tea at an end-of-the-year party) that I would try to do better with that, that I would read the Twilight series and Fifty Shades of Gray. I don't know if I'll go that far, but reading The Help, a book that got a lot of attention just a few years ago, is a start. While I want my reading to expand my intellectual horizons, I also don't want to be a snob or an elitist. After all, something's popular for a reason, right?

I've read some of the criticism about this particular book. I don't think it's necessarily fair to say that Stockett can't represent the views of black women because she herself is white. That's preposterous; that'd be like saying that I couldn't write a story about a straight person because I'm gay. What I do agree with is that there could have been a lot less focus on Skeeter's story; I wanted the whole book to be from Aibileen's perspective, or from Minnie's. I liked Skeeter as a character, but with her perspective being so prominent, the story doesn't really focus enough on how hearing the experiences of these women is expanding her worldview. The story kind of does this at the start, I think, but then focuses too heavily on the whole Stuart plotline, and on her mother's illness. I found her whole discovering Bob Dylan and going hippie story arch to be cliched for the 1960s, yet I enjoyed reading about her more from afar, from Aibileen's perspective, than I did actually reading her perspective most of the time. Like Celia Foote was to Minnie, Skeeter could have been an important character to Aibileen's sections, but not an actual narrator herself. So she was iced out from the Junior League and can't hang with the popular young married women anymore? Who cares?

What I like about this book, though, is that it brings a new perspective of Jim Crow south to the mainstream. Another idea that I've previously reflected on is how little I felt this topic was dealt with when I was in school. I saw that The Help was part of the curriculum at some school where I subbed at one point, and now that I've read it, I think that's a rather appropriate choice. It's a pretty easy read, and I suppose the shifts in perspective do keep a reader's interest (even if, again, I could have done without Skeeter's narrative).  A lot of people (particularly women, I would imagine) read this book, and now have a new frame through which to view this shameful time in our history. I, for one, am cool with that.

My favorite character in this book by far was Minnie. She is very contradictory. She reminds me in many ways of Philo from Every Inch of Her; she's big and has a tough exterior. She has a lot of kids, and she loves them fiercely. And her husband beats on her, and drinks. This is only hinted at at the beginning of the book; when some bruises were mentioned, it seemed like he'd been an asshole to her when he was drinking, maybe shoving her out of the way or something, not nice but not serious. But her injuries got worse and were described more as the book went on; even dizzy little Celia Foote got the gist of what was happening. I was most fascinated by Minnie's relationship with Celia; on the one hand, she complains constantly that the crazy woman is driving her crazy, and on the other hand, she is very protective of her. She even cries when Celia and her loving husband Johnny have a tearful moment in their dining room, after they've discussed never being able to have children. It took Celia a long time to see that Johnny loved her for herself, in spite of her infertility and her lack of cooking skills...she's sweet, and has huge tits. In spite of herself, Minnie cares for this woman, who offers her friendship...in spite of her hesitation to take it, you can tell that Minnie will never leave Celia, if she can help it.

It is fascinating and heartbreaking to consider the relationships between these "poor little rich" white kids, neglected by their parents (whose, perhaps even despised, like little Mae Mobley) who are loved and cared for by their black maids, who don't have time to give that kind of care and love to their own children. Aibileen's reason for moving around to so many different jobs is because she can't stand to be around the white children she's raised once they start seeing racial differences...and believing that they matter. She probably spent her whole son's childhood raising little while children, and then he died as a young man. Her son's father had abandoned them, so throughout this book, she is living alone.

I've seen some of the movie, not all of it, and much of the book seems to be represented. I think the actress who played Minnie got nominated for an Oscar? That would be a great character to play. From what I can remember, some of the actresses playing the white "ladies" like Hilly and Elizabeth kind of hammed it up, and that hot Emma Stone played Skeeter. I may need to sit down and watch the whole movie some time soon. I still have a little more than a month ahead of me for summer vacation (I think more like five and half weeks, but who's counting?), so I definitely intend to read a lot more. Probably not any of the titles that I listed at the beginning of this post (I have limits), but maybe some more recently popular texts...