The Help: Ending

At the end of the book two maids lose their jobs, a maids husband loses their job, and nothing happens to Skeeter, the white woman who wrote the book. In fact, Skeeter gets her dream job in New York and moves away leaving the maids to deal with the consequences. Although I really enjoyed the book the ending seemed just too happy for me. In a time where there are so many risks with writing a book of maids secrets it seems so usual that the white woman moves away and avoids all repercussions of her book while only 1 of the 8 maids interviewed looses her job. It seems to continue the stereotype of the time that blacks are the ones who suffer for the whites. And actually the repercussions should be worse, it just seemed like the ending was too happy. I do think the ending did a good job of following up with each of the characters and where they left off. But there was not enough on Aibileen. She just leaves Mae Mobley, the child who she has raised, crying in the kitchen. Aibileen loved Mae Mobley and hated the way her mother treated her daughter, and she was just able to walk away from Mae Mobley like that knowing she was the only hope Mae Mobley had to be loved. Although the ending seemed realistic in some way and unrealistic in others I would still recommend the book to anyone. It taught me a lot about how things used to be in the United States and the way our society has progressed and the things we still need to work on. It is amazing that we denied such basic rights to people and fought so hard to make our country more equal. This book painted a pretty realistic picture of the South during the 1960’s and I would recommend it to anyone looking to learn something or if they just want to read a good book. 

The Help: #5

My favorite character in The Help was Aibileen. She was able to find the good in anyone and wanted to help them find it in themselves. She was the nanny for Mae Mobley. Mae Mobley’s mother had very little patience for her and her daughter understood that. Often Mae Mobley would get upset when this happened so Aibileen would tell her often, "You is kind. You is smart. You is important." Aibileen wanted to find a way to make Mae Mobley feel loved when her mother couldn’t do that for her. Since she always knew there would be a time when the children she raised would being to see her as her color, often the time she stopped working for a family, she wanted a way to make sure Mae Mobley would always have the confidence she needed. Aibileen was a very mother like character. She would watch out for everyone and people would often come to her if they had a problem. Even the worst character in the book, Hilly, Aibileen found the good in, she noticed that she was a good mother and treated her kids well, unlike some of the other mothers in Jackson. Aibileen is the character who you feel like you know by the end of the book and if you don’t you would want to meet her.  She has a great outlook on life no matter how many obstacles she runs into and I think that anyone who reads the book will end up admiring her for her determination, care, and love for everyone that surrounds her. 

The Help: #4

When my mom and her 5 siblings were growing up they had a figure similar to the ones we see in the book. Her name was Julia. Julia was like a second mother to all the kids and when my cousins and I were born she helped raise us too. Julia has always been a part of my life, when I was born she was already a part of the family and almost all of the memories my mom and her siblings share Julia is in. I see the similarities between Julia’s relationship with my family, but one thing that really disturbed me was how the women in Jackson seemed to recycle their “help.” They would make connections and then fire these women who were part of their lives and family. Julia died a week ago but she would always come to our family events, we would visit her often, and we would talked on the phone. When I was at Julia’s funeral a few days ago her friends, which I didn’t know, came up to me and said they had heard so much about me and that Julia talked about us all the time. It made me feel good to know that we impacted her as much as she impacted all of us in our own way. Julia and my relationship reminded me a lot of the relationship Skeeter had with Constantine, her maid growing up. Skeeter loved Constantine the way every maid in the book wanted to be loved by the children they raised. I know the book was set in the 1960’s which is the time Julia started to work for my mom’s family. It really shows the difference between the North and the South. Constantine was a part of Skeeter’s family but her mom had no problem firing someone that was part of the family. The relationship my family all has with Julia shows how different the times used to be in the 1960’s but also how people in the North dealt with the injustices of the civil rights movement.

The Help: #3

One thing that really surprised me was when I found out the book was based only 45 years ago. The way that they treated the blacks during that time made me think that these events could have happened mush before that time. When I first thought about it decided that our society has changed a lot since then, but as I thought about it more I decided that our views have progressed but not much more has. After watching the video about Hurricane Katrina seeing when years before they broke the levies so that the black part of town flooded while the white area remained intact and seeing the same thing happen only a few years ago. Even if the flood from Katrina was not intentional it still showed a disturbing parallel between our country in 1965 to now. There is still an affluent, white side of town, and a suffering, black side of town. Even though there may not be a specific divide anymore it is still generally the same idea today: the poor people in our country have no one really looking out for them. You can see this idea in the book when after Skeeter gets her book published about all the maid’s lives she moves away leaving them to deal with the repercussions. Although all the maids don’t let her turn down the opportunity to move to New York and take an Editor job she still leaves the maids to sort out what will happen now that all their employers have read a book with stories about them inside. It was not Skeeter’s intention to do this to the women who helped her but it still shows how unfair the world can be. Skeeter did not make up the stories she simply put them together and wrote what she was told and that is what caused her to get the big break she always wanted. 

The Help: #2

A main part of the book is that Skeeter wants to write a book of memoirs of the maids in Jackson, Mississippi. Her idea is good and she has passion behind it, having lost connection with, Constantine, her maid growing up, but it proves more challenging then she originally thought. None of the maids want to share their stories with her because she is on the other side of the line that is drawn between the blacks and the whites. I understand the maid’s hesitance in complying and sharing their secrets to be published for everyone to read. I still can’t decide whether or not it is realistic that the maids actually share their story with Skeeter. I know that the times were very different back then and there was a huge line between the two communities which makes me feel that it is more convincing that the maids wouldn’t risk their lives and careers for very little reward. Although they finally decide to share their story after a black boy gets beat up for using the wrong restroom I still am not convinced that, that action alone would convince 12 maids to share their stories with Skeeter. Either way that part of the book was interesting and made for a good read and there is no way to really tell if the actions the maids take in the book are characteristic of the time period it was interesting to read and added a lot to the book.

The Help: #1

Overall I really liked the book The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I liked the multiple plot lines an stories that all intertwined and how it let you see the same event from each characters perspective. One thing I liked the most was reading about the different relationships with the maids and their employers. There was the relationship between the hard headed maid Minny and her employer Celia, the woman who has just moved to town and is desperately trying to fit in and gain acceptance from the other women. Celia uses Minny as a way to try and understand the other woman and how they live while also depending on Minny for guidance about how to fit into the group of women while Celia herself is going through tough emotional miscarriages while desperately trying to have a child. Another relationship that we see is between the progressive thinking Skeeter and her maid growing up, Constantine. Although we don’t actually hear Constantine’s point of view we do hear her voice through Skeeter. Constantine raised Skeeter but unlike the other people in the community she realizes this and remembers the fact that she loved Constantine more than her own mother. She recalls writing her every day in college while only periodically talking to her mother. But, throughout the book Skeeter tries to unravel the mystery of Constantine’s disappearance by writing a book of interviews of other maids to try to get a better understanding of how Constantine felt. Overall one of my favorite parts of the book are the different dynamics between the maids and their employers and trying to get a feel how each relationship and personal connection with the maids is deeper than it looks from the outside. It is very interesting to see how the women depend on their maids so much but desperately try to keep up appearances that they don’t matter at all. There is also the relationship between Aibileen and Elizabeth. Aibileen has raised many children throughout her life as a maid but through her we being to see the relationship between the maids and the children they raise. Her employer Elizabeth is the mother of Mae Mobley. When reading the book you really get a sense of how unclear the line is between race at that time. People refuse to trust blacks in almost all aspects but yet they allow them to live in in their house and raise their children to the point that they kids being calling the maids “Mom.” It shows the irony in the cause that the kids will, most likely, grow up to have a maid of their own one day even though they experienced how close the attachment is to the maid rather than the mother.