The Help

Kathryn Stockett's book, The Help completely absorbed me with its unique perspective of the Civil Rights era.

This book is about a white lady and two black maids in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi. In the book, white ladies barely even talk to those with darker skin, but they do hire black women as their maids. Lately though, some things have been changing. Miss Skeeter (middle in picture above) has bravely decided to interview the black maids about their jobs. Aibileen was the first black maid to be interviewed. Aibileen told Miss Skeeter many things she had never told anyone before. She talked about the little white girl she took care of, Mae Mobley, her working conditions, and other treasured information. Miss Skeeter has to keep all of this a secret or else her social life could be ruined, or worse she and all the maids could lose their jobs.

This is a story Aibileen told Mae Mobley in the book The Help.

"“Once upon a time they was two girls," I say. "one girl had black skin, one girl had white."
Mae Mobley look up at me. She listening.
"Little colored girl say to little white girl, 'How come your skin be so pale?' White girl say, 'I don't know. How come your skin be so black? What you think that mean?'
"But neither one a them little girls knew. So little white girl say, 'Well, let's see. You got hair, I got hair.'"I gives Mae Mobley a little tousle on her head.
"Little colored girl say 'I got a nose, you got a nose.'"I gives her little snout a tweak. She got to reach up and do the same to me.
"Little white girl say, 'I got toes, you got toes.' And I do the little thing with her toes, but she can't get to mine cause I got my white work shoes on.
"'So we's the same. Just a different color', say that little colored girl. The little white girl she agreed and they was friends. The End."
Baby Girl just look at me. Law, that was a sorry story if I ever heard one. Wasn't even no plot to it. But Mae Mobley, she smile and say, "Tell it again.”"

Kathryn's book shows insight, because she does not have one person narrating, but three. It is always in first person, but sometimes the story is coming from a black maid  or a rich white lady. I like that when the character switches, the voice switches too.

This book was very enjoyable, and I would definitely recommend it. If you enjoy historical fiction books, or books about the Civil Rights time period, then this is the book for you.