The Help (The Book): A Short Review

When I saw its cover illustration, my initial thoughts about The Help was that it was one of those inconsequential romance novels which I detest and which I usually ignore whenever I could. The minute I opened the book and browsed through the first few lines, however, that was when I quickly realized my mistake. Those well-crafted few sentences gripped me like just a handful of books could, and I became immersed in the time and place that The Help was centered on – the hot, humid world of 1960s segregation-era Mississippi. Unless you’ve just landed from some distant galaxy, I'm positive you've noticed this book making waves across Britain called The Help. This isn’t new, as it was released in America some time ago but seems to have only just received the recognition it deserves from British readers recently. The film adaptation of the The Help by director Tate Taylor was a smashing success getting 5 Oscar nominations in 2011. If you'd like to watch the film instead, it's currently out on DVD for as low as 99p. The Help is told from the points of view of three people whose fates begin to converge to a crisis juncture in the story. There’s my favourite character Aibileen Clark, an African-American woman who adores children and serves the white Leefolt family. Aibileen’s voice takes you right into the very heart of the Leefolt family life as she relates her observations and her own feelings with such simplicity, clarity, and wisdom. Aibileen will have even the hardest heart softening as she explains about her ward Mae Mobley, the baby girl unloved by her own mother ostensibly for being too unattractive. Then we have Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan who is situated on the other side of the fence as she is white. Her family have hired African-American workers for decades and she has grown up accepting conventions such as never dining at the same table with the servants or not having friendly conversations with black people as correct behavior. However, as an aspiring writer, she soon grows into an independent woman and starts speaking out against the ludicrous rules, only to suffer some distressing repercussions. Finally, there's the combative Minny Jackson, another domestic who got fired from nineteen different households for voicing her thoughts. It appears Minny was born with a disposition many white people loathe but as we soon discover she was simply questioning the injustice in their conditions and being outspoken about it. As the three friends begin to work together to tackle common enemies, a whole story emerges that forces you to sink even deeper into this world. There is a genuine sense of dread in the black population as they are attacked for simple reasons such as using the employer's bathroom and you swear with indignation as you learn that the atrocious idea of black people belonging to an inferior species altogether was actually commonplace among the whites. rnThe book is set exactly during the time when Martin Luther King Jr. was spearheading the U.S. Civil Rights movement. However, Mississippi was standing squarely against reform back then and its inhabitants treated their domestics as if they second class citizens. Repressive laws were enforced that made sure blacks constantly remember who their masters are - they couldn’t use their employers' lavatories (for fear of spreading disease to whites), they were banned from shopping in white-only stores, they were forbidden to express their thoughts, and they were for the most part paid less than the meager minimum salary required by law at the time. We've read about these tales in the past, so why is The Help making such a splash in the year 2013? I think personally, it’s the way it's crafted coupled with it being a reminder we all can do with, which is that everyone is worthy of the same human rights that all of us enjoy.