The Help

The Help

By: Kathryn Stockett

The genre of this book is historical fiction

The theme of this book is that all humans are made equal and that no one is should be treated differently because of their race or the color of they're skin.

This book is a mixture of stories from different African American maids in the south. This book is in the time period of the 1950's. At that time many people in the South discriminated against African Americans.

One of the main characters Ms. Skeeter is a white woman who is very kind to the "help." She wants to be a serious writer in New York, so in order to do that she needs to write something new and fresh that has never been written before. She gets the great idea to write a book with dozens of maids who tell of what it’s like to be a maid in the south to a white family. Since these maids are always with the families they work for they have A LOT of dirt on them. They know all of the families scandals and secrets. Ms. Skeeter has a wonderful idea however; in Mississippi (where the book takes place) it is against the law for African American employees to talk bad about their white employers. There for it is really difficult for her to get enough maids to talk to her about their stories. After much civil friction in the South many maids agree to help her. This is a problem however for some of the white women in the town who are very angry with Ms. Skeeter.

This is an amazing book, I loved it! It may be a very serious topic in general however; the author does a great job of balancing the seriousness with humor and wit. I believed the author did a great job at showing how it really was for maids in the South. She is very neutral in her approach. I agree with almost everything she said in the book. I think this book affects me because even though I'm not African American, I still am a minority. The civil rights moment led the way for not only African American rights but the rights for other ethnicities as well. I am very thankful that there were people with enough courage to stand up for what they thought was right.

I would encourage anyone to read this book.