Readin Response #1 - The Help by Kathryn Stockett

July 17, 2011

Pages 1 - 35

Chapters 1 - 2

Mothering, wise Aibileen. Smart mouthed, feisty Minny. Manipulative, ruthless Miss Hilly. Unsure, middle class Mrs. Leefolt. Realistic, optimist Miss Skeeter. These are the ladies that make up The Help. Aibileen and Minny are African American maids, living in Jackson, Mississippi, trying to play by the white people's rules. Miss Hilly and Mrs. Leefolt are white women, too busy socializing to realize they are ignoring the needs of their families, and treating "the help" like they are less than human. And Miss Skeeter is a educated, aspiring journalist trying to change the way things are in Jackson, without much luck.

So far I have seen many similarities between The Help and A Lesson Before Dying. They are set 20 years apart, but white people still treat African Americans much the same. Segregation is the biggest issue both books have in common. In the first 2 chapters Mrs. Leefolt is worried how she will look to the community by having a black maid using the same restroom the white people use. She solves this by building the help a separate restroom. I think this shows how the race issue really plays into the classes of society. The rich Miss Hilly would never dream of sharing a restroom with a black person. Being in the middle class, Mrs. Leefolt didn't see it as an issue before it was brought up. That shows during this time, how class affects the amount of racism exposed to.

And then there is Miss Skeeter, who is rich. I think why she seems to recognized the help as equals goes back to her childhood. She is looking for her maid, Constantine, who raised her. I think they fact that she sees maids as motherly figures opens her eyes to how they are truly people. So I wonder how Mae Mobley, Mrs. Leefolt's daughter who Aibileen takes care of, will look at African Americans as she gets older. Will her mother's beliefs influence her, or will she be like Miss Skeeter and treat them with respect?

The Help also explains a side of society we've never seen much of before. The story of women during the 60's. This was still a time when women were supposed to be wife and mothers and do nothing more than serve their man and care for their children. Ironic that the only job they've been given, they don't even do. The help raises the children and cares for the house. So how does this book depict white women? So far, my impression is that they're lazy. I see this book revealing how the dynamic in society during the 60's is not as we may have always seen it to be, meaning the home make up we know from "Leave it to Beaver" isn't quite the truth. I think The Help will show us how maids' importance in society during that time has been greatly underappreciated.

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