I know what you're thinking--"Ella, The Help was big years ago, and you're just reading it now?" And the answer to that question is yes. Yes I did just read it now. Because when it became more popular I was in high school reading 100 pages of Pride and Prejudice every day and for the past three years I have been reading about pedagogy and rhetoric in big, heavy textbooks.
That is, until this past January when I spent a month at home nannying and found myself with an abundance of free time, I picked up "The Help" and dove right in.
Honestly, I was intimidated by the sheer length of the novel which is another reason as to why I was hesitant to pick it up. But two days later I had burned through all 524 beautifully written pages.
If you have no idea what book I'm talking about, "The Help", by Kathryn Stockett, follows the journey of an African American maid and mother's helper, Aibileen Clark, and a white upper-class woman, Skeeter Phelan, as they bring to light the plight of "the help" in the deep south during the Civil Rights movement. With that short description, you can imagine the trials and tribulations that ensue throughout the novel.
What made me love this book is the shift in perspective that happens throughout the story, from Aibileen to Skeeter to other maids and mother's helpers. By presenting the story this way, Stockett successfully portrays not just the white upper-class woman's perspective on the journey to shedding light on the treatment of help in the deep south, but the women who are considered the help's perspective as well.
I could not recommend a book more, and I don't want to spoil anything that happens (because realistic fiction can have plot twists too) so I'll leave you with this: read "The Help". The 524 pages feels like 10, I promise.
