The Help by Kathryn Stockett - Is it About Racial Relations?
The Help by Kathryn Stocket is a book describing life in Jackson, Mississippi in 1960s from the perspective of black women working as maids for wealthy white ladies.
The book is a page-turner with an interesting and intriguing plot, the characters are believable and their stories ring true.
Even though I enjoyed reading this book, there are several points that this book is pushing on the reader which I don't think are valid.
For example, the author talks over and over about how white ladies treated their help poorly, consistently told them what to do and how to do it, did not give them breaks or eat lunch at the same table with them.
The help is always complaining that they give their hearts to these white families, but do not get any appreciation in return.
The book implies that the maids are treated so bad, because they are black.
I disagree with that - it has nothing to do with race.
The relationship between the white ladies and the help, exactly how it is described in the book, is simply a relationship between the employer and the employee.
It would be exactly the same if the help was white, Asian or Hispanic.
This book reminded me of The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, about a young white girl working as a nanny for a wealthy family in New York City.
The story is the same - the wealthy lady doesn't work, clean, cook or raise her own child, but she is always busy and demanding.
Moreover, she treats her nanny as if the nanny herself doesn't have a life after work.
You will find the same story from everybody who ever worked for a boss.
From the perspective of the employee, the boss is always demanding and selfish (in reality usually the boss is just trying to get the job done), from the perspective of the boss, the employees are lazy and need constant managing and instruction (in reality usually they are trying hard and want to do a good job).
This relationship has nothing to do with race.
Every good story has good and bad characters.
Great stories usually show complex characters making difficult choices where it is hard for the reader to define them as clearly good or bad.
In this book the author chooses to show good white ladies and bad white ladies (judged only by how they treat their help, not by how much they love their children, for example), she also chooses to show the maids as always good.
Is that realistic? Just like there are bosses who are better than others, there are employees that are better than others, and often there are problem employees as well.
There are all kinds of people in every race, nationality and socioeconomic status.
Being poor, black, or working as a maid, does not automatically make that a person with high values and morals.
In conclusion, I believe the Help is a great story describing that time in history in the South, with interesting characters and their stories.
However, I don't think it is a story about racial relations, but instead about "the help" in general, where "the help" can be of any race or ethnicity.
It is a book about women and the lines that people create for themselves.
The book is a page-turner with an interesting and intriguing plot, the characters are believable and their stories ring true.
Even though I enjoyed reading this book, there are several points that this book is pushing on the reader which I don't think are valid.
For example, the author talks over and over about how white ladies treated their help poorly, consistently told them what to do and how to do it, did not give them breaks or eat lunch at the same table with them.
The help is always complaining that they give their hearts to these white families, but do not get any appreciation in return.
The book implies that the maids are treated so bad, because they are black.
I disagree with that - it has nothing to do with race.
The relationship between the white ladies and the help, exactly how it is described in the book, is simply a relationship between the employer and the employee.
It would be exactly the same if the help was white, Asian or Hispanic.
This book reminded me of The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, about a young white girl working as a nanny for a wealthy family in New York City.
The story is the same - the wealthy lady doesn't work, clean, cook or raise her own child, but she is always busy and demanding.
Moreover, she treats her nanny as if the nanny herself doesn't have a life after work.
You will find the same story from everybody who ever worked for a boss.
From the perspective of the employee, the boss is always demanding and selfish (in reality usually the boss is just trying to get the job done), from the perspective of the boss, the employees are lazy and need constant managing and instruction (in reality usually they are trying hard and want to do a good job).
This relationship has nothing to do with race.
Every good story has good and bad characters.
Great stories usually show complex characters making difficult choices where it is hard for the reader to define them as clearly good or bad.
In this book the author chooses to show good white ladies and bad white ladies (judged only by how they treat their help, not by how much they love their children, for example), she also chooses to show the maids as always good.
Is that realistic? Just like there are bosses who are better than others, there are employees that are better than others, and often there are problem employees as well.
There are all kinds of people in every race, nationality and socioeconomic status.
Being poor, black, or working as a maid, does not automatically make that a person with high values and morals.
In conclusion, I believe the Help is a great story describing that time in history in the South, with interesting characters and their stories.
However, I don't think it is a story about racial relations, but instead about "the help" in general, where "the help" can be of any race or ethnicity.
It is a book about women and the lines that people create for themselves.
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