"Write about what disturbs you, particularly if it bothers no one else."
The Help
written by Kathryn Stockett
Since elementary school, fiction and non-fiction books have been taught as "not-real" and "real" respectively. This is an over simplified way to classify these genres. Why should fiction be described as less real? Ernest Hemingway declared, "No subject is terrible if the story is true, if the prose is clean and honest, and if it affirms courage and grace under pressure.” I believe in these words wholeheartedly, and I could not have said it better myself. Fiction is just as credible as non-fiction when the story is true and honest in the way that it both connects with and reflects the reader in its pages. Ernest Hemingway himself wrote a world-renowned fiction based off his own experiences as an ambulance driver in World War I in his novel, A Farewell to Arms. But this review is not about Ernest Hemingway; it is about Kathryn Stockett and her novel, The Help.
The help are ignored for the most part. These African American women are hired by white women to clean, cook, and care for their children, and this is what Aibileen has been doing her whole life. She technically was the mother to one child, but she has raised nineteen children. Through the eyes of the women through make up the help, segregation and prejudice is seen in a new and disarming way. Unspoken stories of discrimination and injustices are kept locked away in these women's minds, for fear of being beaten in the streets and/or being fired and driven into a life of poverty for them and their families. The stories of Aibileen and many others might never have been told, if not for an oddball.
Skeeter loved her families help, Constantine. Constantine was the one who gave her love and guidance when her mother was too busy to bother with her, and Skeeter loved her long after she was no longer there. Maybe it was because of this that Skeeter, an aspiring writer, was able to ignore the frowns of her friends and approach Aibileen to ask for help with her new job at a local paper writing the cleaning column, which she knows nothing about. This one small crossing of the racial lines would soon turn into much more when Skeeter gets the idea to write a book that will finally present the perspectives of the help. However, the problem is getting the maids to open up.
Sometimes it’s hard for me too be objective about a book that has its own little place in my heart. When I try to recommend such books to others I get so enthusiastic I just say, "It's amazing, so read it!" but that's not good enough. What gives The Help its worth is its realism despite it being a fiction. On its surface it is a story of three women, Aibileen, Skeeter and Minny, a fellow maid, but as a whole The Help brings the relation between the races to an personal level. Skeeter finds as she writes the stories of Aibileen, Minny and the other maids there exists severe persecution, cruelty and racism all around, but with some cases there exists caring, devotion and gratitude between the help and the helped that transcends the current societal rules.
"No subject is terrible if the story is true, if the prose is clean and honest, and if it affirms courage and grace under pressure.”
The status quo at this time in history was a despicable one, but in The Help the reader can gain an insight into the rule and its exception. This story is based on true events, though the characters only exist vividly in our minds, and the honesty written into this book takes turns at both clenching your knuckles and your heart. Kathryn Stockett has written a graceful novel that even after I turned the last page in I refused to close it because the story may have been finished, but I will never be finished with this story.
