The Help

"The Help" by Kathryn Stockett

Another good read. This book is about Mississippi in the 1960's. It is about the black maids that work for the white women. It is about how their lives are intertwined and how one white woman stands up to the lines that are drawn between the two races. It is a novel but the author grew up in Mississippi and had a maid that raised her and her siblings. (Oh, and by the way this is her first novel.) It is a very interesting book. I have always been fascinated with slavery and that era. I have wondered if I would be strong enough to stand up for the rights of all people or would have just gone on with the way things were. The author writes at the end that understanding is vital to our humanity. There is one line that she loves and it also stuck with me: "Wasn't that the point of the book? For women to realize, We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought." So very powerful. We may think we are better, more educated, have more money or are better parents. We may think we don't have as much, we aren't as holy, we aren't as good. Whatever it is but when we stop and think we are just people, all created in His image. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as we'd thought.