The Help, already in theaters!

Are you the kind that likes to see the movie after reading the book?
For your information:
http://thehelpmovie.com

The Help. Final discussion - From Judy Caplan

Well I found this book an easy and enjoyable read -- but not a great book. While I have a good sense of Minny and Aibileen, Skeeter is more of a mystery to me. How did she get to be the person she is. She starts the book out as Hilly's best friend -- how could that be? I wish the author had given us a greater sense of Skeeter's development.

I am also struck by how young all these women are -- early 20's and already apparently "set in their lives".. So different from today. I also found the "miraculous recovery" of Skeeter's mother something that could have been developed. Wonder why the author just did not let her die.

My kindle version of the book contains an afterword by the author, in which she explains that after her parents divorce, when she was 6, she developed a close relationship with the family maid. Someone she reports she "loved but never asked what it felt like to be black in Mississippi, working for our white family."

The Help. Final Discussion

So many thoughts after reading the last page…

What did you think about Minny’s pie for Miss Hilly?  Would you have gone as far as Minny did for revenge?  Which character’s narration did you prefer?  What were your thoughts on the ending?  Did it feel satisfied or did you want an epilogue to know what happened in the end to each of the characters?
  How do you think each of the maternal relationships added to the plot? Elizabeth and her mother, Elizabeth and Mae Mobley, Skeeter and Mrs. Phelean, Hilly and her children.  How do you think Mrs.
 What were your thoughts on Skeeter and Stuart’s relationship?  Did you hope they would eventually be together or were you glad to see him go?   Did you agree with the explanation of her feelings about the relationship?  Did it change as the novel progressed?
  Did you expect the friend relationships to develop as they did?  Celia and Minny, Aibleen and Skeeter. 
 What are your thoughts about Celia?  Did you anticipate the respect that some women expressed about their help? i.e. Louvinia and Lou Anne.

Thanks everybody for your wonderful contributions. It has been lovely reading and sharing with you.
Looking forward to the next one!

The Help. Comment from Vivian

Although the story of Aibileen, Minny and Skeeter is connected, I personally think that there are differences between them. Aibileen and Minny represent the good Afro-American servants who has the spontaneous love-----as the simple human love for the white employers, even thought the discrimination still exist. That is why Aibileen takes Mae Mobley as her own kid, as every single kid she had taken care of before. And although Minny loves to talk back , she is loyal to her employers. She does not allow other people say bad things about them ------This is because of their good nature. But Skeeter is different. Maybe she does not know how to do it but she uses her own power to try to change the bad situation of the poor Afro-American around her. I think this shows the goodness of the human nature.

I know the writer shows us the racial problems in the book .But I prefer to focus in the love that goes around the different characters. If Skeeter didn`t know her maid Constantine will she still want to help the Afro-American people as an adult? Aibileen is just like another Constantine, Mae maybe will be another Skeeter. Who knows? Love can be inherited.

-Vivian Huang

The Help. Chapters 19 to 24

Action gets faster and characters braver as the story continues. A need for speak up, for avoid falling into conformity seems to be emerging, and we read about Aibeelen' stories to Mae Mobley and the toilets drive.

At the same time, we read things like the following:

“It is true. There are some racists in this town", Miss Leefolt say. Miss Hilly nod her head, “Oh, they are out there”.

As if the “racism thing” had nothing to do with them.

Do you think this is just them or do you think there was a general misperception of what racism is? What about nowadays?

The Help. Chapters 13 to 18

The story keeps developing; at every page, it gets harder to put the book down. We get to know the characters in greater depth. Not only the main ones, but the secondary too. For instance, Miss Hilly.

Miss Hilly’s Junior League does its fund-raising for the sake of “the Poor Starving Children of Africa” while treating the poor African-Americans of Jackson as if they were subhuman.… (NYT)

The Help. Chapters 7 to 12

In these chapters we learn about how Skeeter and Aibileen start the book project. Elaine Stein, from New York, encourages Skeeter to get going with the work; "Before this civil rights thing blows over". Minny seems to be firm about not getting involved. However, something happens that makes her change her mind…

How do you feel about the different characters? Do you have a favorite so far?

The Help. From Jorge

Bonjour a tous! These are my comments to the beginning of the book:

I like quite a lot how the plot is developing so far; I like the characters, (Minny's sharpness, miss Skeeter's independence and will) and the overall story.

I also find this book quite feminine (something that is neither bad nor good). I guess that is normal, being the author a woman, and being, as it seems, somehow an autobiographic book. I find male characters mostly absent but, when they appear they are… let's say, rude. Examples of these are Stuart, Ms Skeeters' date that was drunk after a night talking about sports and other boring things with the other boy, and all the husbands of the ladies that write letters to the newspaper (they are mostly interested in how to get rid of them or how to make them sober). It seems to me that the only positive comment of a male in the book so far, is when Ms Skeeter talks about his father, that she finds him honest.

I think that all these things are interesting as I am seeing the story from a completely different angle that I would expect. As some of you have already said, this is one more reason to join a reading club: you read things that probably you'd never pick yourself.

As many of you have also said, I also find quite shocking to learn that these things were happening just a few decades ago. What I wonder is how the situation is now in Jackson, how these "colored" people are treated now compared to other states or countries. And I ask some questions: Do they still have different toilets in a big, traditional southern house? More generally: Is this a book written to denounce something that happened years ago, or is it a book to denounce something that is still happening?

It is a pleasure to share my thoughts with such an interesting and diverse reading club!

Looking forward to read you too,

Jorge

The Help. From Judy

I find the speech dialects hard to imagine as accurate for the sixties -- even in Mississippi. Yes it is hard to believe folks were treated so badly 50 years ago -- that is until we think about how undocumented persons are treated today. Seems like there is still a long way to go.

Even if "ends justify the means" Aibileen is taking a big risk here but we learn of the important role Minny played in her life. I wonder if her lie to Celia will be her downfall or her ties to Minny her saving or maybe something else all together.

The Help. Chapters 1 to 6

The first chapters of The Help have introduced us to the three powerful characters that will tell us the story. Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter, with their own different accents, will surely raise different feelings and generate different reactions among us.

For instance, what do you think about what Aibileen did to introduce Minny to Celia Rae Foote?

And the Winner is...

...The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Info about the guiding pace for reading and discussing at the "Book Discussion Schedule" page.

Looking forward to reading and sharing with you!