Megan Rhodes
Mr. Rauch
Block Two
11 January 2016
About the Book
The Help by Kathryn Stockett is considered by many to be an accurate representation of life in
the southern United States in the 1960s, even though it was published in 2009. The novel follows
three protagonists- Skeeter Phelan, Aibileen Clark, and Minny Jackson- and switches between
their points of view in first person every few chapters. The Help is a New York Times bestseller,
and has won numerous awards, including the Townsend Prize for Fiction, SIBA Book Award for
Fiction, and the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Fiction.
About the Author
Kathryn Stockett was born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1969, a fact that greatly attributed to her
writing. The Help is Stockett’s first novel, though she worked in magazine publishing before its
release. Critically, Stockett is a rather controversial figure. Many praise her work, while others
dismiss her for misrepresenting the opinions of colored women or setting feminism back.
Characters and Conflict
The novel revolves around three women- one white, two black- as they work together to write a
book revealing the lives and work of black maids in town. The first to appear in the book is
Aibileen Clark, an older black woman who has raised white children all her life, even after her
own child died. The next chapter is from the point of view of Minny Jackson, a younger black
maid who works from a liberal white lady. Minny is outspoken and stubborn with everyone
except her husband, who drunkenly beats and abuses her regularly. The third woman is Skeeter
Phelan, called Miss Skeeter by the other two because she is white. Skeeter is a slightly naïve,
smart young lady who works tirelessly in all areas of her life except in love, a point that is
brought up repeatedly throughout the novel. As they work on their book, the three begin to learn
to understand themselves and others, and attempt to make their community a safer, better place.
Theme
The three women protagonists in The Help use their vehicle for justice- a novel- to attempt to
bring social change to a racist and sexist community.
Review
The decade of 1960 was a time of change: good, bad, and the kind that jingles in your pocket. In
The Help, Kathryn Stockett shows the shift from bad change to good through her use of diction
and point of view. The main characters are three women that live in the South who decide to
bring change to their community by writing an expose-style book revealing the lives of black
maids of the time. No matter what time period you’re reading it in, The Help is a novel that will
make you think about the labels society places upon people, and the risks some are willing to
take to change that. -Megan Rhodes
Point of View
The Help is told entirely in first person point of view; however, in order to help the reader gain a
complete understanding of the situation and how it affected the largest number of people, she
decided to switch perspectives between three women every few chapters. Because all the
narrators are women, Stockett also “gives a…sense of female dominance, even solidarity”
(Troutman 1). Troutman is implying that the women are given an inflated sense of importance in
the novel because it is told through all female voices. Stockett writes about the same thing, but
takes a different approach, saying, “Wasn’t that the point of the book? For women to realize, We
are just two people. Not that much separates us” (Stockett 492). Stockett takes the opposite
approach of Troutman, saying that the women are more empowered because of their dominance
in the novel, and that it makes them more human. Overall, the women in The Help form close
bonds that can be examined on a completely new level thanks to the alternating points of view.
Diction
In between the alternating viewpoints, the differences in diction are sharp. First is Skeeter, whose
flowing, college-educated voice speaks in what most consider a “normal” tone, meaning her
word choice and flow are closest to what the majority of people around us use today. Aibileen, as
an older black woman, has received little education in her lifetime, and thus speaks with more of
an accent. When she talks, she often uses the wrong verb tense or speaks in an unnatural order,
such as when she says, “I done raised seventeen kids in my lifetime. I know how to get them
babies to sleep, stop crying, and go in the toilet bowl before they mamas even get out a bed in the
morning” (Stockett 1). The improper grammar used is never bad enough to distract from the
overall reading experience; in fact, Stockett is praised for it when Steinberg writes that “...one of
Stockett’s accomplishments is reproducing African American vernacular” (Steinberg 1).
Aibileen’s diction, though it isn’t as flowing or grammatically correct as Skeeter’s, contributes
the novel in a positive way, and gives the two women very different, easily distinguishable
styles.
Allusions
The Help is set in the 1960s, a very rich period of time in our history that is impossible to ignore,
even when viewed through the eyes of a fictional novel. It was a time when civil rights took
center stage in America, and Stockett does not forget it. From Aibileen’s perspective, Stockett
writes about Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, saying “Ever colored
person in Jackson gets in front a whatever tee-vee they can find, watches Martin Luther King
stand in our nation’s capital and tell us he’s got a dream” (Stockett 347). Stockett smoothly
incorporates the headlines of the time into the novel, making sure they are subtly powerful in
their message. Steinberg also notices, mentioning “The murders of Medgar Evers and Martin
Luther King Jr. are seen through African American eyes” (Steinberg 1). Most of the characters in
the novel seem to make an allusion at some point, almost making it seem as though it really was
written in the 1960s.
Works Cited
Harris, Duchess. “Kathryn Stockett is Not My Sister and I am Not Her Help.” The Feminist
Wire. The Feminist Wire, 12 August 2011. Web. 3 January 2016.
<http://www.thefeministwire.com/2011/08/kathryn-stockett-is-not-my-sister-and-i-amnot-her-help/>
Steinberg, Sybil. “The Black Maids’ Tales.” The Washington Post. The Washington Post
Company, 1 April 2009. Web. 3 January 2016. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2009/03/31/AR2009033103552.html>
Stockett, Kathryn. The Help. Pittston: Penguin Books, 2009. Print.
Troutman, Stephanie. “’Help’ing to Forget Feminism: How Racism and Sexism are Personal and
Not Political in the Film ‘The Help.’” AME Moral Discussion. AME Media, 8 April
2012. Web. 3 January 2016. <http://amenetwork.org/oped/?p=46>