The Help #2

In the next couple of chapters I read, a lot happens in Mississippi. To start off with, one of Minny's good church friends’ grandsons, Robert, was beaten and blinded because he used a white restroom in town.  This sadly seemed all too real. Last year during U.S. History, I remember a story that was just like this one. A black man used a bathroom in a movie theater, which was reserved for whites only. Much like in Robert’s case, this man was brutally beaten.  Meanwhile in the book, Skeeter who has promised to write a piece on Maids asked Aibileen to help her out. After first refusing to help, Aibileen gives in. When Aibileen and Skeeter meet to start the book, both of them are afraid because of “integration violations.” An integration violation is something that prohibits whites from meeting with blacks behind closed doors because of fear of helping blacks in the civil rights movement. Aibileen and Skeeter decide to just have Aibileen write the book herself and send it to Skeeter when she is done. Like Skeeter thought, I did not think that Aibileen had the writing skills to write the book herself. Though, Aibileen tells Skeeter that she writes every night before going to sleep. At the same time this is going on, there are civil rights marches going on in Birmingham, as Martin Luther King is mentioned. Also, another thing we learned about last year is going on as well, this being the Jim Crow Laws. It is exciting to actually understand all that is going on in this book. Had I not taken U.S. History, I wouldn’t have understood much about the civil rights marches and how much a role Birmingham played in the civil rights movement. Also the Jim Crow Laws was also fun to read about. I remember having to do a paper on Jim Crow Laws and being pissed off about, but now I understand the reason to the madness which was U.S. History.

The Help #1

The Help by Kathryn Stockett, takes place in Mississippi, as the book opens in 1962. The narrator of the book is a 53 year old woman named Aibileen. She is a black woman who is a house main for a white family. Aibileen, whose son died when he was 24, takes care of a child name Mae Mobley. The 23 year old mother, Elisabeth does not love her daughter as much as Aibileen, and resents Aibileen working for her. Aibileen overhears one night that one of her good friends, Minny who is also a maid, has been stealing from her employers. As most people know, in this time period in a southern state like Mississippi, racism was still a big part of the culture. From the first couple of chapters I read, I can tell that racism will be a big part of this book. Skeeter a 22 year old graduate of Ole Miss has come home to her house, not seeing the maid that raised her. Skeeter’s mother has more interest in her daughter getting married than her graduating from college. Her mother believes that it is more important for a woman to get married than it is to go to college. This start of this book, in my opinion is not very slow. My prediction is that the three stories of Aibileen, Skeeter, and Minny will come together in the end whether there is a happy ending or not.