This novel is brilliantly written. Set in the 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi, it tells the tale of black women, who worked as maids for white families and helped raise their children, through the perspectives of three female protagonists; Aibileen, Minny and Skeeter.
While Aibileen and Minny are both black maids, Skeeter is a young white woman who has just finished college and was herself raised by a black maid. What the reader witnesses is Civil Rights America and Stockett does a remarkable job telling the story of white people who stood with blacks through this era, namely in the person of Skeeter, who's heart is caught between her affection for the black community and the expectations placed on her by her family.
In parallel, we also witness the lives of the black women who raised children of the people who loathed and oppressed them, being willing to give their lives for these children, in the midst of racism and prejudice. The Help is tragic and beautiful. I was dashed between hope and anger over and over again.
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