‘The Help’

‘The Help’: How helpful is it really?

Lexi Medina

At some point in the last 10 years, I’m sure you’ve heard the words, “You is kind. You is smart. You is important” from someone who cares about you. These words were made famous by “The Help,” the debut fiction novel from author Kathryn Stockett published in 2009. Although it broke records in terms of copies sold and weeks spent at the top of the New York Times Best Seller charts, “The Help” manifests complicated emotions and ideas regarding race and opportunity in America through tender and unexpected relationships.

Set in Jackson, Mississippi, in the early 1960s, the story is told from the perspectives of Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson, both African-American maids working for wealthy, white women. Aibileen is a kind, motherly woman onto raising her “seventeenth white child” who she knows will turn out to be no better than her racist mother one day. Minny is a quick-to-fire woman who isn’t afraid to speak her mind to anyone, especially to Hilly Holbrook, her old employer, which tends to get her in trouble (as we see from the “terrible-awful”). We also hear from the perspective of Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, a friend of Hilly’s and all the other women in the Junior League, who has just returned from her four years at the University of Mississippi and aspires to be a famous writer. 

Although “The Help” is a feel-good story that makes you laugh and cry, it also raises the question of biases and racial perspectives for its time.

Skeeter comes up with the idea for her “big break” story by deciding to write a book from the perspective of a dozen maids who work in Jackson — a major risk for the maids involved and Skeeter herself. She seeks the help of Aibileen to tell her story and uses her to recruit other maids and their perspectives. The women form an unusual bond over humor and heartbreaking stories as they work together to give a voice to the voiceless.

Although “The Help” is a feel-good story that makes you laugh and cry, it also raises the question of biases and racial perspectives for its time. Stockett is a white woman who grew up in Jackson in the late 1970s. In interviews, she explains how Aibileen’s character and dialect was mirrored off of her grandmother’s maid, Demetrie.

“The Help” presents an intimate and empowering perspective from the women who worked quietly behind the closed doors of racist white homes during a time of unrest in America.

While it seems the book would focus on relieving these black women of the horrific daily struggles that they faced, to me, it made the focus on Skeeter’s success. Since the book’s release over a decade ago, major cultural movements — such as the Black Lives Matter movement — have brought into question the exploitation of these maids for the benefit of a white woman. The 2011 movie brings similar challenges to question who “The Help” is really about, and leading actress Viola Davis has even said she regrets taking on the role of Aibileen because of the lack of focus on the importance of their stories in a New York Times interview. 

“The Help” presents an intimate and empowering perspective from the women who worked quietly behind the closed doors of racist white homes during a time of unrest in America. For some people, this may be their only exposure to situations like this. However, for other readers, especially those of color, the book better represents Skeeter’s success than Aibileen and Minny’s stories.