I have just finished reading "The Help", written by Kathryn Stockett, and I really enjoyed reading it. This book is about a serious topic, during a controversial time, yet it is still witty and humorous. The story is told in the perspective of three characters; Minny, Skeeter, and Aibleen.
Minny is a chubby, short, maid who has a big mouth that often gets her in trouble with her bosses. Skeeter is a young, wealthy, white girl who is quite different from the rest of the girls in Jackson, Mississippi.
Skeeter is twenty-three and has finished college, is not married, doesn't have children, and actually cares about the African-American maids that work for her and the rest of her community. Skeeter is writing a book called "The Help" and it tells the horrible stories of African-American maids in Jackson, Mississippi. Writing this book puts Skeeter and the African-American maids telling their stories in danger. If anyone found out Skeeter and the maids wrote the Anonymously signed book, the maids would be imprisoned, and Skeeter would lose her job, social status, and friends.
Aibleen is an old, wise, African-American maid who has been working for white families for a very long time. She has raised many children. Children of the families she has worked for. Many of these children love Aibleen and go against their parents wishes when spending so much time with Aibleen. But as Aibleen knows, these wonderful children will end up becoming just like their parents. Aibleen is often come to for advice and knowledge. She even has a "prayer list" for the people she will pray for that week, because the people she prays for, usually end up having some sort of miracle that week.
In this book, I noticed Skeeter going through a character change. In the beginning of the book, when she first decided to write a book (The Help) from the point of view of African American maids, she didn't know what kind of danger she was putting these women in. She was almost ignorant towards the trouble she and the black maids would get into. Skeeter was really just thinking about getting the book done, but she didn't fully acknowledge the fact that these women could lose there jobs because of this. Her character changed, because she finally started learning to be more secretive and sneaky when it came to visiting the maids houses, as she could be caught any moment.
There were also some lines where I saw the "author's intrusion". For example, when Skeeter was visiting Aibleen's home, she says that she "notices Aibleen stands straighter in her home". Although Skeeter is simply describing the way Aibleen walks in her own home compared to the way Aibleen walks in her boss's and people she works for homes, I think this is a line of author's intrusion. I think the author is trying to say that Aibileen is more shy and not too comfortable is white peoples' homes. That she feels more proud and confident in her own home.
In conclusion, I really liked this book. There were character changes, lines of author's intrusion, and very different characters.
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