A review by purplehulk713
The Help by Kathryn Stockett

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Aibileen, Skeeter, and Minny remind me of all of the lines that I want to cross that I am either afraid to or cannot given my own conscience. Their surreptitious journey to express their very real struggles is so inspiring, frustrating, and heartbreaking. You will all grow to hate Hilly Holbrook just as much as I did. You hate her initially, but trust me. Each of the three women narrators seems to embody a different witness at this time, and this book (in the sense of the reader’s novel and the book that the characters are writing) is their testimony. They are testifying to the fact that 

There is so much you don't know about a person. I wonder if I could've made her days a little bit easier, if I’d tried. If I’d treated her a little nicer. Wasn't that the point of the book? For women to realize, We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought.

Taking care of someone means recognizing who someone is completely—where they come from, how they grew up, and how they relate to themselves and others because of that. We can’t place our own desires before the people we take care of or project our own needs, desires, or expectations upon them because that would reject their personhood to assume that our needs and expectations are worth more. The lines are not there, we draw them every day.
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