Kathryn Stockett , was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. After graduating high school she moved to New York. According to a Time magazine article written by Claire Suddath, Stockett on September 12, 2001, as our nation was crumbling to pieces, wrote one of the most moving novels. Stockett, had been home sick and had started to write. Stockett was writing to comfort herself in a time of need, and never expected her first novel to ever be read. However, it has sold over five million copies.
The Help, published nearly nine years after being written, launched its way into its readers’ hearts. The Help, takes a look at what it was like in Jackson, as an African American maid. Stockett wasn’t afraid of crossing boundaries and did so with class. She wasn’t afraid to make her readers pull up America’s past.
Stockett, which quickly captured my heart as I read it in a day, wrote every word with elegance. The Help, even though it was on a specific topic, was easy to relate to myself. I am a nanny to a wonderful two and twelve year old. Stockett, brings up the idea of how does it feel to raise other people’s children. Stockett captured the exact feeling of how it feels to be a maid/nanny. She represented the emotional ties there are with those children that we consider our own. My favorite thing about being a nanny is watching and teaching those children as they grow, and she pin pointed how it feels. I also enjoyed the fact that the reading level, was very educational but it didn’t make me feel like I needed a PhD to understand it.
Stockett easily is my favorite novelist based on the fact she wrote the story out of comfort. It truly is a “heart story” because she had no intention of making a dime off of it. By the end of the novel, I was reaching for my box of Kleenex, sobbing like a child. So the next time you’re for a good cry and a heart warming story, make sure to pick up The Help.