My favorite book read in 2011 was THE HELP by Kathryn Stockett. I lived in the south as a child and saw some aspects of the stories related in the book first hand. The book is listed as fiction. It may be fiction, but there is a lot of truth in it.
THE HELP is set in Mississippi in the early 1960’s, almost a hundred years after the Civil War, yet southern society has not yet embraced the concept of civil rights. Because the southern culture was so entrenched, anyone believing in integration was looked upon as hostile-not helpful-somewhat like a policeman trying to mediate a domestic dispute. Support for integration could result a person being harmed physically, boycotted financially, or ostracized socially. The book is about the anonymous writing of a fictional book which exposes the hypocrisy of that society.
Through the fictional book, THE HELP deals with two segments of southern society in the early 1960’s-the black household help and the white ‘Junior League.’ The Junior League was a group of young women, generally with families, who published a newsletter, engaged in fund raisers for good causes and took part in other civic projects. One of the ironies in the book was the Junior League holding a benefit to raise money for the starving children of Africa while paying their household help less than minimum wage. In 1960’s Mississippi, the black household help raised the children of the Junior League, but were not allowed to use the bathrooms in the houses of the Junior League.
One of the strengths in the book was the complexity of the characters. Even the power-hungry, control freak who headed the Junior League protected a friend she cared about from the truth when the fictional book was published.
Another strong point of the book was its insight into southern culture. The young white women in the book had grown up in a world where black people were simply not equal to or the same as white people. The concept of equality simply did not fit with their education-it was radical. They were simply a product of the society in which they had grown up-they saw nothing wrong in their attitudes and would have been insulted if they had been told that they were prejudiced in any way. The fictional book written within the book was the beginning of cracking open the door of knowledge of the concept of equality.
When the fictional book within the book is published, some of the people in the small Mississippi town recognize themselves in it. Because of the culture of the times, the author of the book, despite officially remaining anonymous, leaves her hometown because she knows she will never be accepted there because of the book. It would be very interesting to check in on the characters in THE HELP ten years after the fictional book was published.
As I said, the book is listed as fiction, but there is a lot of truth in it.