The Help.

So I finally got around to reading the book The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Now mind you, it has been on the top bookseller list for awhile, months even! I had to wait months to have my turn with it at the library, and I was a little anxious to see what all this hype was about! I knew loads of people that had read the book and they just ranted and raved about it, so I figured it would be a good, light read.

Well let me tell you it takes place in the 1960s, a time I was not alive for. To be honest though, I kind of wish I was. I wonder what type of role I would have played in the Civil Rights Movement, and I hope and PRAY that I would have stood up and stood out against the countless injustices. I get emotional just thinking about it all! So the book, it tells the stories of the African American maids and the white women they worked for in the segregated and volatile town of Jackson, Mississippi.

I must say Kathryn Stockett writes well, and I should give her kudos considering this is her first book. But the topic is delicate, and after reading just a few chapters I had to put it down because I was RAGING. I was RAGING because of the inequality, the separate toilets, the separate parts of town, the separate lives. I was sooo ANGRY at the blatant injustice and the acceptance of it. It was soo wrong, and then I was angry at the people who had read the book and recommended it because they didn't get angry about it. Or if they did, they didn't mention it.

Stockett writes about a moment in our history, a moment that many believe is a thing of the past. However, the reality is those injustices still exist. They may not be as blatant as they were in the past, but they still exist. Ask anyone that isn't white. While reading the book I kept thinking about all the people who had loved and recommended the book, they were all white women, women of privilege, women who may never have experienced injustice in their life. What would non-whites say about the book? Would they recommend it?

Overall, I enjoyed the book, and I can't blame Stockett for getting me so worked up, but I can hope and pray that things will be different. That as we move into the future, hearts and beliefs will be fully and completely transformed and that we see each other through the eyes of Christ.