Book Review: ‘The Help’ by Kathryn Stockett

Review: 5 Stars

In the end, it is all about conditioning. Right and wrong, it has a reference point. Apart from certain universal moral values, all sets of ideologies differentiate and draw a line.  And because it is so deeply enmeshed within the skeleton of the so-called universal moral values, it feels inherently wrong when we break a rule. Or rules that we believe are universal, but actually they aren’t.

Falling-in line has got a practical value – it eases our life on Earth. Surrounded by people of similar backgrounds, by peers of similar tastes – we are numbed and comforted by the familiarity and regularity of the world. And we are downright afraid of something that’s different. If not hostile, we have something resembling benign naivete in our approach to what’s not exactly the same. I guess Miss Skeeter in ‘The Help’ had that incredible naivete that a truly unaware and unknowing person might possess – since her childhood, she had grown used to having colored help around, she had grown used to the discrimination, she had grown used to being not-so curious about Constantine’s life, she lacked the empathy and tact with which she needed to broach a sensitive subject – not because she was stony and cruel but because it had never registered in her mind before that what was easy for her to do as a white person was not so in case of black, she took her freedom for granted and assumed everyone else would possess the same. She turned a blind eye to the brutality against the blacks and in her mind – they were simply minor skirmishes and inconveniences. And that’s a natural human tendency, where our own problems are accentuated to the forefront and that of the others are brushed under the carpet. There is just too much information out there, for our brains to be overly concerned. It was not out of a feeling of great injustice that she ventured to write the book, it was because of her literary ambitions that she sought out to do so. Dimly, she was aware that there is something wrong with her friends and the way they treated their colored maids, and that it would form a great subject to write about.

There is a thing about empathy, it pushes the boundaries of human knowledge. We learn and feel about people who were before present only in the periphery of our consciousness. Empathy educates us of our common humanity, of our similarities and of our inherent desire to connect. It was only when she started the interview sessions with Aibileen, Minny and other maids, Skeeter truly empathized with them. And that changed her as a person, for the better.

This book is highly relevant, because humans possess a ‘default’ tendency to discriminate than to empathize. The average human is likely to be like Skeeter or Stuart – unaware, unconcerned and led by demagogues and ideologues. We only change for the better like Skeeter did, when we decide to change that default option.