November 18, 2010: Page Turners 7 p.m.

Book: The Help by Kathryn Stockett



Discussion:

We had a good group at this month’s meeting of Page Turners to discuss Kathryn Stockett’s The Help. The group’s reaction to the book was positive as well; all sixteen attendees gave it a thumbs up vote.

We began the discussion by talking about the dialects Stockett employed; those of Aibileen and Minnie were particularly pronounced. I asked if any group members found the dialects offensive, as that had been mentioned in more than one bibliographic publication. No one seemed to think the accents were distasteful; in fact, many enjoyed the unique voices identifying each character.

Incidentally, the novel’s characters played a large role in our discussion, as is usually the case. We mentioned both Aibileen and Minnie a bit. The readers lauded Aibileen for her attempts to give Mae Mobley the praise and affection she did not receive from her mother. A few also secretly wished Aibileen had not helped Skeeter with her book, fearing it would put her in danger. The comments about Minnie centered on the infamous pie she tricked Hilly Holbrook into eating. Some group members wondered if the pie was really made of what we suspected, or if it was just a trick to make Hilly think she was eating something bad. Most of us seemed to think it was the real deal.

The only drawback to the book, mentioned during the evening, was that many of the group members did not feel like all of the characters were fully developed or their storylines were not resolved. Stuart Whitworth illustrated one example of this. Some of the Page Turners wanted to know what happened to him after his break-up with Skeeter. It was also suggested that Stockett did not fully develop the character of Celia Foote. We knew she grew up in the country, that she was familiar with the kind of domestic abuse Minnie was suffering, and that her husband loved her very much. However, many of the readers wished the author had provided additional details about Celia’s background and more about her relationship with Johnny.

Basically, the group members wished Stockett had written a book on each of her characters, except for Elizabeth Leefolt, who they did not like very much due to her treatment of Mae Mobley. We thought this proved Stockett’s abilities as a writer, her ability to make readers want more.

Aside from the discussion on the characters, much of the meeting’s content focused on the themes invoked in the book; racism, segregation, and the Southern experience. One Page Turner spoke about living in Detroit during the race riot of 1967. She was escorted to work during the five days of unrest, her job being deemed essential, while many others stayed home.

Another group member brought up the bathroom segregation issue. In the novel, Hilly Holbrook convinced the Leefolts to build a separate bathroom for Aibileen in their garage. A Page Turner who lived in Oklahoma during the time period commented that the idea of separate bathrooms was not practiced there. However, another reader mentioned that it was common in North Carolina, where one of our other members resided at the time.

Many readers in our group are from the North originally. In fact, we have a whole Michigan contingent, and more than one member from Wisconsin. Several of these ladies commented that their experiences in the North differed quite a bit from those here in the South. There was less variety in the demographics in these areas and less segregation too. One of our Northerners remembered going on vacation to Florida and feeling very confused by segregation.

As the meeting concluded we discussed two final issues. First, one Page Turner mentioned that there was another kind of discrimination in the book, one based on class. Hilly and her Junior League friends looked down on Celia because they thought she was of a lower class than they were. Our fellow group member reminded us that there were also white domestic servants or help at this time. They, however, did not suffer from the same degree of maltreatment as the African Americans did.

Secondly, we discussed the women’s issues in the book. These were mostly embodied by Skeeter. She had goals and aspirations, beyond the Junior League, like becoming an author and living somewhere besides Mississippi. We did question what Skeeter would think of total desegregation, but I think she would have been very accepting of it.

As the meeting ended, flyers for upcoming programming and copies of next month’s selection, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer, were distributed. We will hold the December meeting early next month, the evening of the ninth, to accommodate the holidays.