10 Facts about the Book

 

10 FACTS

1. New culture

The Help has a lot to say about ignorance, and how quickly it can dissipate when one is exposed to new experiences and different cultures in this specific case about black African people. 

2. Jim Crow Laws

Jim Crow laws were a collection of state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation. Named after a Black minstrel show character, the laws—which existed for about 100 years, from the post-Civil War era until 1968—were meant to marginalize African Americans by denying them the right to vote, hold jobs, get an education or other opportunities. Those who attempted to defy Jim Crow laws often faced arrest, fines, jail sentences, violence and death. In the book, there many examples of these laws such as bathrooms and books for only colored people that could not be share with white ones. 

3. Importance of the Place 

 The Help is set in the city of Jackson, Missisippi During the 1960s an important point here is that it was the state's capital, and a place known for civil rights activism.

4. Discrimination based on skin color

White people were believed to be of better social and economic condition to the point of having servants of color. The injustices committed by skin color were many and through time some have remained.

5. White Society

It can be seen how among people of the same color they also commit certain cases of inequality, money for many people is synonymous with superiority in every way and selfishness is seen in every aspect.

6. Everything has its moment.

The maids were already tired of the injustices and of remaining silent in these situations, thanks to Skeeter, they can express what the life of a maid is like, the pain and suffering on the part of her masters.

7. Talking about what is wrong in society is the only way to fight to change it.

8. All children need someone to love and teach them.

9. Courage and bravery

We can notice along the story that the maids never gave up upon their dreams despite their posición in the society of that time, also that as women they had the power to change their reality to a better one by loosing the fear and writing their stories in a book that would help them to change their lives. 

10. Racial segregation 

Crossed stories focuses on the racial conflict that took place in the US during the 1960s. The Civil Rights Movement in the United States was a long struggle so that all the oppressed (mainly black citizens) could fully access civil rights and thus once and for all end racial segregation.

Review / Point of View

 Movie or Book?

The fact of seeing the emotions described in the book staged by the actresses arouses much more empathy towards the characters than when reading in the book. There are many details that sometimes cannot be seen in the film, but others are exceptionally staged.

Reading the biography of the writer, we realized that she is from Jackson and was also raised by a black nanny. Detail of which can reflect what she lived written through the book. In fact we think that the main character is the author telling the public about the injustices of society.

Both the book and watching the movie generate a lot of feelings, each character is very well outlined and built in their own way, we can see their ideals and their nuances. The characters are well described in the book but seeing them in a movie as they have been characterized is poetry while watching the movie.

There are racist characters, and seeing the way they treat their employees who don't even consider them people is horrible and provokes that feeling of helplessness in the face of so much injustice. We think how people can act in such a way.

As mentioned above, the help touches a lot on the topic of racism. However, it should also be noted that at a time when machismo was just around the corner, the author decided to put only women as protagonists and touch on the point of abuse that many of them experienced in their homes by their husbands. In addition, to highlight that at that time women could not become writers so easily.

An interesting fact about “The help” is that despite the racism of the people. Black maids are the matrons in every home, raising all white people's children and teaching them to speak, to use the toilet, and to eat. Raising them as if they were their own.

Another curious fact but from the movie "The help" is that the actress who played Aibeleen confessed in an interview that she regretted having played that role since she felt that despite being a movie that shows racism and tries to change it, it showed as the heroine of the story Skeeter a white woman.

Book/Movie Comparison

Differences 

§      The book quickly summarizes Aibileen's relationship with Miss Leefolt and Mae Mobley. However, the movie starts out with the first time Miss Skeeter ever came to Aibileen's house to work on the book.

Book                                                                        Movie

§  

§  After the introduction at Aibileen's house, we see Miss Hilly drawing pencil marks on the toilet paper. This is so she knows if Minny is using the inside toilet or the outside one like she's supposed to. This doesn't happen in the book though. Only in the Movie

In the book, skeeter is big and tall, but in the movie, she has an average height.  

Movie

  Constantine’s daughter in the movie is black, but in the book, it says she may have a white daughter or even no daughter at all. 

Movie

         The maid Minny who works for Celia Foote miscarries her 4th child. In the novel, Minny doesn’t know Celia was ever pregnant, so the miscarriage is a complete shock. However,  in the movie, Celia tells Minny she’s pregnant when she hires her, undeniably stealing away from that surprise at the end.

Movie

Minny and Miss Celia find a naked man in the backyard, and they have to beat him with a shovel because he won't leave.  This event only happens in the book. 

Minny catches Miss Celia drinking what she thinks is alcohol and believes that Miss Celia's an addict because of all the bottles, but it's actually catch tonic to help her with the babies.This event only happens in the book. 

Book VS Movie

We can find several differences between the book and the movie. When reading the book we can realize that Kathryn Stockett plasm out so deep characteristics of each character and describes in detail the life that the maids have and we can almost live the experiences related in the book only imagining with every detail of the book, on the other hand, many of these feelings have been excluded from the movie making them not important in some scenes of the lives of some characters. One of the most marked differences in the characters is the aspect of Skeeter. In the book she is described as a girl of an aspect not so nice for the girls of his social group, high and curly hair; while in the film we can see a girl who is not taller than anyone, this does not make her different from those of her social group at all and she is very beautiful and friendly.