by Tiffany Logue
Staff writer
I was very disappointed after reading Kathryn Stockett’s novel “The Help.” I actually found it to not be worth my time.
“The Help” takes place in Jackson, Miss. in the 1960s. It is about a college graduate who wants to publish a book that everyone will read.
This character, Skeeter Phelan, decides to write the stories of the local colored maids who are simply called “help.”
All the while writing the book, Skeeter tries to live her normal life with her best friends. However, that becomes complicated when one friend becomes suspicious of Skeeter’s interests.
Overall, the plot was very good. However, the story was hard to read for several reasons.
One reason was that the book contains viewpoints of three different women: Aibileen, Minny and Skeeter. These viewpoints are great; only they make the story have smaller plots inside the overall one, which was very hard to keep up with.
Another reason “The Help” was not worth the time I spent reading it was that the two colored main characters’ stories were written in the exact same way that colored women would have spoken in the 1960s.
This is both good and bad. It is good because it helps the readers to visualize the characters and better understand them. It is bad because it made it extremely hard for me to get through.
The final reason I disliked the book so much was because of the ending. I won’t disappoint those of you who attempt to prove me wrong by forming your own opinion (always encouraged) by describing said ending. However, I can tell you that after I reached the end, I realized “The Help” left its readers upset because you have no idea what actually happens to the main characters.
Once I reached the end, I turned the page hoping to find out what happened to Minny, Skeeter and Aibileen only to find that I had already reached the end of the story. It was greatly disappointing, and I will never read it again.