Tuesday 15 November 2011

The Help, Chapters 10-19

Ohhhh boy, the things that are to be said about these chapters. Things have gotten horrible, and digusting, and Skeeter's been told off in the most satisfying way. I still maintain my dislike of Skeeter because she still insists on associating with those people. I say, take your cotton trust fund money and move up North where the normal people are, ok? I also just want to point out that, at this point, Stockett has mentioned Gone With the Wind and To Kill A Mockingbird at least three times each, as if mentioning them will fool readers into thinking that The Help is of the same calibre as them. Which, I'm sorry, but it isn't.

That's not to say that I'm hating The Help though, because that's not true. It's still ridiculously readable (a less nice person might say that's because it's not very complex but... ok, no, I am that mean. It's not) so I'm down with it. Now, let's talk about Minny and Celia, because clearly they're meant to be friends! I love it- Minny's all pretending to hate Celia because she's white (ooh Minny, you racist!) but really she feels sorry for her and wants to protect her which is so lovely I could just hug them both and I'm gonna! Also, we got to meet Celia's husband, and he's nice- he thinks it's great that Minny cooks for him, and he LOVES Celia- now she just has to stop wanting to be friends with those awful women, and everything will be fine there! He also was one of the To Kill a Mockingbird readers, so we can assume that he's possibly for civil rights? Maybe? And he couldn't marry Hilly because she's just heinous? Well, that last bit's true anyway.

And then there was the whole miscarriage down the toilet, and oh my GOD, what was that?! I mean, really, I'm not really squeamish, but that seemed really gross and unecessary! But at least we found out that Celia wasn't a secret drunk, so yay for that. But still, traumatised.

And Skeeter's being all annoying with her predictable boyfriend and her trying to write a book, and does she care that these people might all DIE because she wants to write a book about them? No, I don't think she does. I love love love the community amongst all the maids though- like, when Skeeter's paying them to be interviewed, and they all give their money to send Yule May's (who's now in prison because Hilly's such an EVIL WHORE) boys to college, and really I could just cry at that. Especially because, when Hilly invites that awful Leefolt woman (who's having another baby, and oh my what a bad idea that is) to the country club, she doesn't even buy her lunch when it's pretty clear that she's got a lot of money. God, I hate white people SO FUCKING MUCH.

Which is kind of a bit of a problem really, because it's making me feel like all white people are intrinsically bad, because there isn't one unquestionably good white person in the book so far- except possibly Celia, except that we all know from To Kill a Mockingbird that white trash people are considered basically the same as black people in this society. But where are the white people protesting for Civil Rights? Am I just to assume that they're up in the North, living it up Yankee style? Or is Skeeter going to grow a backbone and start standing up for what she believes is right? Stay tuned for (hopefully) some answers.

5 comments:

  1. I think you're being a little harsh on Skeeter. While obviously I don't agree with the racism going on down south at the time, that was the general feeling at the time and not just down south. And I mean these are people she's been friends with since she was little so she's probably stuck in the middle of wanting to still like these are old friends and trying to reconcile that with them just awful. So yeah it was annoying and you want to be like "suck it up!" but it's easier said than done.

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  2. I am being harsh on Skeeter and I know it- but it's fun to be harsh! Hehe I just CAN'T STAND HER FRIENDS AND I DON'T THINK SHE SHOULD EITHER! In a nutshell...

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  3. haha true, harsh is fun :) I think I like her her mostly cos of Emma Stone which is obv a stupid reason to like a character but shush

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  4. (i'm kind of a little nicer to skeeter because yeah, emma stone, and now, on with our regularly scheduled commenting)

    "who's now in prison because Hilly's such an EVIL WHORE" ACCURATE. All I could think of there was Ron Burgundy and "You are a smelly pirate hooker!" That's you, Hilly. Boooo!

    I felt more like the TKAM references (and there certainly are a lot) were more there to be like "Look! This book was New and Controversial at this time! And look what it says about the people reading it!" But until we pin down Stockett, we can't find out, I guess. *envisions her being at BEA next year and us forming a task force to root this out*

    ALL THE HUGS FOR CELIA AND MINNY. ALL OF THEM.

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  5. Yeah, I feel the whole 'To Kill a Mockingbird was all scandalous and Celia's husband and Skeeter reading it means they're cool' thing, but also, it kind of reminds me that The Help definitely isn't as good as it or Gone With the Wind, so it's not a great thing to do, imho.

    Are we going to literally pin Stockett down and force her to tell us things? Because that sounds like hilarity, the likes of which BEA has never seen! (not that I'm going to be able to afford to go, probably. Humph.)

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