"The Help" have you read it??

[goodeats]

I liked the book, but didn't love it. The whole subplot with Stuart just rang false to me and it ended so abruptly. Also I felt the storyline with Celia and how she too was an underclass wasn't fully developed. Also regarding the altercation between Hildy and Aibeleen at the end SPOILER (Highlight below to read):

where Aibeleen is accused of stealing Hildy's silver just doesn't make sense. Wouldn't Aibeleen have done something to prove she didn't steal them? Like count them out before for Hildy and then count them out after? Maybe she wanted to be fired.
I too am curious what racism was shown in Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. I saw most of the episodes (not all) and nothing jumped out at me.

I will watch the movie though. I love reading a book turned into a movie and vice versa!

 

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

Okay, I'll go ahead and say it. I didn't like this book and was regretful I spent $10 on the Kindle version. It was another White-Person-Realizes-An-Underclass-Exists-Feels-Great-Guilt-Becomes-A-Hero book. Even when this is done with extraordinary deftness and consumate skill (Schindler's List comes to mind - the movie was only more or less redeemed by the fact that the movie was true to the events that occurred and that Spielberg had the good sense not to turn Schindler into St. Schindler, and because the story of how Schindler became a "name" in the 1960's is great.) it still gets irksome. And when it covers a time and period from which we've seen this particular plot device so many times that the poor mechanism has got to be exhausted from all the use it's gotten? I'm just tired of it.

I'm going to lump this book in with Slaves in the Family and In the Sanctuary of Outcasts, neither of which I liked. I just don't like reading about about upper middle class Southern Whites who are carefully certain to let their readers know that they are of a certain place in Southern society before we read what they've learned from Black people.

Now that I'm finished with that rant, I realize that if someone fictionalized the events Shirley Sherrod described in the full video from that banquet, I'd likely read it and enjoy it. It would be the device but with a fresh slant.

I don't think this has much to do with money & class status. I believe it has to do with color plain & simple.
My FIL grew up in Tennessee & they were considered poor. He and all of the other families on the mountain had a "Mamie". Keep in mind they were eating squirrels but still had "Mammies".
They all used an out house but had a "Mamie".

The beauty of books, movies is when you don't connect with a theme or character you don't have to finish the story. If I don't connect with a book I put it down. I read for pleasure & self enrichment.

Right now when the world is fighting human trafficking I think "The Help" really hits a nerve.

 

[Aimeedyan]

I loved the book and I'm glad they are making a movie about it. Though it runs the risk of "ruining" a great story, it also means a huge group of people who don't read on a regular basis will hear the story.

 

[wilma-bride]

Well since you live in England and you are putting down people who live in Georgia-tell us exactly what this chef said on a tv show-a cooking show-mind you-in England, You are inferring that blacks still have to sit in the back of the bus-have seperate water fountains and bathrooms. Not so
In the the early 60's I remember our city park had two giant swimmming pools side by side-one for white-one for blacks. I remember the sign in the bus for "coloreds: to sit behind the sign. All that ended with the civil rights movement

So do clarify.

I think Celia being treated horribly by the "old money" snobby Junior League women will be a big point of the movie.


A lot of the book is exaggeration, of course. My grandmother always had "help"-her name was Wilemenia=and allus grandkids LOVED her.

Excuse me, can you clarify exactly where I was putting down Georgia and exactly where I inferred the bolded bit above. I just said that, according to a programme I watched some of the stuff from the book does still go on. I was, in actual fact, quoting something I saw on TV for goodness sake and I will not justify myself to you. How dare you

ETA: a link from the Telegraph where Jamie Oliver, the chef whose TV programme it was is interviewed and mentions his visit to Georgia (although it doesn't mention Georgia in the article, that is where the episode he refers to was filmed) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/new...amie-Oliver-Im-sixth-generation-Sudanese.html

 

[Mimi1965]

FRom the article......

Travelling through the Deep South, he was shocked by the depth of racism he encountered. “For the first time in my life, I heard the N-word used seriously, and it came as a shock to the system. We were talking about Obama’s election, and the comment that came back was, ‘In England, they’ve got a Queen. Over here we got a... ‘“

Ok. he heard the "N" word.
I still dont see how that supports the comment you made-that there are parts of Georgia still like in the book

(BTW- the book takes place in Mississippi)

 

[wilma-bride]

FRom the article......

Travelling through the Deep South, he was shocked by the depth of racism he encountered. “For the first time in my life, I heard the N-word used seriously, and it came as a shock to the system. We were talking about Obama’s election, and the comment that came back was, ‘In England, they’ve got a Queen. Over here we got a... ‘“

Ok. he heard the "N" word.
I still dont see how that supports the comment you made-that there are parts of Georgia still like in the book

(BTW- the book takes place in Mississippi)

He also mentioned about the society ladies and the fact that certain subjects were not discussed. That is like the book. It just goes to show how you took what I said completely out of context. I wasn't necessarily saying it was all like the book in a bad way. I am bowing out of this conversation as you are obviously determined to think the worst.

 

[Cat0727]

I LOVED The Help. it's one of the best books I've read in a while. I'm excited they'll be making a movie out of it!

 

[clarabelle]

He also mentioned about the society ladies and the fact that certain subjects were not discussed. That is like the book. It just goes to show how you took what I said completely out of context. I wasn't necessarily saying it was all like the book in a bad way. I am bowing out of this conversation as you are obviously determined to think the worst.

Wilma Bride -please don't judge us by a TV show. I live in GA
I haven't heard a racial slur since I was a child. I don't think it would make for good TV to see us all just going to the grocery store and picking up kids from school- so they find some extreme type characters.

 

[wilma-bride]

Wilma Bride -please don't judge us by a TV show. I live in GA
I haven't heard a racial slur since I was a child. I don't think it would make for good TV to see us all just going to the grocery store and picking up kids from school- so they find some extreme type characters.

I am certainly not judging anybody - or Georgia as a place. It is one of the many places in America which DH and I hope to visit one day (if we can ever drag ourselves away from WDW )

I really wish I'd never mentioned the stupid TV show - and I hope I haven't offended anybody That was not my intention.

 

[clarabelle]

It's all good