One of the main things that we touched upon in class today when discussing ‘The Help’ was the idea of representation within the book. Miss Skeeter is the woman who interviews the maids/the help to get their points of views and experiences to put into her book. The question raised was is it fair or correct that Miss Skeeter is writing a book about the help and the experiences of the help?
In my opinion, I think that Miss Skeeter is doing a great deed in helping Aibileen and Minny share their experiences and stories in her book. I think that without Miss Skeeter’s determination and without her connections with Miss Stein, they would have never gotten the book published. Not because they don’t have a good book but because in that time, there would have been no chance of a black woman writing and publishing a book due to the discrimination and racism that the women faced.
I also think that Miss Skeeter is very valuable to the entire process because in my opinion, they are not only writing the book for black people (So they can finally see and read about their experiences in a book) but also for white people (To show them how much the help is crucial to their lives and how much hate that they face on a daily basis). Because of this, I feel that Aibileen and Minny needed someone who could write in a way that would reach and connect with the white people who would read the book.
