College Students! discussion

Please use this thread to talk about the book as a whole after you have finished.

Some general starting questions:

Did you like or dislike the book? Did you like the ending? Favorite characters? Favorite quotes? Did you like the author's style? Were you confused by anything in the book? etc.

Feel free to post any discussion questions that are more specific to the book once you have finished. The moderators and discussion leader will try and facilitate the discussion but since everybody's reading schedule/life schedule are different, they may not be able to do so at the beginning of the month. So, any discussion questions are welcome! :)

I studied abroad from Jan-April of 2010, and I ran out of books about halfway through, so for my birthday, a friend of the family mailed me this book to read. I wanted to savor it and make it last as long as possible, but I ended up finishing in just a few days because I could not put it down. I love books with different narrators, and this was was especially good because it was written in the dialect of the characters. I thought that was really neat.

Anyway, let's hope the movie lives up to the book! Emma Stone is in it and I think she's fantastic, so I'm excited about that. :)

I read this book a couple months ago. I thought it was good, but not Earth-shattering. This book makes a lot more sense I think if you've ever been to the Deep South, a couple of my friends mentioned that they had a hard time really understanding the depth of the racism.

I did like the fact that it was told from different points of view, though.

Also, I didn't mean my above comment offensively to the South, I know they've made many improvements in race relations, but in the small towns in Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama that I visited, a lot of the older generation (like my grandparents age) still held the old views.

I read this book a while ago and loved it! I listened to the book and feel that I got a better understanding of the characters and the society in that time because of it. Each character had a different reader and they made the character talk to fit the part. I loved the struggle between Skeeter and the rest of the white gals and her determination. I personally don't understand how people can/could sit around playing cards and talk about everyone and their day. The whole we decided to make you a bathroom in the garage took me aback and I still am in awe. How did you all feel about the little kids the Help took care of and them loving the Help as kids and growing to despise them? I felt horrible about it. It truely shows how loving and innocent children are.

I just finished this weekend, and loved it. I couldn't put it down. It really made me think about the 60's, segregation, and the South. I found it really interesting that these women would let the Help care for their children and cook their food, but were afraid of using the same restroom for fear of condracting diseases. It just goes to show that their thoughts and fears were based on old wives tales and not based on logic.

I loved this book! I didn't want it to end.

I am glad the author decided to end it the way she did. Some of the white people had wake up calls, some showed even more how horrible they really were, and I loved how Celia was thought of as trash by the "whites" but she was the only white person that was truly color blind. I know Skeeter is supposed to be, but she acted the part when others were around and that is almost as bad as being like Hilly or Elizabeth. I was sad that Aibileen lost her job caring for the kids, but she did get to write and I hope she wrote more books.

I have never been to the south other than spend a night in Florida once before embarking on a cruise, so I really haven't had experience with racism like it is in the book. I kept thinking to myself, when mention of historical events reminded me they were in the 1960's, this wasn't that long ago.

Did any of the rest of you just feel pity for a bunch of the characters? I didn't hate Hilly, though I could see why people would. I just felt, how sad her life is.

I had no idea that they were making it a movie. I just checked out the cast. I love Chris Lowell from his Private Practice days. I am bummed he is playing Stuart, definitely not one of my favorite characters.

Tami wrote: "I loved this book! I didn't want it to end.

I am glad the author decided to end it the way she did. Some of the white people had wake up calls, some showed even more how horrible they really we..."
Actually, I was impressed by Skeeter, because she only played the part in order to keep Aibileen and the other blacks safe. I think that sometimes it was much more heroic, to not stand up to what you know is wrong, not because you are a coward, but because if she had stood up, Hilly and Elizabeth would have fired Aibileen and other blacks.
I can't wait for the movie to come out in August!

I just powered my way through this book. I thought it was fantastic. I just wrote my review on it, though, and I'm having a really hard time figuring out what to say. I'm a white girl from Wisconsin. What comments can I, and should I, really make? I feel like I've read about all these people from behind a nice little one-way mirror and I can laugh and giddy and love this book with no real consequences to myself and my life.

That being said, I think Stockett did a tremendous job with this book. Again, as much as I can understand from my background, I feel like she showed us so many different feelings - how Aibileen loved the kids but knew it couldn't last, how Minny loved Celia by the end but was never going to be her "friend," how Skeeter just never REALLY understood how dangerous it could be, but somehow she knew she didn't get it and the guilt ate her up, etc. etc. etc. I was terrified right up until the end. I really thought Stockett was going to blow up the whole neighborhood. And while it might not have been, on the whole, realistic, I'm glad she didn't. I think this book leaves people with hope at the end, and that's the best kind.

I was looking on IMDB tonight and saw that they are making The Help into a movie that will be released August 2011!! I am really excited about this but I loved the book so much that I am also kind of scared to see it. Did anyone else know about the movie??

Melissa wrote: "I was looking on IMDB tonight and saw that they are making The Help into a movie that will be released August 2011!! I am really excited about this but I loved the book so much that I am also kind..."
I knew about the movie, that's one of the reasons that I read the book: I *try* to read the books before I watch a movie.

I knew about the movie too. I'm so excited for it, I think they'll do a great job with it. I think Emma Stone is perfect to play Skeeter.

Secret Life of Bees is similar to The Help, and they did a great job with that one.

Hmmm... I think I need to watch that movie again. :)

Is it irony that I finished this book on Martin Luther King Jr. Day? I loved this book and though I live waaaay up here in Vermont I think that this book proves just how far our nation has come. Even throughout the book, not only did you see the characters develop but the nation develop sort of like a character of it's own; the progress that was made, slowly, but surely. I am not ignorant, however, to the fact that this country still has a long way to go-- perhaps now accepting a new minority or culture.
It was interesting to me that not only did this book deal with race but also delved into gender and class issues of the time period as well. As was the same with the country changing and developing in terms of race, the US also changes in terms of these issues as well.
I absolutely loved this book. I was so drawn in- I found myself creating relationships with these characters, despising others (Hilly-- shocker, right?). I sat up last night tense at some parts, in tears in others, and laughing out loud at yet other parts. WONDERFUL!

Ummm.. alsoooo (as if I didn't write enough before- sorry) They're really making this a movie?? Disappointment-- big time! Books into movies are just never the same for me, never as good. Maybe I'll give it a try though!

Kimberly wrote: "I knew about the movie too. I'm so excited for it, I think they'll do a great job with it. I think Emma Stone is perfect to play Skeeter.

Secret Life of Bees is similar to The Help, and they did ..."

I feel mixed about this. I really like Emma Stone, it will be interesting to see how she plays it.

I heard something a bit interesting the other day and thought I would get your thoughts.

Do you all think that the book in the story was "written" by Skeeter or do you think it may have been "written" by Aibileen?

I think that the book was written by both. Skeeter does talk about rewriting a lot of the interviews, but Aibileen wrote her story and Constantine's story. I think maybe more of it should have been written by Aibileen.

Tami wrote: "I heard something a bit interesting the other day and thought I would get your thoughts.

Do you all think that the book in the story was "written" by Skeeter or do you think it may have been "..."

You know, I thought all along that it was written by Skeeter but at the very end when Aibileen was a little.. smug about it, I started to think that it was her! I agree with Amy though, I think it was a combined effort.

I enjoyed this book, but I wasn't blown away. I think all the hype about it resulted in my disappointment; I was expecting it to be fantastic. I usually don't care for books written in different POVs but this one was done well. Skeeter was an okay character, but Minny was my favorite. Because of the subject matter it reminded me a lot of The Secret Life of Bees and I absolutely hated the movie-version they made out of that. I hope they do better with The Help.

I just finished and it made me tear up a few times. I really liked the different point of views, it rounded the story out for me, it took some getting used to, and I might be the only one, but when I first started reading Skeeter's part I was confused because I thought she was black. Oops! I think Aibileen was smug at the end party because she had such a hug part in creating the book, but also to protect Skeeter. She was gone, but her name would stay clean and maybe Hilly would stay away from telling her mother if she thought it was all written by Aibileen.

The church giving Skeeter a signed book was so sweet! As was when Aibileen and Milly told her to leave. I liked the little side remarks about the time period, smoking won't kill me, remote tv's, watching Dick Clark...

I loved how when the book came out it made the families and the maids in the good stories closer. I was heartbroken for Mae Mo losing her best friend and I really worried about what would happen to her growing up.

There was a passage at the end of my book that the author wrote about growing up with her own maid and I could really see where a lot of these characters came from, which I thought was nice. A touch of authenticity and truth.

All in all, I laughed, I cried, I went home happy.

If you like this book and subject matter, I would suggest reading anything by Jonathon Kozol. It's non-fiction but its about how racist attitudes like Hilly's are still present in today's school system. Either Savage Inequalities or Shame of a Nation will be enough to blow your mind. I'm a teacher partially because of books like these. Kozol writes really well. I normally don't do non-fiction but those books are so compelling that they're hard to stop reading. One of the most moving things that stood out to me was that the schools named after black people, Rosa Parks, MLK, George Washington Carver, etc. are the most racist with 97-99% of the kids going there being black.

There is a movie, which for the life of me I can't remember the name of (big help, huh?), something like The Confederate States of America. Anyways, it's a mockumentary of what today would be like if the South had won. Modern homes have slaves and minorities still aren't really considered people. It shown in such a ridiculous way, but it also shows how some racism of the past still exists today in various forms. One example that sticks out in my head is Aunt Jemmima maple syrup.

All that racism, and yet they were raising money for starving children of Africa! I also loved that Hilly's mother won her that pie!

Just finished. It was wonderful. I think my favorite part may be the afterword and seeing how Stockett's actual life experience was worked into all the main characters in the book.

Funny side note, in high school we had to make a short documentary on some historical something or other and we made ours of the pre Civil War slave trade, but we switched it to where the slaves were the whites. We did it a bit funny in parts to help smooth it all over, but the teacher was Shocked! :) I think we only had 3 black students in the whole school, and probably a handful of hispanic students. Our school was predominantly white. I don't know why the teacher was so shocked though, I really never saw racist remarks or actions, but then again, maybe I just chose not to.