Kathryn Stockett's book The Help has sold over five million copies and spent more than 100 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. Stockett's book was also made into a major film. The Help is a story about African-American maids set in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s. The story is told by three main women, Minny, Aibileen and Skeeter. Aibileen and Minny are both African-American waitresses, while Skeeter is the daughter of a privileged family. Aibileen is raising another white child named Mae Mobley whose mother does not participate in her care. Minny works for a newly married, marginalized white woman who keeps her job a secret from her husband. Skeeter is working to become a journalist and takes the risk of interviewing Minny and Aibileen for the book he publishes. All meetings take place in secret. All the waitresses Skeeter interviews talk about a woman named Hilly, who holds the ideal that whites are superior to African-Americans and intends to convince everyone in her "women's group" (of which Skeeter is a member) to join the gang. ideal and embrace it. Hilly is one of the specific antagonists of this story, which ends with his death. This story describes everyone in Hilly's circle to a T, but it is published with an anonymous author and the names are changed so that no one can figure out who wrote it. Most people “rant and rave” that Stockett's book is a remarkable story of the struggle for African Americans in von Nordheim's Jackson, Mississippi in 21960, but various historical meanings are sorely lacking throughout the book. For some the book may be difficult to “swallow” due to its lack of historical suffering, everyday suffering and the way the characters are portrayed. Address... half of the paper... I don't have permission to do that. Cooper was later quoted as saying that the similarities between his life and Aibileen's were embarrassing and that worker-employer relationships were demeaning. At one point in the book Aibileen compares her color to that of a cockroach. Stockett leaves out many different ways that black women have defended themselves throughout history and leaves all the saving up to Skeeter, a young white woman. The Help isn't a bad book, it's an easy read that was made into an award-winning movie. It approaches a very sensitive topic in American history and could have been executed in a more enlightening way. Stockett should have done better research and incorporated more historical and everyday struggles than von Nordheim 5 and should have been more sensitive in the portrayal of his characters..