I live about twenty minutes from the City of Tampa. Every time I drive on Interstate-4 and unto Interstate-75, I am forced to set my eyes on the largest Confederate Flag in the State of Florida, if not in the United States. I read the historical book Team of Rivals: the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin, and her book sparked a small light in me that had not yet completely burned. The Confederate Flag was born as a sign of secession from the Union—a Union that Lincoln fought to preserve. The Dixie Flag was created to oppose The United States of America only because the Southern States ardently supported SLAVERY. Blood was shed, so much of it, only because the Southern States felt insulted to be stripped of their “God given right” of SLAVERY. Many who have supported liberty and civil rights to our African American brothers have paid the price with their lives, but it is it up to us now to make sure their voices are heard. Kathryn Stockett may have never thought that her book would be such a voice, but there is no doubt that her novel The Help will become a symbol of unity and hope. Her book will most definitely become a classic that everyone will come to love and accept as a creed—a creed on how humans should learn to coexist without prejudices.
Stockett’s novel has several voices. And each voice gives us a new perspective on life during the early 1960’s. We hear the voices of African American women detailing what it is like to work for White women in the South, and their excruciating moments just to get by one more day. They give us the heartbreaking details on how they live as they raise the white children in a White Southern home. They show us the love they feel for each child such as a birth mother should feel.
We meet a white woman named Skeeter, who in her own search for the truth; is compelled to try to make things right in Mississippi. She is haunted by the secret her parents keep from her on why their own “HELP” named Constantine left her family before she returned from college. Constantine was a strong and sweet woman who raised Skeeter, but no one will tell her why Constantine left. And she is forced to find Constantine’s truth in her own dangerous manner.
The voices in this book remind us why Lincoln sacrificed his life, and why both Kennedy’s and King’s blood were shed. Although we may think that times have changed, there is much to be done. Stockett’s book is a reminder that we need to walk in others shoes in order to understand why we need to make a change. And to me, change means having to understand history—and the fact that we need to delete the Confederate Flag in order for our wonderful country to thrive.
Wonderful book! Everyone should read it NOW!
Posted on June 10, 2011
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