Descriptions written on the back of the book:
" Enter a vanished world: Jackson, Mississippi, 1962. Where black maids raised white children, but aren't trusted not to steal the silver...
There's Aibileen, raising her seventeenth white child and nursing the hurt caused by her own son's tragic death; Minny, whoose cooking is nearly as sassy as her tongue; and white Miss Skeeter, home from college, who wants to know why her beloved maid has disappeared.
Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny. No one would believe they'd be friends; fewer still would tolerate it. But as each roman finds the courage to cross boundaries, they come to depend and rely upon one another. Each is in search of a truth. And together they have an extraordinary story to tell...."
It seems like society is still living in it's past. The lines though no longer clear, has become invisible yet present in our daily lives, regardless of how times have changed, years have passed and how we would like to believe that we have moved on.
The help still get abused by their employers and some family still practice segregations during mealtimes. How have we change? Are our attitide & treatment to our help really different from 1962, Mississippi? The wages we pay in comparison to 40 years ago doesn't seems much different. It's all in relative of course. USD 200 40 years ago and SGD 450 present day 2011. Doing the math, they don't seem to earn much. With conversion to their country currencies, yes, it adds up. However, ideally, we are back at square one.
I don't wish for this post to be political but the fact that this division is present is staring back at me countless times over the years. Coloured and race division is a sensitive issue in many countries. We don't speak of it and we pretend that it's not present but when you stop and pay attention, it hits you hard.
Help is by and large of a different colour from the employer. Look at the help in our country, at service industries, at home. Observed the reversal in a foreign countries where the majority are white. You get my drift.
Black, yellow, brown. Colours of the world and of the help.
It's an exceptional book. Recommended by many book blogs. It made me cry and it made me think. Good books does that.
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