You is kind. You is smart. You is important.

So I finished The Help and immediately went out and rented the movie from Redbox. And I'm glad that I did, it was such a great adaptation. Obviously they took some liberties and left out some things, but I think that over all they did a great job.

I like most of you ended up loathing Hilly. I think they way she treated her help staff was abhorrent, I think if she had a dog it would have been treated better. Her only redeeming quality was that she liked and actually cared for her children, instead of relying on the maids to do so. But I like to think that she got her comeuppance in the end.

I think my favorite characters were Minny and Celia. They were both two women who were mistreated in different ways and they ended up helping each other face their own demons and become friends.

This book and the movie made me face the reality that (some) whites treated blacks with such hatred and loathing. It was just disgusting to me that they were so ignorant to think that they carried different diseases, and they had a book of laws on how you should interact with them. But it was the 1960s, a different time.

In the movie they didn't elaborate Skeet and Stuart's relationship the way they did in the book, but I think that he was jerk for not supporting her. But I agree with Lyss and Katie, when she moved to NYC she met a great man who loved her and supported her writing and career.

I didn't think I was going to like this book, even though I am a huge fan of period pieces. I just figured it would be full of never ending descriptions of daily chores, but it was full of heartfelt stories and relationships. I guess I shouldn't judge a book after all huh?

In the end I got the impression that Hilly came to believe the words she had been telling Mae Mobley, she finally understood that she was trying to convince herself of them all along...."You is kind. You is smart. You is important"