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The book does not come off as a white savior story. More of a coming of age and leaving home.
I think anamardoll made an excellent point. The protagonist of the book is desperate to leave home. She does not like the attitude of the people around her, she does not like her small town, and she does not want to simply get married. She wants to be a writer but is struggling to find a job because she is a woman. She is told that if she can come up with some ground breaking work, she can get a job which would allow her to leave her Southern life. Without her selfish drive to leave there is no book for the Black women to tell their story.
By the end of the book she has been made an outcast in the town because of her support for the Black women of the book and she has become much more aware of the injustices in the South. I think her eyes are opened to just how awful the racial situation is even if she is not out protesting in the street.
The lives of the Black women are not helped by writing the book but their spirits seem to be. Telling their stories to someone and knowing that they are likely to be published appears to give the women a sense of worth that they had not known before. It gives them the opportunity to participate in the Civil Rights movement in a unique way.
Most of the white people in the town seem to be more worried about their reputations then change. There is no mass transformation of attitude, which was refreshing. In the end, you get the feeling that the status quo will be maintained but that the Black Women of the book have a stronger sense of self worth then they did when they started.
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