Analysis of Kathryn Stocketts The Help - Essay Example

29 November Analysis of Kathryn Stockett’s The Help: The Help is a critically acclaimed 2009 novel authored by Kathryn Stockett and based on the lives of three African American maids during the early 1960s. The novel is an accomplished attempt to explore racism and slavery by chronicling the toxic hardships and excruciatingly painful events experienced by the black servants at a time when racial discrimination peaked in the USA. Though the story told by Stockett amassed much acclaim but it also attracted huge controversy on multiple grounds which will be analyzed in this essay. Facts and discussion presented in this essay are meant to illuminate reality of the claim that “though The Help aimed at showing how hope scored a victory against racial discrimination, it still failed to accurately sketch the painful torment and sexual harassment endured by black women at hands of their white employers by long shots.” It is obvious from Stockett’s novel that it is more a story of hope than despair because first it explores some events riddled with agony and suffering which are faced by the three main black female characters and later it shows how relentless hope and courage managed in overcoming the despair experienced by black servants. The novel focuses more on how hope defeated despair and it is evident from Skeeter’s this dialogue, “everyone knows how we white people feel [about] the glorified Mammy figure who dedicates her whole life to a white family. Margaret Mitchell covered that. But no one ever asked Mammy how she felt about it” (Stockett). Here Skeeter who is a white woman talks ambitiously about how she wants to present the story from a black nanny’s point of view as a way of unveiling the real story to quit despair. Also hope is evident from Aibileen’s words that “it feels cool, like water washing over my sticky-hot body. Cooling a heat that’s been burning me up all my life” (Stockett) because this is when she realizes the sudden hope of a change and how she has been living a lie all her life Though The Help manages in unraveling some horrifying facts about the dark period in the US’s history, truth is that the real historical accounts related to black women’s lives are indicative of much more trauma and suffering in contrast to how they are portrayed in the novel. This is because the novel offers a trivial and light version of black people’s sufferings and trespasses many facts regarding the abominable cruelty suffered by black servants at hands of their white employers. The story offers hope by exploring the role played by it along with courage and determination in putting an end to the tyrant and oppressive attitudes of white people and the way they treated black servants in their homes. Constantine served as a maid to Skeeter when she was a child and her sudden appearance provokes Skeeter to gain an insight into the kind of life led by black female servants. This search makes her realize that black employees are treated in a way world apart to the way white employees are treated. This is because almost all black women in that time were supposed to serve as maids in white people’s homes but they soon got tired of enduring sick treatment as employees. So Skeeter seeks to write a book to unravel the truth about black women’s lives and their tedious sufferings. This shows that The Help intends to offer hope by making it clear that all kinds of cruelties and savage behaviors could be ended successfully by daring to stand up against them. It does no good to endure the sick and oppressive treatment rather daring to speak up about them like the black maids did by agreeing to communicate with Skeeter is always the right strategy as it also helped defeat discrimination and racial tension in the long run. One black maid’s dialogue to Skeeter that “I used to believe in em (lines). I dont anymore. They in our heads. Lines between black and white aint there neither. Some folks just made those up, long time ago” (Stockett) is reflective of this hope that the novel offers because it shows that the black servants have begun to reject the notion of separation between blacks and whites. Racism is the main theme of The Help and the novel emits hope for humanity by trying to strengthen this theme. Though it does not manage in capturing the torments and anguish filled events suffered by black women during the dark years in the America’s history in exactly the same way as historical evidence suggests, still general consensus is that the novel managed in emanating hope for the distressed and anguished in the society who are discriminated against in some way. The bitter injustice suffered by black servants is obvious when Minny, a black maid, says that “she telling everybody in town I’m stealing! That’s why I can’t get no work!” (Stockett). There is such injustice that no body questions the verdict of Minny’s employer only because she happens to be a white person. But, when Aibileen in the novel says that “but it wasn’t too long before I seen something in me had changed. A bitter seed was planted inside a me. And I just didn’t feel so accepting anymore” (Stockett), the hope for humanity prevails because following the sad death of her son is the time when Aibileen begins to see through the injustices spread all around her. That is when she resolves to stand up against the oppression, discrimination, cruelty, and injustice with a dogged determination and claims that the acceptance inside her for white people’s savage behavior has depleted for good. She begins then to focus on bringing a change in the society by resolving to cooperate with Skeeter and in this way, the novel emanates hope for humanity though not quite managing to accurately portray black women’s hardships. There are specific events in the novel which emit hopelessness for humanity also. One example of that is when Aibileen expresses grief and laments over the white community’s hopeless attitude. “The tears roll down. It’s all them white peoples that breaks me, standing around the colored neighborhood. white peoples with guns, pointed at colored peoples. Cause who gone protect our peoples? Ain’t no colored policeman” (Aibileen, cited in Stockett). Aibileen here expresses that there is such hopelessness that there is no black policeman to protect the rights of the black people but only there are white policemen who point their guns at the blacks. This is said in the novel when a black civil rights leader is killed and the white policemen gather to protect the lives of the white civilians only as they fear that the black community might turn violent. Aibileen as a result fills up with despair over the hopeless situation of the black community as no matter what happens to them, the white people still point their guns at them. Concluding, this much remains clear from the above discussion that not only were the black people during the 1960s and before that were undermined in terms of their color and race but also were they repeatedly sexually harassed in the homes they spent their time as servants. However, the actual details closely connected to the historical evidence are not sufficiently portrayed by the novel The Help as in stark contrast to that, it very easily overrides the necessity of paying any attention to sexual harassment endured by black women in those days. It actually focuses more on exploring the role of hope and presenting trivial portrayals of black women’s lives, however horrifying even they may be, as employees of white masters. Work cited: Stockett, Kathryn. The Help. Penguin Books Limited, 2011. Print. Read More