REPRESENTING BLACK PEOPLE IN KATHRYN STOCKETT’S THE … · This story is mainly told from the point of view of three different characters, Minny, Aibileen and Skeeter which explores

REPRESENTING BLACK PEOPLE IN KATHRYN

STOCKETT’S THE HELP

A THESIS

Presented as a Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements to Obtain the Magister

Humaniora (M.Hum) Degree in English Language Studies

By

Elisabet Nindia Paramita Ariesta Putri

Student Number 136332056

GRADUATE PROGRAM OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA

2018

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I really send my gratitude to Jesus Christ and Mother Mary for blessing me

during the process of writing this thesis. God’s love really strengthens me in finishing

this thesis. His blessing really helps me to pass all the obstacles that I have

encountered. I also thank my parents and my sister who sincerely supports me in

completing this thesis.

I express my deepest gratitude to Romo Patrisius Mutiara Andalas, SJ for his

sincere dedication. I thank him for the valuable advices, discussion, knowledge,

patience, and great support. I also send my gratitude to Mr. Paulus Sarwoto, Ph.D.

and all the lecturers in KBI Sanata Dharma University for advice, kindness and

patience that they have given to me.

I thank my partner Leonardus Gading Liman Reraton for pushing myself to

the limit during the process of finishing this thesis. I also send my regard to

Geraldine, Shela, Maris, Heni, Mahsa, Shinta, Petra, Astho, Bu Zita, Putri, Indra, and

Ceper who always remind me that life will be so much more beautiful after finishing

the thesis. My deep gratitude also goes to all KBI 2013 members especially “the last

survivor” group who really motivates me to finish this work after several years.

Elisabet Nindia Paramita Ariesta Putri


vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THESIS TITLE ............................................................................................................ i

APPROVAL PAGE .................................................................................................... ii

DEFENCE APPROVAL PAGE ............................................................................... iii

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ......................................................................... iv

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH

UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS ..................................................................... v

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ......................................................................................... vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................... vi

ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ ix

ABSTRAK ..................................................................................................................... x

CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION ............................................................................. 1

A. Background of the Study .................................................................................... 1

B. Research Questions .......................................................................................... 10

C. Scope of the Study ........................................................................................... 11

D. Research Method .............................................................................................. 12

E. Definition of Key Terms .................................................................................. 13

F. Structure of The Study ..................................................................................... 15

CHAPTER II : LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................................. 17

A. Review of Related Studies ............................................................................... 17

B. Theoretical Review .......................................................................................... 23

1. Racism in America ....................................................................................... 23


viii

2. Black women ................................................................................................ 26

3. Racial Labels ................................................................................................ 30

4. White Supremacy ......................................................................................... 33

5. Black People in The Fantasy of Whiteness .................................................. 36

C. Theoretical Framework ................................................................................. 39

CHAPTER III : STOCKETT’S BLACK PEOPLE REPRESENTATION ........ 41

A. Stockett’s Representation on Three Different Characters ................................ 42

B. The Stereotype of Black People in Segregated Society ................................... 47

CHAPTER IV : STOCKETT’S ATTEMPT TO REPRESENT ANTI RACIST

ATTITUDE ................................................................................................................ 60

A. “The Help” in The Novel ................................................................................. 61

B. Love Beyond Race in The Fantasy of White People ....................................... 69

CHAPTER V : CONCLUSION ............................................................................... 78

BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................... 84


ix

ABSTRACT

Putri, Elisabet Nindia Paramita Ariesta. 2018. Representing Black People in Kathryn

Stockett’s The Help. Yogyakarta English Language Studies, Graduate Study, Sanata

Dharma University.

This thesis reveals the representation of black people in the novel entitled The

Help by Kathryn Stockett and its contribution in anti-racist action. This novel is

notable as it is the first novel from this white American author. This novel portrays

the life of black maids who suffer racial discrimination conducted by white people in

Jackson Mississippi during the 1960’s. This novel has so many appreciations but also

criticisms regarding the presence of the white American author who practices cross-

race writing.

This research is a library research in which the primary data is the Help, a

novel written by Kathryn Stockett. The main approach for this study is black

feminism in which the discussion of black woman segregation is inseparable from the

history of racial discrimination, the notion of white supremacy, and the stereotypical

representation of black women in literary works. To support this thesis, the writer

employs several academic sources mainly books, journals, or other online sources.

This thesis seeks to argue that the representation of black people in Stockett’s

the Help highlights her anti-racist attitude, although it is not free from white

supremacist attitude. This story is mainly told from the point of view of three

different characters, Minny, Aibileen and Skeeter which explores the racism and

segregation they experienced in Jackson Mississippi. In her portrayal of the situation

in Jackson Mississippi, Stockett tries to subvert the stereotypical relationship between

the black women and the white women in which the white women have domination

over the blacks. Through the depiction of Skeeter, a white woman as the savior for

the blacks, Stockett encounters the assumption that white women always dehumanize

black people. Yet it should be noted that the portrayal of Skeeter is still influenced by

white supremacist attitude, in which the relationship between the white and black

woman is not a form of cross-race sisterhood yet still unequal status as the white

remain in control for the black liberation. Due to the influence of white supremacy,

Stockett’s depiction of love between the blacks and the whites emphasizes culture

domination from the whites. This situation indicates the biased representation of

black people in the novel.

Keywords: racial discrimination, stereotypes, white supremacy, segregation


x

ABSTRAK

Putri, Elisabet Nindia Paramita Ariesta. 2018. Representing Black People in Kathryn

Stockett’s The Help. Yogyakarta: Program Pasca Sarjana Kajian Bahasa Inggris,

Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Penelitian ini mengungkapkan tentang penggambaran orang kulit hitam dalam

novel The Help karya Kathryn Stockett dan kontribusinya dalam tindakan anti rasis.

Novel ini dikenal sebagai karya pertama dari penulis kulit putih Amerika ini. Novel

ini menggambarkan kehidupan para pelayan kulih hitam yang mengalami

diskriminasi ras oleh orang kulit putih di Jackson Mississippi pada tahun 1960an.

Novel ini menuai begitu banyak pujian dan juga kritik lantaran keberadaan penulis

kulit putih Amerika yang melakukan penulisan lintas ras.

Penelitian ini merupakan studi pustaka yang sumber utamanya adalah The

Help karya Kathryn Stockett. Pendekatan utama untuk studi ini adalah feminisme

kulit hitam di mana diskusi segregasi wanita kulit hitam tidak dapat dipisahkan dari

sejarah diskriminasi ras, gagasan supremasi kulit putih, dan penggambaran stereotip

wanita kulit hitam dalam karya sastra. Untuk mendukung thesis ini, penulis

menggunakan beberapa sumber akademik yaitu buku, jurnal, dan sumber online

lainnya.

Thesis ini mencoba membuktikan bahwa penggambaran orang kulit hitam di

dalam The Help menitik beratkan sikap anti racis dari Stockett sendiri, meskipun hal

tersebut tidak bebas dari sikap supremasi kulit putih. Novel ini digambarkan melalui

perspektif tiga karakter yang berbeda yaitu Minny, Aibileen, dan Skeeter yang

mengeksplorasi pengalaman rasisme dan segregasi yang mereka alami di Jackson

Mississippi. Dalam penggambaran situasi di Jackson Mississippi, Stockett mencoba

menumbangkan pandangan stereotip terhadap relasi wanita kulit hitam dan wanita

kulit putih di mana wanita kulit putih mendominasi wanita kulit hitam. Melalui

penggambaran Skeeter, seorang wanita kulit putih sebagai penyelamat orang kulit

hitam, Stockett menghadapi asumsi bahwa wanita kulit putih selalu melakukan

dehumanisasi terhadap orang kulit hitam. Meskipun demikian penggambaran Skeeter

masih dipengaruhi oleh sikap supremasi kulit putih, dimana relasi antara wanita kulit

putih dan hitam adalah suatu bentuk persaudaran lintas ras yang statusnya masih tidak

adil dikarenakan orang kulit putih masih memengang kontrol terhadap pembebasan

orang kulit hitam. Oleh karena pandangan stereotip kulit putih, penggambaran

Stockett terhadap cinta di antara orang kulit hitam dan orang kulit putih menekankan

dominasi budaya kulit putih. Kondisi ini mengindikasi adanya bias penggambaran

orang kulit hitam di dalam novel.

Kata Kunci : diskriminasi ras, pandangan stereotip, supremasi kulit putih,segregasi


1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

One of the lingering social issues that persisted throughout American

history is racial discrimination. This phenomenon which originated during the

colonial era leads to many hardships and inhumane treatment faced by the blacks.

Although black and white people have negotiated many times to balance the

unequal statues between these two racial groups in which one of the landmarks to

end the segregation is Civil Right Movements in the 1960’s, the struggle still

continues. It can be noted that many social aspects have been influenced by the

presence of racial discrimination including literary world, in which African

American literature is the particular genre.

The history of African American literature began with the works from

Phillis Wheatley, a black poet, who lived around 1770s. Wheatley was the first

black woman who published a book, a fact addressed by David Waldstereicher. In

Wheatley’s first published poem which appeared in a Newport Paper in 1767, she

explores the near-shipwreck of two Natucket Quaker merchants.1 As her fame

increases, Wheatley finally publishes her first book entitled Poems on Various

Subjects, Religious and Moral. Later on, other black authors come to public;

publishing their works on racial discrimination and making the African American

1 David Waldstreicher, “Ancients, Moderns, and Africans: Phillis Wheatley and the Politics of

Empire and Slavery in the American Revolution,” Journal of The Early Republic 37.4 (2017): 706.


2

literature widely recognized. As culmination of African American literature, Toni

Morisson, the black author known for her novels Song of Solomon, Beloved, and

Jazz was acclaimed by the highest award, the Nobel Prize in 1993 in literature,

It should be noted that many literary works exploring the issues of racial

discrimination are not only written by black authors but also the white authors.

The most popular cross-race literary work in nineteenth century which has great

effect is Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Life among the Lowly. This popular novel was

written by a white author, Harriet Beecher Stowe and published in 1852. This

best-selling 19th

century novel features the character of Uncle Tom, the black

slave and depicts the reality of slavery in Southern United States. Edward

Rothstein mentions that many criticisms come to this novel, one of them comes

from James Baldwin who attacks Uncle Tom’s Cabin as a very bad novel. He

finds that this novel is “racially obtuse and aesthetically crude.”2 However, the

presence of both the book and the play adaptation can successfully overcome the

stereotypes of black people and raise the consciousness for having an equal life

for both black and white people. Even though this novel is widely criticized, a

positive remark comes from William P. Leeman which notes that this novel has

influenced both northerners and southerners. In the North, he explains that the

novel's popularity helps to make the abolitionist movement becomes less radical

2 Edward Rothstein, Digging through the Literary Anthropology of Stowe’s Uncle Tom. Nytimes.

23 Oct. 2006. 3 Jan. 2018 <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/23/arts/23conn.html>. 2 William P. Leeman, From Pen to Sword: Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Abolition, and The American Civil

War. Pellcenter.org. 5 May. 2015. 8 Jan. 2018 <http://pellcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/

05/From-Pen-to-Sword-Uncle-Tom%E2%80%99s-Cabin-Abolition-and-the-American-CivilWar.

pdf>.


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/23/arts/23conn.html

3

and more respectable. Leeman also mentions that Stowee’s novel can inspire the

publication of other anti-slavery literature genres.

Another controversial and provocative novel comes from a white

American author, Mark Twain, entitled Adventure of Huckleberry Finn. This anti-

racist novel explores the experience of a poor white boy named Huckleberry Finn

and his black friend, Jim. Robert Tally in his article Bleeping Mark Twain? :

Censorship, Huckleberry Finn, and the Function of Literature notes that despite

the use of too many “nigra” words in the novel, this novel became one of the most

holy of the canonical texts of American literature in mid twenty century.3 He also

mentions that this novel has a special value that leads the reader to have new and

insightful imagination to perceive themselves whether they are black or white.

It is problematic to see how the issue of racial discrimination is tackled

through literature, especially the books which are written by white authors. Many

white authors claim that they write a novel based on the facts of racial

discrimination happening in the society. To illustrate, The Confession of Nat

Turner, which was written by William Styron, a white author was published in

1967. William Styron is well known as one of the first white authors who tried to

construct the voice of the racial Other in his works. Styron says that his novel was

consistent with the historical facts as this novel is based on the experience of Nat

Turner who led slave revolt in Virginia. Due to the popularity and the widespread

acclaim of this novel, this novel won Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1968. However,

3 Robert T. Tally Jr, “Bleeping Mark Twain? Censorship, Huckleberry Finn, and The Functions of

Literature in The Help,” From Uncle Tom’s Cabin to The Help: Critical Perspective on White-

Authored Narratives of Black Life. Ed. Claire Oberon Garcia, Vershawn Ashanti Young, and

Charise Pimentel (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) 133.


4

the criticism soon arises after the publication of this provocative novel especially

from the Blacks. One notable critic, John Henrik Clarker delivers his criticism in

his collection entitled William Styron’s Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond.

Dragulescu notes that William Styron’s Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond

contains articles from a black author who says that William Styron misinterprets

the hardship faced by the blacks as there is a pattern of distortion which can be

diminished the stature of Nat Turner as a figure of saviour in the novel.

Similar with Styron’s novel which claims that it is based on experiences

and facts of racial discrimination, in 2009 one white author Kathryn Stockett

published her first anti-racist novel, The Help. The Help brings the readers to the

depiction of the black women living in Mississippi during the 1960s when they

were officially equal to the whites but still experienced the unequal treatments.

Kathryn Stockett herself was born in Mississippi in 1969. Even though she grew

up in 1970s, she does not think that a lot of things had changed from 1960s. She

also conducted several interviews with white women and her black maid that

really help her in writing the novel. As cited in New York Times, Stockett’s novel

was rejected by 60 agents and the manuscript was finally accepted by an imprint

of Penguin and published which made it a best-selling novel4. Claire Oberon

Garcia notes that before the publication of the book, many publishers doubted the

4 Motoko Rich, “A Southern Mirrored Window”, The New York Times Book. 3 March. 2009. 17

Jan 2015 <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/books/03help.html?pagewanted=all>.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/books/03help.html?pagewanted=all

5

ability of a twenty-century-white-author in creating a racial discrimination story

through the black people point of view.5

Setting up in Mississippi, The Help puts forward the depiction of racial

discrimination against black women, especially against those who work as maids

for white families. The women characters in the novel deal with problems related

with segregation and racism in Jackson Mississippi. This novel is narrated by

three characters namely Aibileen Clark, Minny Jackson, and Euginia Skeeter

Phelan. Aibileen and Minny are black women, who work as maids in a white

family while Euginia Skeeter Phelan is an ambitious yet affectionate white woman

who tries to write their stories and helps black people to have their equality.

This novel mainly emphasizes the interaction among a white woman,

Skeeter Phelan and the black maids. After finishing her study, Skeeter decides to

go back to her hometown in order to find her beloved maid namely Constantine

who shares unforgettable memories to Skeeter, a strong and brave woman who

dreams of becoming an author. Skeeter works as a Jackson Journal writer and

writes articles about housekeeping that leads her to meet Aibileen, Minny, and

other black maids in town. Aibileen is a black maid who works for the Leefolts

family as a nanny. She takes care of a two-year-old baby girl named Mae Mobley

Leefolts who really loves Aibileen. Skeeter is actually Mae Mobley’s mother

friend, Elizabeth’s Leefolts. Similar to Aibileen, Minny also works in a white

family. She works for Hilly Holbrook and gets fired because she refuses to use the

black maids’ toilet.

5 Claire Oberon Garcia, Vershawn Ashanti Young, and Charise Pimentel, ed. From Uncle Tom to

The Help: Critical Perspective on White-Authored Narratives of Black Life (New York: Palgrave

Macmillan, 2014) 6.


6

Another notable character among Skeeter’s friends is Hilly, which is

Skeeter’s childhood friend. Even though they grow up together, they have very

different point of views regarding race in Mississippi. Hilly is the leader of the

Junior League who has an important position among white women in the town.

She tells Skeeter that she is working to have a social project regarding the black

maids in Jackson Mississippi. The project that is proposed by Hilly will make it

mandatory for Jackson white families to provide outside toilets for their black

maids. Feeling this project is a form of racial discrimination, Skeeter disagrees

with Hilly’s idea, she secretly finds Aibileen and asks if she wants to do

something to change the condition.

After a secret meeting with Aibileen, Skeeter tells her idea on writing a

book about black maids in the Mississippi. She tries to ask Aibileen to be

interviewed. At first, Aibileen refuses to be interviewed as this idea is really

dangerous. Aibileen may lose her job if she accepts Skeeter’s offer, but later on

she decides to accept it and gives her contribution to the book. They meet secretly

every evening in Aibileen’s house. During the secret meeting, Aibileen also asks

her friend, Minny, to come to her house in order to tell her experience becoming a

black maid. Then, their stories begin; Skeeter records their stories and turns them

into a book.

As the time passes by, Skeeter finally knows the truth of what has

happened to Constantine, her beloved black maid, who leaves Skeeter’s house

without telling anything or even asks permission to Skeeter. Years before,


7

Constantine has given birth to a baby girl, her illegitimate daughter named

Lulabelle who looks like a white baby even though both parents are black.

Constantine gives the baby for adoption in an orphanage when she was four years

old. When the baby girl grows up, Constantine and Lullabelle are reunited. When

Skeeter is away at college, unpredictably, Lulabelle comes to visit Constantine

during a meeting held by Skeeter’s mother, Charlote, in her house. Charlote and

her friends are shocked as Charlote has special relation with the black woman. In

order to save her reputation, Charlote fires Constantine. Constantine move to

Chicago together with Lullabelle. In that city, Constantine passes away without

leaving her last messages to Skeeter.

After finishing writing the black maid experience, Skeeter decides to

publish it. That book becomes a well-known novel in Jackson. The white women

in Jackson begin recognizing themselves as the characters written in the book.

Hilly even plays an important role as the antagonist character in the book as she is

the one who proposes the idea of building separated toilet for black maids. The

book itself finally becomes a media to deliver the voice of the black maids.

The Help becomes an American best-selling novel and its movie adaption

is nominated in Academy Awards 2012. This novel illustrates the life of Black

American people who work as maids in white family for the readers. This story is

influenced by Stockett’s real experience when she was raised by a black maid.

Based on her upbringing, she can also further explore the social condition in

Mississippi, the culture tradition, and the racial discrimination.


8

The writer decides to use The Help as the primary source of the research

since this novel clearly describes the racial discrimination suffered by black

women in Jackson Mississippi. This issue is further complicated as the racial

discrimination is represented from the perspective of a white author. In the last

part of Stockett’s novel other entitled Too Little, Too Late, Stockett reveals her

gratitude with her black maid, Demetrie. Her own words implore the reader about

her relation with her black maid. Demetrie is Stockett’s black maid who has raised

her patiently and affectionately. Stockett also expresses her feeling that she really

thanks Demetrie for teaching lots of important things in life and her novel which

is inspired by Demetrie is intended to criticize the racial discrimination against

black women in Jackson, Mississippi. She wants to show her interest and

willingness in struggling against racial discrimination.

Interviewed by The Guardian, Stockett confirms that the writing of the

novel starts immediately after the 9/11 tragedy. She is in downtown New York at

that time and suddenly she remembers her beloved black maid, Demetrie.6

Stockett starts writing a novel through the perspective of Demetrie, which in turn

leads to the perspective of Aibileen as a character. She starts writing in Demetrie’s

voice as Stockett tries to understand what Demetrie feels at that time. Due to her

closeness to Demetrie, this might not be too difficult for Stockett to write a story

from Aibileen’s perspective. Through The Help, Stockett wants to promote her

anti-racist attitude. She wants to show that even though she is a white woman, she

6 Elizabeth Day, “Kathryn Stockett The New Review Q & A,” The Guardian 9 Oct. 2011. 18 Jan.

2015 <https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2011/oct/09/kathryn-stockett-help-civil-rights>.


9

really cares and love the presence of black people. She shows that she refuses

racial discrimination controlling the relationship of black and white people.

However, some strong criticisms also come to Stockett because of her

work in writing the Help. Ida Jones from The Association of Black Women

Historia releases a statement criticizing the Help “despite efforts to market the

book and the film as a progressive story of triumph over racial injustice, The Help

distorts, ignores, and trivializes the experiences of black domestic workers,”7.

Jones further explains that Stockett trivializes the sexual harassment issues and

civil right activism. In addition, Stockett ignores the history and uses exaggerating

black dialect in the novel. Jones claims that Stockett gives distorted image of the

black males who are described as drunkard and abusive. Furthermore, many

scholars also criticize the way of Kathryn Stockett employs black dialect in the

book and her description on racial discrimination. On the contrary, Trysh Travis

in her essay entitled Is The Help Realistic? It Depends emphasizes that the

average white woman readers in the United States find Stockett’s novel is realistic

as they believe that this novel portraying a white person who struggles for the

black maid and raises her awareness in racial discrimination.8

The Help also suffers from controversy which led Stockett to be sued by

Ablene Cooper, the black maid who raises Stockett’s brother. Published in

Washington Post, in February 2011, more than two years after The Help was

7 Ida E Jones, “An Open Statement to the Fans of The Help,” American Black Women Historian.

2012, 19 Jan. 2015 <http:// www .abwh .com>. 8 Trysh Travis, “Is The Help Realistic? It Depends,” Blackpast.org. 8 Jan. 2011. 18 Feb. 2015

<http://www.blackpast.org/ perspectives/help-realistic-it-depends>.


http://www.blackpast.org/contributor/travis-trysh

http://www.blackpast.org/

10

published, Cooper has filed a $75,000 lawsuit against Stockett. She is totally

disappointed with the way Stockett depicts the life of black maids in Mississippi

around 1960s9. Cooper claims that the main character in the novel, Aibileen Clark,

is herself. She says that Stockett uses her character without giving any permission.

However, as reported by Washington Post, Circuit Court Judge Tomie Greene

finally grants Stockett’s motion for judgment dismissal due to the period of the

submission lawsuit which is a year after the statute of limitation.

Summarizing several different perceptions and receptions of The Help, the

writer wants to analyze how Stockett is writing the story. Especially, this study

aims at exploring how Kathryn Stockett represents the presence of black people in

her novel. It should be noted that though Stockett was raised by a black maid, she

belongs to white people community as she only spends her time with the black

maid when she was a child. Her childhood memory triggers her to write a fictional

book and exploring the black maids in her hometown. This thesis particularly

explores the possibility of biased presentation which occurs in the novel as the

implication of Stockett as a white author.

B. Research Questions

This research seeks to reveal how Stockett represents the black people’s

life in Mississippi America. In order to explore Stockett’s representation on black

people’s life, two research questions have been formulated:

9 Jen Chaney. “The Help Lawsuit Against Kathryn Stockett is Dismissed,” Washintonpost.com. 16

Agst. 2011, 17 Jan. 2015 <https://www.washingtonpost.com/ blogs/celebritology/post/the-help-

lawsuit-against-kathryn-stockett-dismissed/2011/08/16/gIQAiCWqJJ_blog.html?utm_term=.4c69

3f929729>.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/%20blogs/celebritology/post/the-help-lawsuit-against-kathryn-stockett-dismissed/2011/08/16/gIQAiCWqJJ_blog.html?utm_term=.4c69%203f929729



11

1. How does Kathryn Stockett represent black people in her novel

entitled The Help?

2. How does Stockett’s narration represent anti-racist attitude?

The first question is concerned with the moment of black people’s life

represented by Kathryn Stockett in the novel. The answer to this question is in a

form of analysis on racial discrimination which is happening in Jackson

Mississippi. The answer to the first question centers on the analysis on Stockett’s

representation on black people’s life through three different perspectives and the

stereotyped images as black maids. The second question concerns on how

Stockett’s work which she claims to voice the black women really represent anti-

racist attitude. This question will reveal the possibility of biased representation in

her novel.

C. Scope of the Study

The study’s focus is on analyzing Kathryn Stockett’s The Help in

representing black people’s life in Jackson Mississippi. As mentioned before,

Kathryn Stockett is a white author who writes black people’s life experience in

her novel. She attempts to voice the black people’s life through their perspective

and sharing their ideas on racial discrimination which they experienced. The way

Stockett voices the black maids and the stereotyped issues are explored in this

research in order to have the depiction of two different races in Mississippi in

1960s.


12

This research scrutinizes whether Stockett really represents anti-racist’

attitude in the Help. In chapter three, this thesis analyzes how Stockett represents

the black maids in her novel from the perspective of Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter

and the stereotyped image as black maids in the segregated city, Mississippi. In

chapter four, the writer analyses the narration of the novel which represent anti-

racist attitude from the author. The analysis includes the position of the white

protagonist Skeeter as the important character of the novel and also other black

women characters created by Stockett. The analysis is going to reveal the meaning

of the help that is portrayed in the novel. Furthermore, the discussion elaborates

the love in the fantasy of white people that is created by Stockett throughout her

novel. As the main theory, this thesis applies black feminist theories especially

Bell Hooks’ idea on black feminism. It is also supported by other theories from

Patricia Hill Collins, Hansday, Richard Dyer and several others.

D. Research Method

The primary source of this thesis is a novel entitled The Help by Kathryn

Stockett a white author who was raised in Jackson Mississippi. The novel was

published in 2011 after being rejected by almost 60 publishers before finally being

published and recognized as a best-selling novel. This study especially concerns

with Stocket’s representation of black people in her novel. In order to conduct the

study, library research is applied. The secondary sources of this study are the

black feminism theory, the study of racial discrimination, and the critical

perspective on writing from different race.


13

This study is conducted into several steps. The first step is reading the

novel as the primary step of the study. After reading the novel, the next step is

gathering the secondary data such as Bell Hooks’ work on black feminist theory,

Patricia Hill Collins, Richard Dyer, and other racial discrimination books from

various authors. After the secondary data has been gathered, the primary source of

this study is analyzed using those secondary data in order to answer the research

questions. The last step of this study is drawing conclusion and give some

suggestions to the future research who want to analyze The Help.

E. Definition of Key Terms

1. Black maid

Black maid refers to the black woman who works in a white family house.

Some people may call them as African American maid or colored maid. In the

novel, Kathryn Stocket employs the term colored maid rather than black maid. To

some extent, both “black” and “African American” are considered more polite

than any other terms. It is proven by a survey from Jeffrey M. Jones which

conducted polling to 1,000 black people and found most black people said that

they did not feel uncomfortable when people use the term black or African

American.10

The writer decides to use the term “black” rather than African

American considering the black people who do not bother with both terms black

and African American.

10

Jeffrey M. Jones, “Racial or Ethnic Labels Make Little Difference to Blacks Hispanic,” Gallup.

2001, 28 Feb 2018 <http://news.gallup.com/poll/4873/racial-ethnic-labels-make-little-difference-

blacks-hispanics.aspx>.


http://news.gallup.com/poll/4873/racial-ethnic-labels-make-little-difference-blacks-hispanics.aspx


14

2. Segregation

According to Stearns, segregation means the attempt to control and

subjugate one race by another through social separation in the United States11

which is started in the late of 18th

century. Furthermore, Schaefer mentions that

segregation deals with the separation of two groups in public facilities such as the

residence, hospital, library, working place and many more12

3. Stereotype

According to Encyclopedia of Race and Ethic Studies stereotype refers to

the difficulty ascertaining the gap between the objective reality and subjective

perception which occurs because of the assumption that comes up to the surface.13

In other words, stereotype refers to an oversimplified image on particular thing

that stimulates assumption on certain things.

4. White Supremacy

White supremacy refers to the power relation between the powerful white

people and the powerless black people. Martinez defines the term of white

supremacy which refers to the power to disempower, control, and ruin the life of

black people.14

White supremacy can provide power to white people in order to

dominate the black people who are powerless.

11

Peter N Stearns, ed. Encyclopedia of Social History (New York: Routledge, 1994) 789. 12

Richard T. Schaefer, Sociology (New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc, 1986) 232. 13

Ellis Cashmore, ed. Encyclopedia of Race and Ethic Studies (New York: Routledge Ltd., 2004)

415. 14

Elizabeth Martinez, “Race: The U.S. Creation Myth and Its Premise Keepers,”

cwsworkshop.org. 2004< http://www.cwsworkshop.org/pdfs/WIWS/ 1Race_US_Creation _Myth

.PDF>.


15

F. Structure of the Study

This thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter deals with the

background of the study, research questions, scope of the study, research method,

definition of key terms, and the structure of the writing. In the background of the

study, the writer explores the significance of the study including the reason in

choosing this topic. After discussing the background of the study, the writer

formulates research questions in order to explore Stockett’s representation of

black people.

The chapter two of the study discusses literature review which consists of

review of related study, theoretical review, and theoretical framework. In the

review of related studies, the writer reviews the previous study on analyzing

Stockett’s The Help. Moreover, the theoretical review discusses theories used in

this study. The theoretical review consists of the brief history of racism in

America, the history of black women, racial labels, white supremacy, and black

people in the fantasy of Whiteness. After reviewing related studies and theories,

the last part of chapter two is theoretical framework. In theoretical framework, the

writer deals with how theories in the study are employed and differentiates this

study from the previous ones.

The third and fourth chapters of the study are the analysis from formulated

problems. In chapter three, the writer is going to explore how Stockett represents

black people in her novel. The analysis includes the depiction of black people

through the perspective of Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter. Furthermore, this

chapter is going to discuss the stereotype of black people in Jackson Mississippi.


16

The following chapter analyzes whether Stockett’s novel represents anti-racist

attitude or not. The analysis is strengthened through the theories from Bell Hooks,

Richard Dyer, Judith Rollins, and others. After exploring further on Stockett’s

representation of black people, the conclusion is provided in the chapter five.


17

CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter contains literature review used for this research. This chapter

is divided into two parts, the first one is review of related study and theoretical

review and the second one is theoretical framework. The review of related study

summarizes the studies conducted on Stockett’s The Help which have similar

issues with this research. The literature review is taken from various sources in

order to strengthen the analysis on how Stockett represents black people in her

novel. Moreover, this section also illustrates the history of the racism in America

Following the brief history of the American racism, the writer goes deeper on the

literature review regarding the black women in America and also the presence of

white supremacy that may influence people who try to write beyond race.

A. Review of Related Study

Bell Hooks in Help Imagined : Re-Imagining the Past strongly argues that

Stockett’s successful publication of the novel actually indicates the failure of the

book itself15

. Bell Hook finds that Stockett exaggerates the life of black people in

Mississippi in 1960s. She later states that The Help gives bigger portion to the

description of women solidarity rather than to the discrimination of black people.

She even strongly states that both the novel and the movie tell audiences very

15

Bell Hooks, Writing Beyond Race: Living Theory and Practice (New York: Routledge, 2013)

48.


18

little about race and racism in Mississippi. In analyzing The Help, Bell Hooks

clearly shows her disagreement that this book is considered as an anti-racist novel.

She exposes the failure of this book and strongly states that Stockett’s work is “a

supreme triumph of bad writing”.16

She criticizes the depiction of white women

who are portrayed as ruthless and vicious not only toward the black but also

toward anyone who are powerless. Throughout her writing, Bell Hooks keeps

emphasizing the negative aspects of Stockett’s work and she does not provide any

positive reception toward Stockett’s The Help. Finally, Bell Hooks hopes that

through this poor writing, The Help, it may make new different story about racism

so that the reader can re-imagine the past and find positive future in relation to

racial discrimination.

Another scholar, Ebony Lumumba in her article “Must the Novelist Ask

Permission?” Authority and Authenticity of the Black Voice in the Works of

Eudora Welty and Kathryn Stockett’s The Help” tries to compare two different

literary works whose both authors come from Jackson Mississippi. The

similarities between these two white authors are reflected in their stories. Both

writers also state that they have written about life and reality of black people

based on their experiences that they have. Furthermore, in writing their novel

these two authors are triggered by their only close relationships with the black

maids. Lumumba states that in writing her novel, Stockett uses a “personality

16

Bell Hooks, Writing Beyond Race: Living Theory and Practice (New York: Routledge, 2013)

56.


19

closer in emotion and proximity to a particular community to tell of the real and

complicated experiences”.17

Comparing Welty’s novels with Stockett’s the Help, Lumumba finds that

Welty’s works emphasize the importance of relationship between the white and

the black women without sentimentalizing the black.18

Welty is a photographer

for the Works Progress administration who travels across Mississippi. She

observes the life of the black that makes her realize her position as the outsider

among the black community. However, this position does not limit Welty’s

communication and observation on the traditions of the black people in

Mississippi. Contrary with Welty’s works, Lumumba finds that Stockett’s

experiences in witnessing the black people’s life in Mississippi offer a valuable

perspective.19

Stockett’s work possesses relevant events though it is written

outside the black community. Lumumba’s finding is strengthened by the idea

from Margaret Walker who depicts the relationships of the South people with its

literature as “a reflection of the life of the people” which is “too varied and too

myriad an experience to deal boldly and comprehensively with”20

. She reveals

that Stockett’s view on the black people contrasts significantly from Welty’s

understanding the necessary to have sensible attitude toward black people

community. Compared to Stockett’s work, Welty possesses the ability to force her

17

Ebony Lumumba, “Must the Novelist Ask Permission? Authority and Authenticity of the Black

Voice in the Works of Eudora Welty and Kathryn Stockett’s The Help,” From Uncle Tom’s Cabin

to The Help: Critical Perspective on White-Authored Narratives of Black Life. Ed. Claire Oberon

Garcia, Vershawn Ashanti Young, and Charise Pimentel (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014)

31.

18 Lumumba Ebony, 31.

19 Lumumba Ebony, 36.

20 Margareth Walker, How I Wrote Jubilee and Other Essays on Life and Literature (New York:

Feminist Press at CUNY, 1990) 135.


20

limited knowledge on the reality then create authentic characters and describes

them in more details. Stockett situates herself outside the black community which

makes the description less detailed.

Another scholar, Luminita M. Dragulescu in Bearing Witness? The

Problem with the White Cross- Racial (Mis)Portrayals of History says that The

Help displays insufficient information regarding the life and history of black

people.21

She explains that the lack of information occurs in the author’s

stereotypical description of black people’s life and psyche in the mid twentieth

century. Through the description of racial discrimination, Stockett tries to draw a

line with the historical background of Jim Crow’s Law and the civil right

movement where the white people are depicted to have minor offences. She adds

that Stockett creates a white character, Skeeter Pheelan, as a “savior”. This white

character plays an important role as the spokesperson for the black people.

Dragulescu states that Stockett’s The Help offers white people long-established

“misapprehension of the Other” rather than a declared purposed to understand and

do justice to black people.22

. Furthermore, Dragulescu finds Stockett’s novel

portrays several sensitive issues in relation to racial Other’ and Stockett’s fluency

on black people’s life culture and history is actually insufficient.23

Dragulescu

emphasizes that The Help shows the brutality of the white people which indicates

Stockett’s loyalty as a white person rather than her attempt to cross the racial

21

Luminita M. Dragulescu, “Bearing Witness? The Problem with the White Cross-Racial

(Mis)Portrayals of History,” From Uncle Tom’s Cabin to The Help: Critical Perspective on White-

Authored Narratives of Black Life. Ed. Claire Oberon Garcia, Vershawn Ashanti Young, and

Charise Pimentel (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) 16. 22

Luminita M. Dragulescu, 18. 23

Luminita M. Dragulescu, 18.


21

border.24

Through her essay, Luminita provides several ideas that show the

limitations of the novel which lead to Stockett’s misdescription of the black’s

history. Unfortunately, the description of the evidences is not further elaborated.

Stockett’s the Help has also been analyzed through feminist perspective.

Shana Russel in “When Folks Is Real Friends, There Ain’t No Such Thing as

Place” Feminist Sisterhood and the Politics of Social Hierarchy in The Help”

confesses that she feels uncomfortable with Stockett’s description on black

women. Russel states that the portrait of Skeeter as the interpreter of black people

remains placing black people at the bottom of racial caste system.25

She finds

sisterhood between black and white women and the white children with their

black nannies described in the novel. She further exemplifies on the disturbing

relationship between Aibileen, Mae Mobley, and Treelore.26

The fact of

Aibileen’s care and love for Mae Mobley and the death of her son, Treelore,

indicate that Aibileen is capable to transfer her sadness from Treelore’s death to

take care of the white children affectionately.

A comparative study by Elizabeth J. West entitled Blackness as Medium

:Envisioning White Southern Womanhood in Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path” and

“Delta Wedding” and Kathryn Stockett’s “The Help” finds that Stockett’s way of

representing black women gives bigger emphasis on narrating for the whites

24

Luminita M. Dragulescu, 19. 25

Shana Russle, “When Folks Is Real Friends, There Ain’t No Such Thing as Place: Feminist

Sisterhood and the Politics of Social Hierarchy in The Help,” From Uncle Tom’s Cabin to The

Help: Critical Perspective on White-Authored Narratives of Black Life. Ed. Claire Oberon Garcia,

Vershawn Ashanti Young, and Charise Pimentel (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) 76. 26

Shana Russel, 77.


22

instead of the black themselves.27

. This finding leads to the indication of placing

white people as the central pivot of the story. In A Worn Path, Welty portrays the

Southern white people’s kindness towards black people.28

Moreover, the white

women are also described in having more genuine source of kindness compared to

the white men. Similar to Stockett’s novel, the protagonist in Welty’s works

places her as a heroic artistic imagination. West notes that Welty tries to break the

tradition through offering new vision about freedom from racial discrimination in

the South29

. Unfortunately, Welty’s purpose in offering this new vision

contributes little to the critical analysis of the text. In the novel The Help, West

clearly states that Stockett’s intention in her novel situates Skeeter as the central

voice.30

It is contrasted by how Delta Wedding portrays an interaction between

Ellen, the white saviour, and the black people which West argues that the

powerless black people have a function to empower the white people.

Summarizing previous discussions of The Help, this thesis exemplifies

further on the capacity of Stockett as a white author in representing the black

people’s life especially the black women. Moreover, how Stockett’s narration

represents anti-racist attitude is the main emphasis of this thesis. The analysis

elaborates further on the gap that occurs as the implication of cross race writing.

Different from the previous studies that directly judge the novel’s failure in

27

Elizabeth J. West, “Blackness as Medium: Envisioning White Southern Womanhood in Eudora

Welty’s “A Worn Path” and Delta Wedding and Kathryn Stockett’s The Help,” From Uncle Tom’s

Cabin to The Help: Critical Perspective on White-Authored Narratives of Black Life. Ed. Claire

Oberon Garcia, Vershawn Ashanti Young, and Charise Pimentel (New York: Palgrave Macmillan,

2014) 42. 28

Elizabeth J. West, 49. 29

Elizabeth J. West, 51. 30

Elizabeth J. West, 54.


23

portraying racial discrimination, this thesis also acknowledges and presents

Stockett’s contribution as her attempt to promote anti-racist.

B. Theoretical Review

1. Racism in America

Racial issues have been a prevalent and lingering problem throughout the

history of America. The identity of America is shaped by race as it is the central

issue in American history. Higginbotham, a feminist historian, as cited in

Theorizing The Black Feminism describes race as a social construction that

predicated upon the recognition of difference and signifying the simultaneous

distinguishing and positioning one to another.31

She further explains that race is a

highly contested representation of relations of power between social categories by

which individuals are identified and identify themselves.

The history of black people in America started when they entered America

as slaves. Stearns notes that in the 17th

century, million black people from Africa

reached the United stated via the international slave trade32

. This human

trafficking leads to the black people being sold as slaves. They were forced to

obey the white people. As cited in Bell Hooks’ book, a Tunisian writer Albert

Memmi delivers a statement in The Colonizer and The Colonized highlights the

inseparable connection between racism and imperialism which legitimates the

African slave trade in America.

31

Stenlie James & Abena Busia, ed. Theorizing the Black Feminism (London: Routledge, 1993)

17. 32

Peter N Stearns, ed. Encyclopedia of Social History. (New York: Routledge, 1994) 6.


24

“Racism appears nor as an incidental detail, but as a consubstantial part of

colonist. It is the highest expression of the colonial system and one of the

most significant features of the colonialist. Not only does it establish a

fundamental discrimination between colonizers and colonized, a sine qua

non of colonial life but it also lays the foundation for the immutability in

this life.33

Furthermore, they were not the freemen and had no right in voicing their ideas.

The black people were sold to the white people and had to obey what the masters

said. The civil war in the middle of 19th

century highlighted the implication of

slavery and became the defining mark for the ending of slavery. The black people

struggled for their freedom during the civil war. They had been already protected

by the amendments since the government declared their freedom. Hansday notes

that the fourteenth Amendment ratified on July 9th

1868, protected the right of the

slave states

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the

jurisdiction there of are citizen of The United States and of the State where

in they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge

the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States nor shall any

State deprive any person of Life, liberty, or property, without due process

of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection

of the laws.”34

It should be noted that the previous amendment does not cause a better life for the

blacks. Therefore, another amendment, the fifteenth, was made on February 3,

1870 in order to enable the Black’s vote. This amendment states “The right of

citizen of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridge by the United

States of by any states on account of race, color, or previous contion of

33

Bell Hooks, Ain’t I A Woman: Black Woman and Feminism (London: Pluto Press, 1990) 122. 34

Judi L Hansday, The Civil Right Act of 1964: An End to Racial Discrimination (New York :

Chelsea House Publisher, 2007) 9.


25

servitude.”35

Yet, although the black people had been protected by the

amendment, they still experience hardship and segregation well into the 20th

century. The segregation rules are legalized and ratified by white people in which

it is legal to separate the public spaces to the black. Furthermore, there are many

public facilities that are separated.

Kathryn Stockett’s The Help portrays the life of the Southerner Black

people who lives around Mississippi in the 1960s. In 1960s, the racial

discrimination still becomes a problematic social issue in American society. Black

people still have much to do in insuring their right. L. Hansday in The Civil Rights

Act of 1964 An End to Racial Discrimination states that

If you were black and living in the South, there were indignities to endure

that was part of everyday life because racial discrimination went beyond

public school segregation. Water fountains were designated “For Whites

Only” or “For Colored Only”. Restaurants, theaters, restrooms, stores,

buses, trains, and other public facilities were delineated based on whether

you were white or black. Even walking down the street required deference

to a passing white person. Defiance of these Jim Crow Laws only brought

more pain and misery to an otherwise difficult life.36

Black’s life is ruled by the Jim Crow’s law that states “separate but equal”.

“Separate but equal” leads to the ideas of providing similar facilities but only they

are separated. Therefore, it is stated that the rules make black people’s life more

difficult. Besides having segregation in public space, the black people also

experience being stereotypically labelled by the white people. Encyclopedia of

Race and Ethic Studies notes that black people would generally be labelled a

stereotype, they are called such as “black are criminals” or “black are prone to

35

Judi L Hansday, 11. 36

Judi L Hansday, 35.


26

violence”37

The unequal treatment leads black people to struggle for their right.

Besides the black men, the black women also fight for having equal life with the

white people. The reaction conducted by the black women is explored further in

the next section.

2. Black Women

Black women in the 1960s – 1970s had to face the reality that they were

not only born to be slaves or domestic servants but also wives and mothers.

Genovese (1974) in her book Roll Jordan Roll : The World The Slaves states that

African American woman generally had a longer day than their usual works as

they have to cook for their families, cleaning houses, putting children to bed after

they work for white family.38

As cited in Bell Hooks’ Black Looks Race and

Representation, Lorde in Eye to Eye, offers strategies that black women can apply

in order to promote respect to them. Lorde clearly mentions that “Black women

must love ourselves”. She further explains that “Loving ourselves begins with

understanding the forces that have produced whatever hostility toward blackness

and femaleness that is felt, but it also means learning new ways to think about

black women themselves”.39

The black women who often speak about love and

sisterhood are “deeply attached to essentialist notions of black female identity that

promote a policing of anyone who does not conform.” This can be concluded that

the black woman themselves should be in one voice when bravely fighting for

37

Ellis Cashmore, ed. Encyclopedia of Race and Ethic Studies (New York: Routledge Ltd., 2004)

414. 38

Eugene D Genovese, Roll Jordan Roll: The World The Slaves (New York: Vintage Book, 1974)

495. 39

Bell Hooks, Black Looks Race and Representation (New York: Routledge, 1992) 58.


27

their right. They need to love themselves and preserve the sisterhood among their

community.

Relationships between white and black women were filled with lots of

conflicts in the early 20th

century. The women’s right movement failed to mend

the relationship between black and white women. Instead, it emphasizes the fact

that white women are influenced by white supremacy in supporting all women’s

interest. Bell Hooks notes that for contemporary black women, it is impossible for

them to join together fighting for women fights because they do not have

“womanhood as an important aspect of their identity as racist”. 40

In the speech to the 1895 delegates from black women’s clubs, Josephine

Ruffin told her audience that the reason white women club members did not want

to join black women was because of the supposed "black female immorality,” and

she urged them to protest the perpetuation of negative stereotypes about black

womanhood:

“…Year after year southern women have protested against the admission

of colored women into any national organization on the ground of the

immorality of these women, and because all refutation has only been tried

by individual work, the charge had never been crushed as it could and

should have been at first… It is to break this silence, not by noisy

protestation of what we are not but by a dignified showing of what we are

and hope to become, that we are impelled to take this step, to make of this

gathering an object lesson to the world.”41

The entirety of Stockett’s the Help portrays the black women who work in

white families as maids. A black maid who is usually in of black woman who

devotes herself to the white family is referred as Mammy. Due to the fact that

40


Bell Hooks, Ain’t I A Woman: Black Woman and Feminism (London: Pluto Press, 1990) 131.


28

both Black and White women are important aspects to slavery’s continuation, the

action to control black womanhood functions to mask social relations which may

influences all women. Patricial Hill Colins notes that true women possessed four

cardinal virtues: “piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity while the black

women encountered a different set of controlling images.”42

She further explains

that the black women are controlled to the image of mammy as the faithful and

obedient maid. This controlling image shows that the black maids really care for

her white children rather than to her own family. This mammy image is positioned

as ‘the central of intersecting oppressions of race, gender, sexuality, and class’.

Furthermore, this controlling images aims to influence black behaviour in the

society. Collins also states that Black mothers who are familiar with the skills

needed for black accommodation are encouraged to transfer mummified skill to

their children. 43

According to Collins, the issue of being mother in a black family

is very different from being a mother in a white family.44

Being a mother in a

black family, a woman has to spend too much time for working away from home,

they only give their children very little time which leads the children fail at

school. The black mother has to work in a white family and puts their own family

aside.

The image of black woman matriarch also influences the oppression

towards them. Collins states that black matriarch permits the white men and

women to blame black women if the white children have failure at school. The

42

Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and The Politics of

Empowerment (New York: Routledge, 2000) 72. 43

Patricia Hill Collins, 73. 44

Patricia Hill Collins, 75.


29

image of matriarch can place black woman in an untenable position. Collins

further explains that “many Black women are the sole support of their families,

and labeling these women matriarchs erodes their self-confidence and ability to

confront oppression.”45

It can be concluded that black women are stigmatized for

being strong figure of matriarchs but have to fight against oppression.

Collins explores the controlling image of black womanhood, the welfare

mother, appears in working-class black women. The figure of the welfare mother

refers to the controlling image developed for poor working-class black women

who make use of social welfare benefits.46

As a welfare mother, there is no male

figure that helps the black mother to finish all the housework. Collins explains

that “the image of the welfare mother provides ideological justifications for

intersecting oppressions of race, gender, and class.”47

Besides the image of

welfare mother, the black women are also described as a breeder woman. The

term breeder woman refers to the ability of black women to have children more

easily than white women. It is claimed that black women are able to produce

children as easy as animals.

Judith Rollins in her book Between Women: Domestics and Their

Employers finds that there is no talk of bonding with love from both white women

and black women.48

Rollin states that the relation between black and white

women actually shares the complexity of culture dominator as the impact of black

women who work as the maids. Her works reveal a clear recognition of the way

45




Judith Rollin, Between Women: Domestics and Their Employers (Philadelphia: Temple

University Press, 1985) 355.


30

where race and class differences have militated against the formation of bonds of

affection.

In the late 1960s, the black women movement began, yet the black women

rarely participate communally as a group of black women. Bell Hooks finds that

many black women refuse to participate in the black movement because they have

no desire to fight against sexism49

. The great majority of women in the U.S. did

not participate in the women’s movement for the same reason. 1968 was the time

when segregation ended. Hasday notes that the 1968 civil right act prohibited

discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing housing. Additional legislation has

been passed since the day of the civil right movements.”50

In 1968, the

desegregation happened when the civil right movement occurred. The black

people gathered in the Civil Right Movement in order to get their right.

3. Racial Labels

Racial labels are very important for Black Americans. From time to time,

the standard term for Black has changed from term “Colored” to “Negro” to

“Black and to “African American”. These changes can be seen as the attempts by

the Blacks to raise the consciousness on removing racial discrimination in the

United States and to establish black people’s pride and self-esteem. According to

Tom W. Smith in Changing Racial Labels From “Colored” to “Negro” to

“African American”, the term “Colored” is frequently used in the mid-19th

century. Smith notes that this term is the dominant term as it is accepted by white

people and also black people. Furthermore, this term is considered more inclusive

49


Judi L Hansday, 9.


31

calling the black people as “colored”.51

According to Bennett (1970) as cited in

Smith’s essay, in the late nineteenth century, another term, “Negro”, starts to

replace the term “colored”. “Negro” is preferred by civil war freedmen while the

term “colored” is frequently used by the community of Black emancipation before

the thirteenth amendment. However, Roland A Barlon argues that the term

“Negro” is considered as a white man’s word to make Black people feel inferior52

.

This word is considered as a very rude word for calling the black people and

considered offensive for decades. Bennett then finds that this term is used as “a

term of reproach by whites and further suffered from its association to the racial

epithets nigga and nigger”.

In the early 1960s, many people argue that a new term was needed to

replace the word “Negro”. This term is criticized as an attempt to force Blacks

conducted by Whites. Bennett states that the term “Negro” was used for those

who are more identified with the status quo, while the term “Black” is used to

define Black people who are progressive and radical.53

Furthermore, the term

Black connotes strength and power.

From the early 1970s to the late 1980s, there were no other terms to

replace the word “Black”. In December 1988, The President of the National

Urban Coalition suggests a new term that is “African American” in order to

replace “Black”.54

“African American” has grown in acceptance although the

51

Tom W. Smith, Changing Racial Labels From “Colored” to “Negro” to “African American”

(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011) 497. 52

Tom W. Smith, 498. 53


Tom W. Smith, 503.


32

“Black” is still used by black people. This term is popular among Black

youngster55

. For some people, both terms “African-American” and “Black” can be

used interchangeably. The mass majority of society views "African-American" is

the most politically correct way to call a person of color, however, it is known that

not every person of color in America is from Africa. Jeffrey M. Jones notes that,

in December 2000 Gallup Poll Social Audit conducted polling to 1,000 black

people, and finds that sixty seven percent of black people said that they did not

feel uncomfortable when people use the term black or African American.56

Similar polling also conducted after that, the respondents are asked a slightly

different question about the preference term to use, African American or black.

About forty percent said that it does not matter which term is used, while 27%

preferred African American, and 20% preferred black.

In 2014, Erika Hall along with her colleagues Katherine Philips and Sarah

Townsend conducted a research on how white people viewed the terms African-

American and Black. They found that the term African-American was more

favorable than the term Black.57

The researchers conducted four distinct studies,

the white people were asked to assess in the realms of the salary, managerial

position, educational level, and socio economic status. In some cases, the person

is described as “black” and in others as “African American”. The result shows that

55


Jeffrey M. Jones, “Racial or Ethnic Labels Make Little Difference to Blacks, Hispanic,” Gallup.

2001, 28 Feb 2018 <http://news.gallup.com/poll/4873/racial-ethnic-labels-make-little-difference-

blacks-hispanics.aspx>. 57

Erika Hall, “Study: How Whites See “Black” vs “African-American”. Washingtonpost. 18 Nov.

2014. 19 Mar. 2016 <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp /2014/11/18/whites-view-

the-term-african-american-more-favorably-than-black/?utm_term=. c6a56ef1497>.




https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp

33

white people believe that the label “Black” evokes a mental representation of a

person having lower socioeconomic status, education, positivity, competence and

warmth compared to the label “African-American.”. Furthermore, the whites “will

react more negatively” toward “Blacks” than toward “African-Americans.”.

4. White Supremacy

Elizabeth Martinez in her essay Race: The U.S. Creation Myth and Its

Premise Keepers describes white supremacy as a historically based system to

exploit and oppress the continents, nations, and black people conducted by white

people and nations of the European continent in order to maintain a system of

power and privilege. She further defines white supremacy as

“A complex multi-generational socialization process that teaches white

people to believe, accept and /or live out superior societal definitions of

self and to fit into and live out superior social roles. These behaviors

define and normalize the race construct and it outcome58

In other words, the term white supremacy refers to the relationships of power

between white people and black people. The power of white supremacy includes

the power to oppress, control, and disempowered black people.59

Furthermore,

white supremacy is able to provide power and privilege to white people as

illustrated by Martinez, “there is a powerful connection between white supremacy

and the ability to have power, privilege, and benefits in our society”60

. The

development of white supremacy has influenced many aspects such as economic,

58

Elizabeth Martinez, “Race: The U.S. Creation Myth and Its Premise Keepers,”

cwsworkshop.org. 2004. 12 Nov. 2017 < http://www.cwsworkshop.org/pdfs/WIWS/1Race_US_

Creation _Myth.PDF>. 59

Elizabeth Martinez. 60

Elizabeth Martinez.


34

the vote and access to political power, and the social benefits of leniency in the

courts, education, social mobility, and public facilities.

Bell Hooks notes that “white supremacist thinking and practice has been

the political foundation undergirding all system domination based on skin color

and ethnicity.”61

White supremacist thinking as the foundation of race can keep

white folks connected irrespective of many other differences from different races.

Historically, white identity has been grounded in the experiences of fear, control,

and violence. White supremacy leads to fear of black people including fear of

slave revolts, far of loss of political power, fear of losing social capital as in

integrated education. In the white supremacist society, white people can consider

themselves invisible to black people since they have ability to oppress and control

black people in many aspects. The white people find it easy to imagine that black

people cannot see them if within their desire they do not want to be seen by the

dark Other.

Ideologically, white supremacy provides a fantasy of whiteness in seeing

the black people. According to Richard Dyer in his essay White, this fantasy of

whiteness makes white synonymous with goodness.62

There is inevitable

association of white with light and safety. On the contrary, black has inevitable

association with dark and danger. Socialized to believe the fantasy that whiteness

represents goodness and all that is benign and non-threatening, many white people

61

Hooks, Bell, Writing Beyond Race, Living Theory and Practice. (New York: Routledge,2009) 4. 62

Richard Dyer, White (New York: Routledge, 1992) 55.


35

assume this is the way black people conceptualize whiteness. Bell hooks states

that whiteness in the black imagination often refers to terrorizing.63

Bell Hooks in her book Ain’t I A Woman: Black Woman and Feminism

notes that in America, white racist ideology always allowed white women to

assume that the word woman is always synonymous with white woman, for

women of other races are always perceived as Others.64

She further explain that

white feminists who claimed to be politically astute showed themselves to be

unconscious of the way they use of language suggested they did not recognize the

existence of black women. They impressed upon the American public their sense

that the word "woman” meant white woman by drawing endless analogies

between "women” and "blacks”. It can be referred that the white people dominate

all aspects in life and show the most powerful people compared to others races.

Whiteness refers to the ideology of calling people in the United States who

have white skin. The problem is the grouping of a privileged group on the basis of

a socially-constructed whiteness. Therefore, whiteness needs to become visible as

a racial construction. Whiteness has a very strong influence in the Unites States in

the aspects of culture and society. Furthermore, it seeks the power of white people

in developing ethical responses. Bell Hooks notes that all black people in the

United States, even though they are surrounded by white people, have no comfort

63

Bell Hooks, Black Looks Race and Representation (New York: Routledge, 1992) 169. 64

Bell Hooks, Ain’t I A Woman: Black Woman and Feminism (London : Pluto Press, 1990) 148.


36

that makes white terrorism disappear.65

They are irrespective of their class status

and live with the possibility that they will be terrorized by the white people.

Bell Hooks notes that in 1919, a study of black women in industry in New

York City was published called A new Day for the Colored Women Worker66

. The

Study finds that black female workers who entered the industrial labor force

worked in commercial laundry, food industry, and less skilled branches. The

white women theare found that they did not want to compete with black women

for jobs. To prevent white employers from hiring black women, white female

workers threatened to cease work. They would complaints about black women

workers in order to discourage and prevent employer from hiring black female

workers.

5. Black People in The Fantasy of Whiteness

The relationship between white women and the black woman is

characterized by the domination of white woman in exerting power over the black

women. Bell Hooks often criticizes the study of feminist theory especially written

by white women. She says that a white woman may be racist but she may also

have valuable information that can be learned from.67

Until black women fully

recognize that they must collectively examine and study their experience from a

feminist standpoint, there will always be gaps in the structure of black

epistemologies. Bell Hooks idea is strengthened by Richard Dyer’s idea that for

65





37

most of the time, white people speak about nothing but white people, the terms of

“people” always refers to the white.68

Claire Oberon Garcia, Vershawn Ashanti Young, and Charise Pimentel

notes that whenever black writer, filmmakers, television producer, and

scriptwriter is compared to white authors; their works rarely achieve the success

similar to the white authored works.69

Wayne J. Urban, a white author of

biography of the African American educational history, as cited in From Uncles

Tom’s Cabin to The Help : Critical Perspective on White Authored narratives of

Black Life advises that “any White American writing about African- American in

the late twentieth century must do so with anxiety because it is a time when

African- Americans are reclaiming themselves in a variety of ways from the

shackles of their White oppressors.70

He exemplifies on the scholarly arena where

Whites who study Blacks run an increased risk of alienating Black audiences by

misunderstanding and misrepresenting their subjects. Richard Dyer in his

discussion of white privilege in the cultural treatise White, the reality is simply

that white people are not called on to question the assumptions they make about

the lives and voices of non-white others. He further explains that

As long as whiteness is felt to be the human condition, then it alone both

defines normality and fully inhabits it . . . the equation of being white with

being human secures a position of power. White people have power and

believe that they think, feel and act like and for all people; white people,

unable to see their particularity, cannot take account of other people’s;

white people create the dominant images of the world and don’t quite see

that they thus construct the world in their own image; white people set

68

Richard Dyer, 3. 69

Claire Oberon Garcia, Vershawn Ashanti Young, and Charise Pimentel, ed. 2. 70

Claire Oberon Garcia, Vershawn Ashanti Young, and Charise Pimentel, ed. 18.


38

standards of humanity by which they are bound to succeed and others

bound to fail.71

In Black Looks Race and Representation, Bell Hooks states that an effective

strategy of white supremacist terror and dehumanization during slavery centered

on white control of the black gaze. Black slaves, and later manumitted servants,

could be brutally punished for looking, for appearing to observe the whites they

were serving, as only a subject can observe, or see. Hooks finds that there is

mutual recognition of racism as the impact on both those who are dominated and

those who dominate72

. The reality of racist domination presents problematic

desire of white people to contact with black people who are influenced by the

presence of white supremacy.

Bell Hooks states that most of the black people who work as maids in the

white family express resentments about the hard work and the low wages paid to

them.73

Even the black maids often complain about dehumanizing interaction they

experience while on the job. Hooks explains further, the white people might feel

that the black man really care for them, especially to those who live in white

supremacist dominator culture. The black people actually pretend to love the

white as they are working for them, yet they cannot offer anything else except the

imitation of love. Judith Rollin in her book Between Women: Domestics and Their

Employers, examine both perspective of black women working as the maids and

the white women who hired them. She finds that there is no talk of bonding with

71

Richard Dyer, 23. 72

Bell Hooks, Black Looks Race and Representation (New York Routledge, 1992) 28. 73

Bell Hooks, Writing Beyond Race: Living Theory and Practice (New York: Routledge,2013) 42.


39

love from both white women and black women.74

Rollin states that the white

women share the complexity of culture domination as the impact of black women

who work as maids. Her works reveals that there is a clear recognition of the way

which race class differences have militated against the formation of bond of

affection.

C. Theoretical Framework

This study analyses the way Kathryn Stockett represents black people life

throughout her novel and the possibility of misrepresentation on portraying black

people as her attempt to promote anti-racism. Bell Hooks’ idea on racial

discrimination is the core theory used to analyse the novel. In order to analyse

Black people narration, the writer uses the idea of stereotype image from Bell

Hooks which is supported by other theories from Patricia Hill Collins, Richard

Dyer, and Judith Rollins. Going deeper to the possibility of misrepresentation on

black people life, the writer uses the literature review from various authors who

analyse the cross racial literary work. The theory related to white supremacy and

fantasy of white people in representing black people are then employed in order to

find whether Stockett as a white author still influence by the white supremacist or

not.

In the previous studies which criticize The Help, many researchers

strongly labelled this novel as a poor novel which lacking historical accuracy.

Different from the previous ones, this study aims at analysing the narration of

Stockett’s novel without firstly labelling this novel as the example of

74


University Press, 1985) 18.


40

misrepresentation of black people. The writer explores Stockett’s effort in

portraying black people’s lives based on her experience being raised by a black

maid. After analysing Stockett’s representation, the writer further analyses the gap

which occurs as the implication of Stockett as a white author who portrays black

people’s lives throughout her novel.


41

CHAPTER III

STOCKETT’S BLACK PEOPLE REPRESENTATION

The Help, a novel by Kathryn Stockett is considered as a unique novel as

this novel narrates the life of black people who works as maids but it is written by

a white American author. Stockett is motivated to write a novel about racial

discrimination in Jackson Mississippi due to her experiences living in Jackson

Mississippi, the knowledge of the South, and the historical legacy of slavery and

racism. This novel explores the life of black women who spend their life taking

care of white children. Every morning, the black maids leave their house and let

their children being looked after by someone else. They go to the white people’s

house to spend their days taking care and playing with the white children. Stockett

describes the black maids as the ones who take care and see the white children

grow up. When the white children grow up, they will change to be the ones who

oppress and dehumanize the black maid as if they forget to the maids who have

raised them since they are babies.

Entitled The Help, this novel portrays the life of black maids who help the

white family to finish their house works. The black people really help the white

family to raise their children when the white mothers are too busy about

themselves. This novel also emphasizes that the white people can also help the

black in fighting against racial discrimination. Stockett creates the white character

as the central figure of the story who helps the black maids speak about what they

are thinking and feeling. That white character is similar to Stockett who attempts


42

to write this cross race novel in order to give the depiction of black people’s

unequal life and promotes anti-racist attitude.

Due to her past experiences in growing up in Mississippi and being raised

by black people, it is not difficult for Stockett to practice the black dialogue. In

the interview conducted by The Guardian, Stockett admits that she uses the voice

of Demetrie, her black maid when she was a child. Demetrie sounded exactly the

way Stockett wrote about her.75

Stockett tries to practice the tradition of Southern

dialects in her depiction of black people life. She writes the black characters’

dialogue in black English while the white characters’ speeches are written in

standard English which usually used by white people in daily conversation.

Influenced by Stockett’s experiences in seeing the racial discrimination facts,

Stockett portrays the powerless black people who are dominated by the white

people. She creates the story that is narrated by three different characters namely

Aibileen, Minny and Skeeter. Furthermore, she also describes further about living

in the stereotyped image as the blacks.

A. Stockett’s Representation on Three Different Characters

The book is voiced by three different women namely Aibileen the

excellent caregiver, Minny the best cook in Jackson, and Skeeter Phelan, the

ambitious white woman who wants to be a writer. Those three different characters

play important roles in the novel as they are the main characters who struggle for

75

Elizabeth Day, “Kathryn Stockett The New Review Q & A,” Theguardian.com 9 Oct. 2011. 18

Jan 2015 <https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2011/oct/09/kathryn-stockett-help-civil-

rights>.


43

having an equal life. They help each other in order to deliver the black people’s

voice.

The first narrator is Aibileen who spend most of her time working to

Leefolt's family and taking care of a white child named Mae Mobley. Stockett

describes Aibileen as a hardworking, loyal, and caring maid who has raised

seventy children from different white families. From Monday to Saturday,

Aibileen always takes the number six bus from the black people’s area to the

white people’s house. Her life is dedicated to work as a maid. The last child that

she raises is a white beautiful girl named Mae Mobley. Mae Mobley’s mom,

Elizabeth Leefolt, does not care about her daughter. She just focuses on herself,

how to have a perfect look when she has to meet other white women.

So I took that pink, screaming baby in my arms. Bounced her on my hip to

get the gas moving and it didn't take two minutes for Baby Girl stopped

her crying, got to smiling up at me like she do. But Miss Leefolt, she don't

pick up her own baby for the rest a the day. I seen plenty a womens get the

baby blues after they done birthing.76

Stockett portrays Elizabeth Leefolt who gets baby blues and does not care about

her baby. Elizabeth does not want to take care of her daughter and prefers to

choose a nanny to raise her. Therefore, Mobley has a closer relation to Aibileen

rather than to her mother. Stockett presents the characters of black maid who

whole heartedly raises the white children and helps the white family. This is

similar to the character of Demetrie who has worked for Stockett’s family for

years. Stockett creates the character of Aibileen as the actualization of her beloved

76

Kathryn Stockett, The Help (New York, Penguin Group, 2009) 1; all subsequent reference to

this work will be used in this thesis with pagination only.


44

Demetrie. In her depiction of Aibileen, Stockett speaks as if Aibileen is Demetrie.

It can be said that Aibileen resembles Demetrie who passionately raises Stockett

when she was a child.

The second narrator is Minny. She works for Hilly Holbrook, the chairman

of the white club society in Jackson. She is the best cook in Jackson who is brave,

tough, and strong. Unfortunately, she was fired by Hilly because she uses the

white family toilet. She refuses to use the separated toilet which is built for the

black maid. She decides to move on from Hilly’s house in order to find a new job

and she finally works for Celia Foote, the rival of Hilly. Physically, Stockett

depicts Minny as the identical characteristics of black woman who has big and

short body, black hair and thick arms. From this character, Stockett illustrates that

black maid is brave enough to oppose against white people’s domination who

believes that black people are nothing except disease carriers.

African American women generally have a longer day as they have to

cook for their own families, clean the houses, and put children to bed after they do

the house works, a fact addressed by Genovese.77

Stockett clearly describes the

typical situation of black women in 1960s who have to face the reality that they

have so many things to do. They are born not only as the black maids but also as

mothers and wives. Stockett portrays Minny as the character of black woman who

receive double discriminations. She describes Minny’s discrimination through her

experiences in her working place and her house. Besides having unequal

77

Eugene D Genovese, Roll Jordan Roll: The World The Slaves (New York: Vintage Book, 1974)

495.


45

treatments from the white family, Minny is also the victim of black woman

violence conducted by her husband. Her husband often beats her for uncertain

reasons. Furthermore, she is also the only one who work for her family as her

husband is jobless.

The last narrator is Skeeter Pheelan, a white woman who fights for black

women’s equality in Jackson Mississippi. The idea of writing this novel comes

when Skeeter disagrees with the racial discrimination happens in her hometown.

After graduating from college, Skeeter returns to her hometown in order to find

her beloved black maid, Constantine. Skeeter has a very close relationship with

Constantine. Because of the mysterious absence of Constantine, Skeeter wants to

know where Constantine is. When Skeeter was a kid, her parents are very busy

and she spends the majority of her time with Constantine. Due to her close

relation to Constantine, Skeeter has a different point of view in seeing black

people.

I was just smart enough to realize she meant white people. And even

though I still felt miserable, and knew that I was, most likely, ugly, it was

the first time she ever talked to me like I was something besides my

mother's white child. All my life I'd been told what to believe about

politics, coloreds, being a girl. But with Constantine's thumb pressed in my

hand, I realized I actually had a choice in what I could believe. (The Help,

64)

When Skeeter has the idea of writing a book about the life of black maids, she

decides to have such a secret interview with black women in Jackson. In The

Help, Stockett represents herself as Skeeter who tries hard to struggle for black

people’s rights. In line with Lumumba’s analysis, Stockett is found using her

personal experiences to tell the real and complicated relationship of blacks and


46

white people.78

In The Help, Stockett recreates Demetrie’s personality into the

character of Aibileen. Stockett puts a privileged white woman at the center of the

narrative. Wayne J. Urban advises that white American author who writes about

African- American must be careful because it is a time to reclaim themselves as

white oppressors.79

Stockett tries to memorize her own story, create the character

of Skeeter as the one who loves black people and tries hard to fight for black

people’s right. She attempts to avoid the shackles of reclaiming the notion of a

white oppressor by portraying a white character who helps the black maid.

Furthermore, Stockett’s attempt to avoid reclaiming as a white oppressor is

indicated from her decision in choosing different characters as the narrators. The

book is narrated by one white character and two black characters. Stockett seems

to condition balanced and fair situation in the story. Stockett creates the situation

in which the story is not only dominated by the white narrator’s perspective. The

character of Minny indicates as a complementary character as a foil of white

protagonist Skeeter. In order to elude the perception of white domination in her

novel, Stockett employs two perspectives of black maids. The two black

perspectives give Stockett larger space to describe the misfortune of black maids

who really depend on the white people. There is no clear significance from

creating Minny’s perspective in the novel besides helping to create an artificially

balanced situation between black and white.

78

Ebony Lumumba, 31. 79

Claire Oberon Garcia, Vershawn Ashanti Young, and Charise Pimentel, ed. 18.


47

B. The Stereotype of Black People in Segregated Society

In writing her novel, Kathryn Stockett tries to combine the fact and fiction

through exploring the emotion which is coming from three different perspectives,

Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter. Furthermore, Stockett says that she does not merely

writes her unforgettable story but she also tries to educate people about the life of

the black maids in of Jackson, Mississippi by applying her own knowledge of

personal experiences growing up in the Jackson. Stockett clearly shows the

stereotype which happens to the black maids by portraying segregation in public

facilities.

The clear stereotype that is explored throughout the novel is the figure of

black maids as mammy. The figure of mammy is explored deeply by Stockett in

her depiction of black women. As stated by Collins the mammy image is the

center to intersect oppressions of race, gender, sexuality, and class.80

Stockett

portrays the image of mammy throughout her novel by presenting the unfortunate

life of the black maids. The figure of black maids presented in her novel becomes

the central tone of discrimination as the black maids are the ones who are

dominated by the white people especially women. However, they really care and

remain helpful to the white family.

Stockett portrays the images of black maids as faithful and obedient maids

to the white family they are working for. As the black maids, they have a dilemma

in which they have to sacrifice their time, care, and energy for their own family to

the white family they are working for. Even though they have to sacrifice the

80



48

important things in their life, black maids keep on caring and loving to the white

family. This situation is portrayed by Aibileen’s action in taking care of Mae

Mobley as follows:

I go on to the back, so mad I'm stomping. Baby Girl been in that bed

since eight o'clock last night, a course she need changing! Miss Leefolt

try to sit in twelve hours worth a bathroom mess without getting up!

I lay Baby Girl on the changing table, try to keep my mad inside. Baby

Girl stare up at me while I take off her diaper. Then she reach out her

little hand. She touch my mouth real soft.

"Mae Mo been bad," she say. "No, baby, you ain't been bad," I say,

smoothing her hair back. "You been good. Real good." (The Help, 16)

Baby Mae Mobley has been in bed since eight o’clock last night as her mother

was quarrelling with her husband. This makes Aibileen angry with the condition

as the family can easily forget their baby. With her love and caring, Aibileen

changes the diaper and takes care for the baby. As the mammy figure, Aibileen,

is very obedient, loyal, and caring to the Leefolt family, especially to Mae

Mobley. Mae Mobley always waits for Aibileen to come to the house and give

her hugs. Aibileen really cares to Mae Mobley, she is the one who can calm

down the baby and take care of the baby when the mother leaves the house.

Behind her obedience to the white family, Aibileen conceals a tragic

memory due to the mysterious death of her son. Her son named Treelore is a

hardworking man who likes to write a book about his experiences being a black

man living and working in Mississippi. For black men, they only have limited

access to certain jobs as they only have access to have a job which has high risk

but does not have any protection. Due to the risk he is forced to take, Treelore

dies because a tractor trailer crushed him. Treelore’s death seems something

unimportant for the company as there is no law that protects him. However, this


49

disappointment does not affect Aibileen in doing her jobs taking care the white

children. Stockett depicts the emotional condition that happens to Aibileen when

she can accept the fact that her son died because of having unequal treatment

conducted by the white people. She keeps going to continue her job well,

working for a white family.

Five months after the funeral, I lifted myself up out a bed. I put on my

white uniform and put my little gold cross back around my neck and I

went to wait on Miss Leefolt cause she just have her baby girl. But it

weren'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. (The

Help, 403)

Collins states that Black mothers as the members of black families are

very familiar with the skills needed for a black maid. They are encouraged to

transmit to their own children the skill needed for a maid81

. Minny learns the skill

needed for a black maid from her mother. Minny also transfers her own children

the skill needed for a maid. Minny has lots of children and tries to train her being

familiar with the skills needed for a maid. Minny trains her oldest child, Sugar, to

do the maid’s job. Sugar is accustomed to do the housework at home, she even

babysits for her neighbor Tallulah who works late.

Sugar, my oldest girl, in tenth grade, babysits for our neighbor Tallulah

who works late. When Sugar's finished, she'll walk home and drive her

daddy to the late shift at the pipe-fitting plant, then pick up Leroy Junior

from the grocery. Leroy Senior will get a ride from the plant at four in the

morning with Tallulah's husband. (The Help, 224)

Being a black woman also has negative image because they are considered

as the breeder woman who can have children easily. Collins ever explains that the

image of breeder woman portrays black women as the women who have more

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50

children than white women82

. In the novel, Minny is described as a black mother

who has five children. The effect of having too many children while working as a

maid in a white family make her cannot teach her children well. The black maid

will always spend much of her time working for a white family. This

automatically leads them to have so little time in taking care their own family.

The breeder woman is very busy with her work for the white family. It is clearly

depicted by Stockett in her novel through the characters of Minny. Minny’s

attention is not only focused on her family but also to the white family. Having

limited time makes Minny cannot control and raise her children well.

Consequently, the children have impolite behavior towards Minny. Minny

expresses her feeling when her daughter says that she hates her mother. It really

breaks Minny’s heart when Minny hears it.

I taught them yes ma'am and please before they could even say cookie….

The day your child says she hates you, and every child will go through the

phase, it kicks like a foot in the stomach. But Kindra, Lord. It's not just a

phase I'm seeing. That girl is turning out just like me. (The Help, 52)

Minny’s poor condition make the children blame her. Their children blame Minny

for making them trapped in poverty. Black women can be racially stereotyped as

being failed to raise their children. Besides they have very little time for their own

family, there is no male figure who helps them in taking care the children.

According to Collins, the controlling image of black womanhood, the

welfare mother, appears in working-class black women. The figure of the welfare

mother refers to the controlling image developed for poor working-class black

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women who make use of social welfare benefits.83

Stockett describes the image

of welfare in Minny’s life. She has five children and her husband always gets

drunk twice a week. Minny has to work very hard but unfortunately, her husband

always thinks about getting drunk and forgets to fulfill the family’s need. The

image of welfare women is closed to poor life. This unfortunate life was depicted

by Stocket through the character of Minny who lives in a small house with a big

family member.

The kitchen is the only room in the house we can all fit in together. The

rest are set up as bedrooms. Me and Leroy's room is in the back, next to

that is a little room for Leroy Junior and Benny, and the front living

room's been turned into a bedroom for Felicia, Sugar, and Kindra. (The

Help, 52)

According to Collins, the issue of being mother in a black family is very

different from being a mother in a white family.84

Being a mother in a black

family, a woman has to spend too much time away from family, they cannot

properly raise their children. Stocketts describes that being a black mother is a

very difficult thing which is very different from being a mother in a white family.

Moreover, there is no one will help the black mothers as even in their own family

their husbands expect their wife to keep on looking for themselves and their

children. The black mothers are trapped in a dilemma condition, between working

to fulfill the family’s need or staying at home raising and accompanying their

children.

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52

Through the perspective of Aibileen, Stocket describes that there exist

segregation which separates black people and white people in terms of area,

toilets, working space, even the eating stuff. White people will always take a

distance with the black people as they consider suffering certain diseases which

are shown through the black skin. The white people do not care about the unequal

treatment happens to the blacks. From Aibileen’s perspective, Stockett describes

what the black maid feels during having unequal treatments. Miss Leefolt tells

Aibileen that she builds a new toilet so that Aibileen can use that toilet rather than

the guest toilet. Stockett shows Aibileen’s emotion when she gets unequal

treatment. Then she remembers when her son died. Aibileen’s son has died and no

one cares about it as there is no law that protects him. The white people seem do

not care of the black’s personal life and feeling. They just pretend that everything

is really fine.

I put the iron down real slow, feel that bitter seed grow in my chest, the

one planted after Treelore died. My face goes hot, my tongue twitchy. I

don't know what to say to her. All I know is, I ain't saying it. And I know

she ain't saying what she want a say either and it's a strange thing

happening here cause nobody saying nothing and we still managing to

have us a conversation. (The Help, 30)

As an experienced black maid, Minny’s mother realizes that white people

will always be reluctant and unpleasant if they have to share same facilities with

black maids. Black people are not allowed to use same utensils as their employers

even when they eat and drink. Minny reminiscences when her mother tells her

about using different utensil during eating, drinking, and cooking. The white

people will get angry if the black maids do not separate the utensils. Her mother


53

makes several rules in order to warn Minny when she works as a black maid in a

white family.

"Rule Number Three: when you're cooking white people's food, you taste

it with a different spoon. You put that spoon to your mouth, think nobody's

looking, put it back in the pot, might as well throw it out. "Rule Number

Four: You use the same cup, same fork, same plate every day. Keep it in a

separate cupboard and tell that white woman that's the one you'll use from

here on out. (The Help, 161)

Black maids are stigmatized by the whites as the carrier of certain diseases.

Ironically, the black maids are the ones who raise the white people’s children,

clean their house, and also cook for their meal. In the novel, ironically, the white

children spend most of their time with their maids as their own mothers are very

busy. It seems the white people are not afraid that black people can transmit the

diseases.

To rephrase, black people in the Unites States do not have their own rights

to live as free man. Even though the United States has already announced the

freedom for black people, they still get the racial discrimination in 1960s. Setting

in the 1960s, this novel shows that the black women still experience

discrimination. Stockett describes how Aibileen and Minny experience

discrimination in their working space as the black maids. It has been stated before

that the government already made the unequal treatments legally binding by

making the segregation rule for the black woman. They have to obey all the things

stated in the rules. The black people are treated unequally in law by the

government. In the novel, Stocketts tries to combine the story with the real fact

when the black people ruled by the law called the Jim Crow’s Law. Hansday


54

states that the unequal treatments appeared in Jim Crow’s laws is segregation law,

he explains that

If you were black and living in the South, there were indignities to endure

that was part of everyday life because racial discrimination went beyond

public school segregation. Water fountains were designated “For Whites

Only” or “For Colored Only”. Restaurants, theaters, restrooms, stores,

buses, trains, and other public facilities were delineated based on whether

you were white or black. Even walking down the street required deference

to a passing white person.85

Black’s life is governed by the Jim Crow’s law that states “separate but equal”.

This rule must be obeyed by the black people. In Jim Crow Law, the separation in

many aspects in public facilities actually shows equality as the black people are

provided with similar facilities, but only they are separated. The black people

should obey that rule. If they do not obey that, they will receive the consequences

being punished and may go to the jail.

The unequal treatments are clearly described in The Help. Aibileen

experiences the discrimination in many aspects. It is clearly shown from using the

public facilities. Leefolt family builds special toilets for Aibileen. She has to use

separated toilets which is different from the white. The white family gives the

toilet outside the house. The idea of having separated public facilities is

strengthened in Jim Crow Laws which mentions that the black people are not

allowed to use the same toilets in order to prevent the white from the diseases

carried by the black. Black people are accused to carry diseases through their

urine. Therefore, they have to build the black toilets in order the white people will

85

Judi L Hansday, 35.


55

not be infected the diseased. The possibility of black people’s disease carrier is

stated by Hilly during her speech in introducing her projects on Home Help

Sanitation Initiative.

Hilly Holbrook introduces the Home Help Sanitation Initiative. A disease

preventative measure. Low-cost bathroom installation in your garage or

shed, for homes without such an important fixture. “Ladies, did you know

that black bring diseases, 99% of all colored diseases are carried in the

urine, Whites can become permanently disabled by nearly all of these

diseases because we lack immunities coloreds carry in their darker

pigmentation. Some germs carried by whites can also be harmful to

coloreds too Protect yourself. Protect your children. Protect your help.

(The Help, 161)

Stockett describes the unequal treatment through creating story that dehumanizes

black people. By promoting the idea of household sanitation, Hilly can

successfully make the black peole feel inferior. In order to convince all the people

in the meeting, Hilly delivers the information that 99% of all black people’s

diseases are carried in the urine. She does not give any real fact that black people

are the real carrier of the diseases. Blacks are accused by white people to carry

disease and they should have the separated toilets. There is irony in this meeting

because the purpose of this event is raising money for the poor starving children

of Africa. Hilly and other white people are willing to support and help poor

children in Africa, unfortunately, they conduct discrimination to the black women

who take care of their children. Hilly attempts to dehumanize the black women by

forcing them to use separated toilets outside the house.

Stockett keeps her description on stereotyped image in her novel. She

describes how the white people cannot stop exploiting the black women. Luminita


56

M. Dragulescu in Bearing Witness? The Problem with the White Cross- Racial

(Mis)Portrayals of History says that Stockett’s novel portrays the brutality of

white people which actually indicates the author loyalty to her race.86

The writer

also finds the same things in which this novel provides wide space for white

people to show their power. During the event of Home Help Sanitation Initiative,

the white women show her power by leading the black women to serve them well.

While the white people are enjoying themselves at their party, the black women

are working hard to serve the white people.

"Before we start the announcements, I'd like to go ahead and thank the

people who are making tonight such a success." Without turning her head

from the audience, Hilly gestures to her left, where two dozen colored

women have lined up, dressed in their white uniforms. A dozen colored

men are behind them, in gray-and-white tuxedos.

"Let's give a special round of applause to the help, for all the wonderful

food they cooked and served, and for the desserts they made for the

auction." (The Help, 322)

It seems that Hilly has fake behavior by thanking the black maid who has served

the meals. Hilly gives a compliment to the black maids who have served

wonderful meal during the meeting. The black maids are in the same room when

Hilly says that 99% disease is carried by the black. Hilly has insulted black maids

when she has an idea that sharing the same toilets with black maid is dangerous as

the black maids carry different diseases more than white people do. Hilly’s idea in

building the toilets for the blacks is simply accepted by the white community.

The segregation issues are massively described throughout the novel as

Stockett wants to give the readers description on racial discrimination in

86

Luminita M. Dragulescu, 19.


57

Mississippi. The idea of building separated bathroom gets a warm welcome from

the whites including Elizabeth Leefolt. Elizabeth Leefolt also agrees with Hilly’s

idea, soon after Hilly proposes the idea, Elizabeth Leefolt builds separate toilets

for Aibileen. Knowing the fact that Aibileen has separated toilets, she gets mad.

She realizes that Leefolt has insulted her. She cannot do anything except

accepting the fact that the black maids have to use separated toilets.

Stockett presents the black people life through the perspective of

disappointed black women. She describes lots of public facilities that are

separated in order to prevent the diseases outbreaks. In Jim Crow Laws, it is stated

that the black is not allowed to use the public facilities such as the white’s library,

burial place, and hospital together with the white people. Stockett explains the

unequal treatment happens in the novel in details. Stockett in her novel also

describes the condition of a white family. The condition of a black library is pretty

bad. Furthermore, Stockett also describes the discrimination in hospital. When

Aibileen wants to help a white man who cut his fingers, she wants to bring him to

the black hospital, but they have separated hospital. However, it is impossible to

be done, the emergency patient cannot be helped by a black doctor and nurse. He

has to be brought to the white hospital. Even in the emergency condition, it is

quite impossible to erase the presence of discrimination.

Besides portraying the segregation issues committed by white people,

Stockett also shows another discrimination form in her novel. The use of “nigra”

word to call black maids is described by Stockett. Bennett (1970) states that the


58

term “negro” is preferred by civil war freedmen while the term “colored” is

frequently used by the community of Black emancipation before the thirteenth

amendment.87

The word negro or nigra is considered as a very rude word for

calling the black people. Stockett depicts the white woman who uses this word to

show her anger to the black maid. It is shown by Hilly who cannot accept the fact

that Minny is able to find a job after getting fired. Hilly accuses Minny for doing

criminal activity, she calls her thief and even calls her as nigra. Roland A Barlon

argues that the term “negro” is consider as a white man’s word to make black

people feel inferior88

Stoket uses this word to show that white people really hate

the black people and call them “nigra” in order make them feel inferior.

Furthermore, this moment also shows that the white people also underestimate the

black people and give them label as a stereotype that blacks are criminals. Hilly is

upset as Minny rejects the offers and decides to look for a job from another white

family. She even works for Celia who is Hilly’s rival. She has strong influence to

the white community as she is the chairman in a white community. Therefore,

Hilly is trying to convince everyone that Minny is a thief. She wants that no one

will hire her as a maid. Minny realizes that Hilly has a secret mission behind her

offering for working in her house. Therefore, she decides to work for Celia and

refuse Hilly’s offer.

To conclude, through the Help Stockett illustrates the stereotype of black

people in segregated Jackson. She goes deeper to what the black maids feel due to

the stereotypes through represent the emotions from the perspective of Minny and

87


Tom W. Smith, 498.


59

Aibileen. Stockett clearly portrays the rudeness attitude of the white people who

oppress the blacks. However, she situates herself as Skeeter as the one who help

black women free from discrimination. Therefore, Stockett is confident enough to

promote her novel as representing anti-racist attitude. She really supports the

equal life for both white and black women. Yet, some scepticisms still linger

whether Skeeter’s narration is really free from anti-black biased attitude and the

prevailing ideology of white supremacy. In order to further explore Stockett’s

contribution in anti-racist action, the following chapter emphasizes further on how

the Help really represents Stockett’s anti-racist attitude as a white author.


60

CHAPTER IV

STOCKETT’S ATTEMPT TO REPRESENT ANTI RACIST ATTITUDE

Many appreciations go to Stockett due to her successful publication of The

Help. Through her novel, Stockett tries to promote anti-racist work by voicing

black people in her novel. Recognizing Stockett’s effort, Bell Hooks ever states

that white feminist who claimed to be politically astute showed them to be

unconscious of the way their use of language suggested they did not recognize the

existence of black women.89

In response to Bell Hooks’ statement, Stockett

actually wants to illustrate how she loves Mississippi and her understanding about

the problems happen there. Yet, in her portrayal of black people in the Help,

Stockett is unconsciously influenced by the white supremacy. The influence of

white supremacy leads to biased representation of the black people’s life.

Stockett herself has lots of experiences during her juvenile years in

Jackson and was raised by her beloved black maid Demetrie, who died when

Stockett was sixteen. Even though she grew up in 1970s, she does not consider a

lot of things had changed from 1970s. Based on her personal experiences, Stockett

recreates the life of black women into the characters which appeared in her novel.

One of the reasons why Stockett writing The Help is not only she wants people to

understand the racial discrimination in Mississippi, but also to reveal the hidden

relationship between black maid and the white people established from their

interaction. Stockett says in her afterword in Too Little Too Late:

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"Like my feelings for Mississippi, my feelings for The Help conflict

greatly. Regarding the lines between black and white women, I am afraid I

have told too much. I was taught not to talk about such uncomfortable

things, that it was tacky, impolite, they might hear us.

I am afraid I have told too little. Not just that life was so much worse for

many black women working in the homes in Mississippi, but also that

there was so much more love between white families and black domestics

than I had the ink or the time to portray. (The Help, 461)

Stockett wants to convey a message that the segregation in Mississippi

does not mean that black people and the white people should be separated in all

social aspects. She wants to promote that there exists so much love behind the

racial discrimination. However, she is not pretty sure about her writing whether it

would be considered as impolite statement for certain group of people or not.

Beyond the segregation issues, Stockett also portrays the love between black and

white people although there are lots of rules that segregate them. Stockett attempts

to overcome the fear that she felt by portraying the love between these two

different groups as she is afraid that her depiction is inadequate in describing the

hardship in Mississippi. One might infer that there is anxiety in Stockett herself

that she could misrepresent black people’s life in her novel. In order to reveal

whether Stockett can clearly explain Mississippi or not, this chapter further

explores the possibility of biased representation of black maids in her novel.

A. “The Help” in The Novel

As aforementioned, historically the relationship between white women and

the black women is always in the form of white people’s domination over black

women. Richard Dyer’s explains that white people speak about nothing but white


62

people, the terms of “people” always refers to the white.90

The relationship

between black women and white women becomes the central discussion in

Stockett’s novel. However, the white character is still positioned as the most

important character in the story. Throughout the novel, Stockett asserts the ability

of the white woman characters to help the black maids having equal treatment.

According to Bell Hooks, the relationship between white and black

women is influenced by tensions and conflicts in the early 20th

century91

as the

women’s right movement cannot make black and white women have a close

interaction. It is difficult and dangerous in 1960s for black people and white

people helping each other. Differently in the novel, black and white people are

described working together and having a close relation. It is particularly embodied

through the relationship among Skeeter and the two black maids, Aibileen and

Minny. Stockett presents the reciprocity between the black and white women as

the two black women are placed as the central protagonists of the story. The black

women help the white family in doing all the house works and they are also

helped by the white woman, Skeeter, to struggle for their own rights.

The reciprocity between the black and the white woman indicates the

biased representation of black people’s life. While Stockett might seems genuine

intended to mend the damaged relationship between the whites and the blacks,

Stockett’s portrayal of Skeeter actually asserts the cultural domination conducted

by the white. The Help makes Skeeter become central power and lead black

90

Richard Dyer, 3. 91



63

people to take action against discrimination. Stockett creates a white commander

who takes an action fights against racial discrimination. The white commander,

Skeeter, promotes the strategy to fights against racial discrimination and forces

the black women to follow her command. Through Skeeter’s assertion of her

power and position as a white woman, the black maids do not have any other

choices besides following what Skeeter says although they know it is too

dangerous for them. On the contrary, Skeeter does not face repercussion since she

belongs to the white community who has stronger power than the blacks.

Stockett informs the readers that this novel is composed of a literary

creation mixed with emotional story about her memory of the beloved maid

Demetrie. She recreates the black life in her own version, reflecting herself as

Skeeter, the one who helps the black people free from injustice. The importance

of Demetrie in her writing shows in how Stockett decides to write this novel and

dedicates it to Demetrie. Demetrie really influenced Stockett’s life as Demetrie

was the one who raised her when her parents divorced.

The Help is fiction, by and large. Still, as I wrote it, I wondered an awful

lot what my family would think of it, and what Demetrie would have

thought too, even though she was long dead. I was scared, a lot of the

time, that I was crossing a terrible line, writing in the voice of a black

person. I was afraid I would fail to describe a relationship that was so

intensely influential in my life, so loving, so grossly stereotyped in

American history and literature. (The Help, 460)

From previous passage, Stockett emphasizes the fact that she is a white woman

who speaks about racial discrimination and tries to show her rejection toward

racial discrimination. In the story, Stockett allows Skeeter many privileges to have

more power in order to rule over black maids. Even though Skeeter helps black


64

maids through creating a novel, it shows that black maids remain subordinated to

Skeeter. Yet it should be noted that Stockett has a great purpose in creating the

story, she wants to show that there are still some white people who care about

blacks’ life.

Stockett does not really approach the issue and bringing social awareness

to raise public attention on racial discrimination as she seems to exaggerate the

misfortune of black people. The black people are described as if they cannot have

a happy life which highlights how Stockett actualizes her fantasy of whiteness in

creating the story. She conceptualizes the character of Skeeter as the white person

who cares so much about the racial issue. Richard Dyer states that the fantasy of

whiteness makes white is synonymous with goodness and blacks with danger.92

The character of Skeeter is indicated as the symbol of goodness due to her

achievement in publishing a novel which delivers the black people’s voice. On the

contrary, Stockett positions the blacks who have inevitable association with

danger and powerless. The black people feel angry to the injustice caused by the

whites, yet they cannot do anything except accepting their own fate born as a

black maid.

Stockett cannot really imagine what the black people feel when they have

to depend on a white woman in determining their future life. Black people are

depicted in silence when they know that their life relied on Stockett decision and

command in writing their experience being a maid in a white family. Stockett can

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successfully present the black maid who has been a loser in their relation with the

white people. Minny and Aibileen are the clear example of being dependable to

the help from the white Skeetter.

The biased representation also showed from the racial issues throughout

the story. Stockett gives too much portrait of the stereotyped image and

segregation issues that happen to black people. The writer actually agrees with

many researchers who say that Stockett positions Skeeter as the savior. She is

brave enough to enter black people’s segregated area to find the information

regarding black maids’ experiences working in a white family. Hooks notes that

white people were regarded as terrorist especially those who dare to enter the

segregated space of black people.93

Skeeter, the protagonist white helper is

regarded as a terrorist due to her bravery in entering the black people’s residences.

Being brave entering blacks’ area shows that Skeeter has freedom to enter the

blacks’ area in order to show her power towards the blacks.

I guess I thought it would be like visiting Constantine, where friendly

colored people waved and smiled, happy to see the little white girl whose

daddy owned the big farm. But here, narrow eyes watch me pass by. When

my car gets close to him, the little colored boy turns and scats behind a

house a few down from Aibileen's. Half-a-dozen colored people are

gathered in the front yard of the house, holding trays and bags. I rub my

temples. I try to think of something more that might convince Aibileen.

(The Help, 107)

Stockett creates the situation when little Skeeter visits Constantine in the black

people’s space in which many blacks are friendly in seeing a little white girl. On

the contrary, the situation changes when she grows up when Skeeter is

considered as a stranger entering the strange area. The description of little

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Skeeter visiting Constantine implies that black people is powerless. They have to

hide their hostility and remain friendly to the white who has stronger power than

them. Stockett does not recognize that the black people are actually pretending to

be friendly. Stockett leads the reader that the black people are purely friendly to

the white child. Stockett tries to establish imagination that there is no

representation of whiteness as terror.

The intimidation from the white people is successful in controlling black

people in the Mississippi. The black women are feared of being fired from their

jobs as a maid and will do everything to obey the white, especially to the white

family who hire them. Minny exemplifies this fear when she is asked by Skeeter

to tell her stories while working as a black maid in a white family.

"We don't want a change nothing around here," Aibileen says and we're

both quiet, thinking about all the things we don't want to change. But then

Aibileen narrows her eyes at me, asks, "What. You don't think it's a crazy

idea?"

"I do, I just . . ." And that's when I see it. We've been friends for sixteen

years, since the day I moved from Greenwood to Jackson and we met at

the bus stop. I can read Aibileen like the Sunday paper. "You thinking

about it, ain't you," I say. "You want a talk to Miss Skeeter." (The Help,

132)

This kind of action expresses that as a white woman, Skeeter intimidates and

controls black people by asking them to tell their story. Skeeter convinces Minny

that she would be safe after telling the story as this is the only way to end the

racial discrimination in Jackson Mississippi. According to Bell Hooks, an

effective strategy of white supremacist terror and dehumanization centered around

white people in controlling of the black gaze.94

As the representation of white

94

Bell Hooks, Writing Beyond Race, Living Theory and Practice (New York, Routledge,2009) 4.


67

supremacy terror, Stockett places Skeeter as the only one who can lead and help

the black maids from being oppressed by the white people. Stockett practices

terror and dehumanization as she can control the black people life. Black people

are placed as the people who are always demanding to the white. They are really

obedient to the Skeeter and they want to follow what Skeeter says.

There is a mutual recognition of racism which is the impact of both who

are dominated and those who dominate. According to Bell hooks in her book

entitled Black Looks Race and Representation the recognition of racisms is the

only standpoint that makes possible an encounter between races is not based on

denial and fantasy.95

Due to the reality of racial domination of white supremacy, it

causes a problem in the interaction between the black and the white people. The

presence of white supremacy can carry the problem for Stocket in writing the

novel representing black people. Hooks ever states that white people who are

particularly critical of essentialist notion of identity when writing about race and

gender have not focused their critiques on white identity.96

Through portraying the

imagination of black people, Stockett shows an expression of black people’s

desire to rely on their lives to the white woman. The writer finds that that black

people are depicted powerlessly as they still depend on Skeeter’s help. The biased

representation can be found in the portrait of dependable black people who cannot

struggle for their right alone. Without the presence of Skeeter, it is nigh

impossible for the black people to speak, take action, and struggle for their right.

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68

Stockett says that as a white author she has knowledge of black people due

to her experience of being raised by black maid. However, her writing still

indicates the presence of racial domination. As stated before that in White

supremacist society, white people can have ability to oppress and control black

people in many aspects. Written in the novel, black maids remain rather silent

about what happen to them. Because of the racial segregation that occurred at that

time, black maids seem that they wear the mask pretending that they are

comfortable with the segregation issue.

For black maids, white people are like evils while black people are such a

symbol of goodness. Stockett presents the black maids that really care and being

so helpful to the white people. However, what Stockett writes in her novel is

different from what black people think. Through the character of Skeeter as a

white woman who helps black maids, Stockett unconsciously shows that this kind

of person is the symbol of power. By creating the figure of Skeeter, she sees black

people as others who have less power than her. The character of Skeeter comes as

the only one who helps black maids and then the black maids will praise the white

because of her kindness. This is the form of love that Stockett offers in her novel,

the love in a form of praising the white women due to her help and struggle for

black maid.

In Black Looks Race and Representation, Hooks states that white people

can consider themselves invisible to black people.97

The white people find it easy

to imagine that black people cannot see them if within their desire they do not

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want to be seen by the dark Other.98

It seems easy for Stockett to imagine and

speak through the voice of black maid as if she is truly and completely struggle

the black people’s life. Due to her upbringing of being raised in Mississippi,

Stockett can easily imagine the racial discrimination that happens in that town.

She is still influenced by white supremacy which controls her in writing the black

people’s life. Placing Skeeter as the most important character in the story

indicated biased representation from Stockett. Even though she has already

described the unfortunate life of the black people, she cannot leave the white

character, Skeeter, who plays the most important role in the story. The indication

of biased representation also shows in the portraying of cross-race friendship

created in the novel.

B. Love Beyond Race in The Fantasy of White People

Stockett portrays the life of black people and illustrates the stereotype of

black people throughout her novel. She also emphasizes her love beyond race

through her perspective as a white author. Stockett claims that this novel is

inspired by her beloved maid, Demetrie in which Demetrie has shared affection to

Stocket and her family. Bell Hooks states that most of the black people who

works as maids in the white family express resentments about the hard work and

the low wages paid to them.99

She further explains that the black maids often

complain about dehumanizing interaction they experience while on the job. This

can be a possibility that the affection Demetrie has shared to Skeeter is a fantasy

98


Bell Hooks, Writing Beyond Race: Living Theory and Practice (New York: Routledge,2013) 42.


70

as Demetrie works for Stockett family as being a maid, Demetrie has to obey

Stockett’ family. Her obedience is expressed through her affection to Stockett’s

family when she is on the job.

Presenting the story about racial discrimination, Stockett strives to present

a story from a non-biased perspective. She creates the story from three different

perspectives to give balanced description on racial discrimination. Stockett

expects that her novel is able to promote the presence of love between the blacks

and the whites. Stockett describes Skeeter’s effort in finding Constantine as a

form of love between white and black people. Love beyond race is also portrayed

through the relation among Skeeter and other black maids, Minny and Aibileen.

Skeeter really shows her affection by trying to help them reach equal status in the

society. It is seen by how Skeeter is brave enough to protest against the white

community about the idea of having separated toilets.

Even though Stockett tries to present the story from non-biased

perspective, there are many aspects that still indicate biased representation of the

black people’s life. Stockett depicts the presence of Lulabelle, Constantine’s

daughter, who is too racist. Stockett describes Constantine’s daughter who looks

like a white as if her father is a white man. Therefore, she has a daughter who

resembles a white child and has grey straight hair. Lulabelle father, Connor, is a

black man who works for Skeeter’s mother’s farm. Constantine puts her daughter

to the orphanage as she cannot handle the baby. The people around her keep

irritate and asking question about her daughter who is white.


71

Being Negro with white skin . . . in Mississippi, it's like you don't belong

to nobody. But it wasn't just hard on the girl. It was hard on Constantine.

She . . . folks would look at her. White folks would stop her, ask her all

suspicious what she doing toting round a white child. Policeman used to

stop her on State Street, told her she need to get her uniform on. Even

colored folks . . . they treat her different, distrustful, like she done

something wrong. It was hard for her to find somebody to watch Lulabelle

while she at work. (The Help, 365)

The depiction of Lulabelle, physically is an example of exaggeration as Stockett

places a black girl whose skin is light yellow. It can be inferred that the presence

of Lulabelle with her light skintone indicates Stockett’s loyalty to her race. She

creates the story in order to prove that the society will only accept the presence

white people.

Love beyond race is not only showed by Skeeter yet also by another white

character, Celia which promotes anti-racist attitude. Skeeter builds this character

and shows that white woman can also care about her black maid, Minny. Celia

tries hard to protect her maid and even decides to conceal her black maid from her

husband. She protects Minny from her husband’s anger because Celia secretly

hires a maid in her house. Celia is depicted as a white woman who is brave

enough to physically fight against male patriarchy’s roles in order to protect her

maid. Furthermore, Minny also returns Celia’s affection by helps her how to cook

and doing the housework. In exploring the characters, Stockett attempts to build

sisterhood spirit between the blacks and the whites. She portrays that real

sisterhood spirit has bonded by Celia and Minny.

EVERY PAYDAY, I give Miss Celia the count. "Ninety-nine more days

till you tell Mister Johnny bout me."

"Golly, the time's going by quick," she'll say with kind of a sick look.


72

"Cat got on the porch this morning, bout give me a cadillac arrest

thinking it was Mister Johnny."

Like me, Miss Celia gets a little more nervous the closer we get to the

deadline. I don't know what that man will do when she tells him. Maybe

he'll tell her to fire me. (The Help, 49)

Stocket challenges the assumption that white women always dehumanize black

people. From the character of Celia, it can be inferred that white woman needs

black woman and vice versa. Minny is described as a loyal maid who shares

affection to Celia. Judith Rollins states that there is no bonding with love between

white women and black women.100

Rollins states that the relation between black

and white women actually shares the complexity of culture domination especially

the impact of black women who works as the maids. Stockett’s description of love

between the blacks and the whites actually strengthened the implication of

cultural domination as the white woman is more powerful. Which in turn, the

power asserted by the whites make the blacks simply offer fake love to the white

women they work for. The fake love offered by the black maids shows the biased

representation. This kind of love is not sincerely but merely a form of obedience

from the black maids who work for the white family. They are afraid of being

fired by the whites, therefore they have to obey what the whites say.

Ideologically, white supremacy provides a fantasy of whiteness in seeing

the black people. According to Richard Dyer the fantasy of whiteness makes

white synonymous with goodness.101

Stockett’s fantasy of whiteness tries to

compare between black and white throughout her novel. Even though she claims

100


University Press, 1985) 355. 101



73

to struggle for black people’s right, she remains subordinating the association of

white with safety and power. On the contrary, Stockett associates black with dark

and danger while she creates white woman protagonist, Skeeter as the savior and

the commander. This condition actually leads Stockett to practice terrorizing in

her novel.

Shana Russle in “When Folks Is Real Friends, There Ain’t No Such Thing

as Place: Feminist Sisterhood and the Politics of Social Hierarchy in The Help

find that there is disturbing relationship between Aibileen, Mae Mobley, and

Treelore.102

Their relationship is considered disturbing as Stockett places the

black maid at the bottom of racial caste system. In The Help, Aibileen uses Martin

Luther King, Jr. as a character in a story that she tells to Mae Mobley. Aibileen is

capable to transform her sadness from Treelore’s death to take care of Mae

Mobley affectionately. Martin Luther King was a famous civil rights activist who

fought for the equality of African Americans.

"One day, a wise Martian come down to Earth to teach us people a thing

or two," I say……

"What's his name?"

"Martian Luther King."….

"He was a real nice Martian, Mister King. Looked just like us, nose,

mouth, hair up on his head, but sometime people looked at him funny and

sometime, well, I guess sometime people was just downright mean.”

I could get in a lot a trouble telling her these little stories, especially with

Mister Leefolt. But Mae Mobley knows these our "secret stories."103

(The

Help, 303)

Aibileen calls this story as a "secret story", she is not afraid that Mae Mobley will

tell it to her mother as it is a secret. She believes that Mae will keep it for herself

102

Shana Russel, 77.


74

only as this story will promote equality among blacks and whites. Aibileen

attempts to help Mae to promote anti-racist attitude. She wants to teach Mae that

everyone wants to be treated fairly. In portraying the triangular relation between

Aibileen, Treelore, and Mae Mobley, Stockett unconsciously dismisses Aibileen’s

sadness toward the death of her son. Her son died because of unequal treatment

from the whites. Stockett can easily portrays Aibileen who are able to transform

her sadness to affection for the white child, Mae Mobley.

It can be inferred that Stockett wants to promote the existence of love

between black and white people. However, the love created in the novel is more in

the form of giving privilege to Stockett to define the reality. The black women are

exploited throughout the story by hiring them as a maid in a white family where

the black maids have to do all the houseworks. They spend more time in the

working space to take care of white children. Stockett reveals the issue of black

women who have to leave their own children to work for a white family and give

her much attention to white family. Aibileen is depicted as the black woman who

provides unconditional love and care to a white family. On the contrary, the white

women are depicted as a woman who cannot take care of the children.

Throughout The Help, the white women are portrayed very cruel not just

toward the black women but also toward anyone who are powerless. Almost all

the white women in the story cannot give her full attention to their children. Even

when their children grow up, the children have very little respect to the mother.

One particular example is Skeeter’s relationship with her mother, Charlotte.


75

Skeeter cannot give respect to her mother as in the past, Charlotte always

diminishes Skeeter’ self-esteem. This condition causes Skeeter to have closer

relationship with her past black maid, Constantine. Little Skeeter spends most of

her time with her maid as her mother is very busy. Therefore, the relationship

between mother and her children in the novel is characterized by negative and

parasitic relationship which is biased to the mother while the relationship between

the white children and the maid is more toward a relation between a real child and

real mother. Skeeter really thanks Constantine as she really takes care of her when

she was a child.

A SUMMER MONTH COULD STRECH on for years, out on Longleaf. I

didn't have friends coming over every day--we lived too far out to have

any white neighbors. In town, Hilly and Elizabeth spent all weekend going

to and from each other's houses, while I was only allowed to spend the

night out or have company every other weekend. I grumbled over this

plenty. I took Constantine for granted at times, but I think I knew, for the

most part, how lucky I was to have her there104

(The Help, 65)


compare between black author and white author. They states that the blacks’

works are rarely as successful as the white authored works.105

They mentions

Stocket who writes the story of Black people and has a white heroine in her novel

is one reason for the widely acclaimed success of this novel. Kathryn Stockett

expresses her interpretation of black dialect in order to popularize this novel.

Consequently, this novel becomes one of the books labelled as best-selling novel.

Stockett recreates the black people’s life from her experience when she was a

105

Claire O. Garcia, Vershawn A, Young and Charise Pimentel, ed. From Uncle Tom to The Help:

Critical Perspective on White-Authored Narratives of Black Life (New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

2014) 6.


76

child and keeps positioning white woman as the central character throughout the

story.

Bell Hooks in her book Writing Beyond Race offers one criticism towards

The Help. In the section entitled Help Imagined: Re-Imagining the Past, she

clearly states that this book has one failure which in turn makes it successful106

. It

happens because the novel only tells the readers very little about race and racism

in Mississippi. Bell Hooks further explains that Stockett exaggerates the lives of

Southern white and black maids in order to create a condition of female cruelty

where sisterhood and solidarity manage to triumph in the end. The writer agrees

with Bell Hooks findings as it is clearly stated in the novel that the white woman

is depicted as very cruel person who only cares about her pride and leaves the

children with the maids.

I rush to get her but Miss Leefolt get there first. Her lips is curled back

from her teeth in a scary smile. Miss Leefolt slap Baby Girl on the back a

her bare legs so hard I jump from the sting. Then Miss Leefolt grab Mae

Mobley by the arm, jerk it hard with ever word. "Don't you touch this

phone again, Mae Mobley!" she say. "Aibileen, how many times do I have

to tell you to keep her away from me when I am on the phone!"107

(The

Help, 18)

Through the Help, Katryn Stockett asserts that black people has no power

to value themselves. They cannot break the boundary that makes them powerless

without the help from the white. By telling the story of black maids, it can be

referred to the form of loving black people. Stockett believes that her description

on racial discrimination is not influenced by the presence of white supremacy. Yet

106

Bell Hooks, Writing Beyond Race, Living Theory and Practice (New York: Routledge, 2009)

68.


77

within her fantasy of white people, Stockett creates herself as the white

protagonist of the novel who tries to establish close relationship with the black

maids in Jackson Missisippi. In describing Skeeter, Stockett tries to remove the

influence of white supremacy. Stockett describes the establishment of close

relationship through the interaction of the three main characters. The black maids

let Skeeter writes down their own stories in Skeeter’s word without afraid that

Skeeter will manipulate their own stories.

FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKS, the three of us arrange ourselves in the

same seats in Aibileen's small, warm living room. Minny storms in mad,

quiets down as she tells Aibileen her story, then rushes out in a rage as fast

as she came in. I write down as much as I can. (The Help, 69)

Stockett wants to exemplify that relationship with the black people and Skeeter is

strong enough. By expressing Skeeter’s desire for having intimate relation with

the black maid, Skeeter is indicated promoting equality. Stockett believes that this

intimate relation is a form of cross-race sisterhood spirit between the blacks and

the white. However, Stockett remains unconsciously influenced by the white

supremacy in portraying this relationship because she places Stockett as the white

commander and the savior of the black people.

To conclude, the representation of the black people in the Help is still

influenced by Stockett’s position as a white woman. Even though Stockett has

experience of being raised by a black maid, cross race writing still brings a lot of

risks to Kathryn Stockett. She cannot totally remove the influence of white

supremacy in her novel. It is important to note that appreciation should be given

to Stockett as her courage to represent the black people’s life in her emotional


78

fiction. However, she is still unconsciously influenced by the white supremacy

where she clearly dominates the story with the white character’s power. Even the

love beyond race which at first glance seems to be sincere between the black

maids and the white woman are in fact an example of obligation in which the

black maids have no option rather than to fulfil the demand of the whites.


79

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION

The Help is the first debut novel from a white American author, Katryn

Stockett. In her novel, Stockett voices the black maid’s consciousness to narrate

an emotional story of racial discrimination which happens in Jackson Mississippi

during the 1960s. Before publishing this novel, Stockett had to work very hard as

it was rejected by 60 publishers. However, after the publication of her novel, this

novel becomes one of the best-selling novels in 2009. Besides the popularity of

the novel, some harsh criticisms also addressed to Stockett. Many scholars argue

that Stockett really exaggerates the life of black people who are portrayed to have

very miserable life. Due to those different perceptions, the writer decides to

analyse the possibility of biased representation which occurs in the novel as this

novel is written by a white author who describes the life of black people.

In conducting this research, the writer proposes two research questions

that seek to reveal the way Stocket portrays racial discrimination in her work. The

first question is related to the way Stockett represents the black people in her

novel which is answered by an analysis on racial discrimination in the Help. The

second research question questions whether Stockett’s narration of the black

people really represents an anti-racist attitude.

In her melodramatic novel, Stockett present the black people’s lives

through three different perspectives, namely Minny, Aibileen, and Skeeter. Her


80

representation of black people is stimulated by her past experience of being raised

by her lovely black maid, Demetrie. The voice of Demetrie is later transformed by

Stocket into the consciousness of Aibileen in her novel. The second narrator is

Minny, the best cook in town who receives double oppression, both in the

working place and her home. Lastly, Stockett positions herself in the novel

through the voice of Skeeter the white woman who helps the black maids to speak

what they feel and think about racial discrimination which happens in their town.

Analyzing the decision of Stockett in choosing these three different characters

highlighted the artificially balanced situation in the story as similarity can be

found between Minny and Aibileen who are both black maids. The character of

Minny is intended as complementary character or foil who is created in order to

face the strong characteristics of a white protagonist Skeeter.

The novel also explores the figure of mammy which is central to the issue

of race, gender, sexuality, and class discrimination. Throughout her novel,

Stockett describes the stereotype as black maids in Jackson Mississippi. In the

1960s, they still experience the unequal treatment even though the United States

has already announced the freedom for the black people. Stockett describes the

black maids as very loyal, caring and obedient to the white family they are

working for. However, due to spending too much time in working as the maid, the

black maid has very little time for her children. One example is in the character

Minny who is considered as the breeder woman who can have children easily,

similar to animals. Minny herself has five children. She needs to work very hard

as she works six days in a week. She needs to raise her five children while her


81

husband always gets drunk twice a week. Besides illustrating the stereotype of the

blacks, Stockett also clearly tells her readers about the cruelty of white women

throughout the oppression toward the black maids. The white women accuse the

black maid of carrying certain diseases that lead them to build separate toilets in

order to prevent the diseases. The stereotyped issue makes the black people feels

an inferiority complex which is exploited by the whites to subjugate them.

Even though the novel already explains the cruelty of white woman in

relation to racial discrimination in Jackson Mississippi, this thesis argues that

Stockett is still influenced by the presence of white supremacy. The prevailing

white supremacy lingers in the form of a biased representation of black people

found in the novel. In portraying black people’s life, Stockett creates the white

woman as the central figure of her story. She creates Skeeter who represents

herself in struggling towards equality for the black people. Skeeter later is found

trying to intimidate the black maids by forcing them to tell their story. By

convincing the black maid that it is the only way to end the racial discrimination

in Jackson Mississippi, she positions herself as the one who helps the black maids

free from unequal treatments.

Furthermore, Stockett also illustrates that there exist love and strong bond

between the white family and the black maids. Stockett shows her love beyond

race through her perspective as a white author and tries to create the sisterhood

spirit between the whites and black maids. Stockett wants to promote the love

beyond race which occurs in the relation among Skeeter and the black maids and

also in the relation between Celia and Minny. However, Stockett’s depiction on


82

the love between black and white women actually infers cultural domination as

the white woman remain much more powerful compared to the black woman. It

can be stated that the presence of love is actually a form of camouflage as the

implication of cultural domination. The power showed by white women makes the

black maids simply offer an imitation of love to the white women they work for.

Stockett’s fantasy of whiteness tries to compare black and white throughout her

novel. Hence, although she claims to struggle for black people’s right, she

actually associates white with safety and power.

Writing beyond race can bring a lot of risks to Kathryn Stockett. However,

her courage to represent the black life in her novel should be given appreciation.

Her experiences of being raised by the black maid cannot fully help her to speak

the black people’s voice without removing the influences of white supremacy.

The white supremacy that has influenced Stockett as a white author leads her to

create the white domination in her story. The character of Skeeter is the clear

example on how the protagonist of the novel asserting her power to the black

maids by being the saviour for them.

Kathryn Stockett’s work is still significant to be studied for future

researchers. The theme of the novel especially concerning love between the

whites and the blacks, sisterhood and the subtle white supremacist attitude are

several notable aspects from this novel. This thesis suggests that future research of

the Help should be done comparatively. By comparing Stockett’s work to another

works from black author, the future researchers can find clearer ideas on the

differences between writing racial discrimination issue from different


83

perspectives. The future researcher may also find the biased representation which

frequently occurs as the implication of cross race writing. By exploring this novel,

the future researchers can also have the idea on other important aspects that

should be considered in writing research about racial discrimination in order to

avoid imbalance in description. Furthermore, future researchers can also explore

further on the presence of women characters in the novel as Stockett positions

women as the central characters in the story. It seems that she dismisses the

presence of men as the symbol of patriarchal society as the conflicts that occur

throughout the story mostly only involve the black women and white women. The

future researcher may analyse further on the feminist spirit and sisterhood that

Stocketts conveys in her novel.


84

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Documents

REPRESENTING BLACK PEOPLE IN KATHRYN STOCKETT’S THE … · This story is mainly told from the point of view of three different characters, Minny, Aibileen and Skeeter which explores