The Theme The Help Theme of Race

3. THE ANALYSIS OF THE INTRINSIC ELEMENTS IN KATHRYN STOCKETT’S NOVEL THE HELP

3.1 The Theme The Help Theme of Race

Race is not a neutral concept in The Help – 1960s Jackson, Mississippi is one heck of a segregated society. Still firmly stuck in the Jim Crow era, there are strict rules, laws, and norms restricting the lives of the black townspeople. These rules also restrict white people who want to cross the color line. Kathryn Stocketts novel unflinchingly explores the worst of the false stereotypes about black people – that they are lazy, dirty, carry diseases, and are in general less intelligent and less valuable than whites. She shows how these fictions are woven into the fabric of everyday life in Jackson, from the laws to ordinary conversations, and how these beliefs get passed from generation to generation. It shows a deep mistrust of whites on the part of the black community, who have been betrayed by them again and again. It also shows how powerful and Universitas Sumatera Utara how dangerous it can be to challenge the stereotypes and dissolve the lines that are meant to separate people from each other on the basis of skin color. Jim Crow In A Nutshell By the mid-1880s, a new generation of southern blacks—the first to be born after Emancipation—had begun to come of age. Many had vivid memories of Radical Reconstruction, a period of biracial democracy in which blacks seized political, educational, and economic opportunities to transform the society within which they lived. And even as the radical era came to an end, black citizens continued to vie for greater freedom, often boldly challenging centuries of anti- black traditions. These new negroes troubled the white South, which sought to reclaim the power it had lost after the Civil War. White lawmakers, business-owners, employers, landlords, educators, religious leaders, and politicians enforced new, more stringent patterns of racial etiquette to control black citizens who defied southern racial mores. By the end of the nineteenth century, racial subjugation and anti-black violence underpinned every economic, legal, political, and social institution in the American South. But the story of the Jim Crow era is much more than a mere tale of white violence and black subjugation; descriptions of disenfranchisement, anti-black laws and codes, and lynching statistics illuminate only one side of this complex tale. For nearly a century, African-Americans—black leaders as well as average men and women—resisted, rationalized, undermined, accommodated to, migrated Universitas Sumatera Utara from, and tested the limits of a system created to control every aspect of their lives. Race Quotes Quote 1 A bill that requires every white home to have a separate bathroom for the colored help. Ive even notified the surgeon general of Mississippi to see if hell endorse the idea. Ill pass. 1.32 Much of the racism in The Help is institutional. Laws like the one Hilly wants passed, which is shown endorsed by the Surgeon General, legalize discriminatory practices and reinforce racist opinions. Quote 2 I knew he wasnt married to Constantines mother, because that was against the law. 5.121 Skeeter remembers when Constantine told her that her father was a white man. From at least 1630 until the mid 1960s, many states in the U.S. forbade interracial marriages. Quote 3 I want to yell so loud that Baby Girl can hear me that dirty aint a color, disease aint the negro side of town. I want to stop that moment from coming – and it come in every white childs life – when they start to think that colored folks are not as good as whites. 7.80 Universitas Sumatera Utara This passage points out that kids are born with racial prejudices, its something theyre taught from the older generation. Aibileen works hard to keep Mae Mobleys mind from being polluted. Quote 4 You know colored folks aint allowed in that library. 11.21 Before the novel ends, the library in question will open its doors to black people. Finally, a bit of progress. Quote 5 These is white rules. I dont know which ones you following and which ones you aint. 11.81 We look at each other for a second. Im tired of rules, I say. 12.82 In Aibileen and Skeeters early interviews, Aibileen is terrified of saying the wrong thing. In her experience, the friendliest white person can snap and change in a moments notice if the wrong rule is broken. Quote 6 Hilly raises her voice about three octaves when talking to black people. Elizabeth smiles like shes talking to a child, although certainly not her own. Im starting to notice things. 12.57 Hilly and Elizabeths belief that black people are of lesser intelligence is apparent in their manner of speaking. Skeeter only notices it once she begins hearing the maids stories. Universitas Sumatera Utara Quote 7 […] Im proud a what Im selling. I cant help it. We all telling stories that need to be told. 16.3 Aibileen believes that revealing her perspective, and encouraging the other maids to reveal theirs, will help dissipate some of the racial tension in the town. Quote 8 What am I doing? I must be crazy, giving a white woman the sworn secrets of the colored race to a white lady. […] Feel like Im talking behind my own back. 17.50 Minny is afraid that if she tells her secrets, they will only be used against her. Quote 9 Is this really happening? Is a white woman really beating up a white man to save me? Or did he shake my brain pan loose and Im over there dead on the ground… 24.95 Quote 10 This ones for the white lady. Tell her we love her like, like shes our own family. 29.107 Working on Help and going up against Hilly makes Skeeter an outcast in the white community. But it sure earns her acceptance into the black community. Minny begins to understand that Celia Rae Foote is more than just a white lady – shes a tough, big-hearted woman who will do just about anything for Minny.

3.2 The Characterization