37 who works as a journalist. They come from different backgrounds and have
different problems, but they join in one secret project with dangerous risks which unite them with one intention to hope for a better life.
Stockett wrote The Help based on her own life experience when she was a teenager, having an African – American maid named Demetrie McLorn.
Demetrie’s character is the combination of Aibileen and Minny, two characters on her first novel, The Help. In the novel, Stockett is depicted as Skeeter, a young
and energetic white woman who works as a writer and journalist. Both Stockett and Skeeter were closer to their maids than to their mothers.
Stockett’s parents were divorced when she was six years old. Her older sister and brother would never allow her to play with them. Therefore, she would
go to Demetrie to seek for comforting words. The Help tells about the three women who work on a book which tells about what it is really like to work as
colored maids for the white families of the South. While working on this novel, Stockett was scared that she was crossing the terrible line, failed to describe the
feeling of being black maids and the stereotype they had to face at that time. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
38
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
This chapter consists of three parts which are object of the study, approach of the study, and method of the study. Object of the study is the novel which is
analyzed in this study. Approach of the study discusses the approaches which are used in this study. Method of the study explains the steps the writer conducts in
this study.
A. Object of the Study
The object of the study is the novel entitled The Help written by Kathryn Stockett. This novel was first published in New York in 2009 by Penguin Books.
The Help consists of 522 pages, with 34 chapters which are written in multiple narrations: Aibileen, Minny, and Miss Skeeter. Only chapter 25 entitled The
Benefit which is told from a third-person with omniscient point-of-view. The novel was published in 35 countries and translated into 40 languages. It has been
sold about ten million copies and has spent more than 100 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list. This novel also has its audiobook version.
The Help was also adapted into a film with the same title directed by Tate Taylor. The film was released in August 9, 2011 in United States. The filming
began in July 2010 and extended through October. The town of Greenwood, PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
39 Mississippi, was chosen to portray 1960s-era Jackson. Parts of the film were also
shot in the real-life Jackson, as well as in nearby Clarksdale and Greenville. Kathryn Stockett was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. After
graduating from the University of Alabama with a degree in English and Creative Writing, she moved to New York City, where she worked in magazine publishing
and marketing for sixteen years. She currently lives in Atlanta with her husband and daughter. The Help
is Stockett’s first novel. She spent five years writing this novel, which is telling about her true experiences.
B. Approach of the Study
Psychological approach was used as the approach of this study because it has much contribution to help us understand about literature and that it provides
conceptual clarity that cannot be derived from literature alone. This study used theory of personality by Carl G. Jung to analyze the personalities of Aibileen
Clark, Minny Jackso n, and Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan, the three main characters of
The Help, when they face the problems happened in their lives which are connected to the crucial issue happened in Jackson, Mississippi, in early 1960s.
Each of them is experiencing two main events that change their opinions and attitudes toward that crucial issue. Moreover, this approach helped the
researcher to understand the characters easier. The changing of attitude and the behaviour of the characters were seen from the psychological view in order to find
the needs of the three main characters which trigger their motivation in reacting to the crucial issue. Finally, their changing viewpoints toward the issue helped the
40 researcher to find the meanings of the crucial problems happened in Jackson,
Mississippi, in early 1960s which also happens in our society right now.
C. Research Procedure
In conducting the research, the writer used library study or collecting data from various references as the method to get primary and secondary data. The
researcher also used various references from the online sources. In the other word, the data used in this study were gathered from books and online research or
journals. First, the researcher read the primary data of this study, a novel entitled
The Help written by Kathryn Stockett. The researcher tried to read it for three times to understand the content and find interesting and important items to be
discussed and analyzed. The researcher decided to analyze the characters’
personalities and their life events by using the psychological point of view. Second, the researcher tried to find the other references and relevant
sources to support the study and help the researcher to analyze the problem. The relevant sources included the review of socio-cultural historical background of
Jackson, Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement in early 1960s. Third, the researcher determined the theories and approach to be applied in
this study. The approach used is the psychological approach. The study adopted theories, such as theory of characterization, theory of personality, motivation
theory, and theory of needs. The researcher used some books and theories to support the ideas to analyze and solve the formulated problems.
