Suggestions for Future Researchers Suggestions for Teachers

46 admitting Minny as the breadwinner will only make her become disrespectful of him. Leroy’s attempt to control Minny is successful as Minny cannot defend herself. She only succumbs and seethes towards with violence done by Leroy. From the conclusion of the analysis in chapter four, the readers are more convinced by the fact that there is no benefit can be reaped from discrimination. Every type of discrimination existing in the world only leaves people in misery. Both of the discriminators and the victims will always leave in a hateful and revengeful situation. Thus, I personally hope that the readers will be more convinced that being able to love others is the essential thing to create a better and more peaceful world.

B. Suggestions

The suggestions are divided into two parts. The first part is the suggestions intended for future researchers. Meanwhile the second part of this section is intended for teachers who use literary works in the learning process.

1. Suggestions for Future Researchers

The Help is a rich novel to study. Even though it centers on the relationship between African American domestic servants and their white employers, there are many aspects which can be learned from the relationship depicted in the novel. Thus, I truly recommend the novel be the primary source for those future researchers who are interested in analyzing literary works. 47 First, I suggest future researchers study the friendship between African American women and white female women. Some parts of the novel resemble the friendship between African American maids and their white female employers. The parts resembling the friendship are based on the real experience of the author when she befriends her African American maid, Demetrie. Thus, I suggest future researchers conduct a study of how the friendship between African American women and white women is depicted in the novel. This study can be conducted by using the biographical approach as it will compare the real experiences of the author when she befriends her African American maid. Second, the novel revolves around the process of making a book called Help which resembles the bittersweet experiences of African American domestic servants when working for white households. In the process of writing the book, there are many obstacles which eventually drive African American domestic servants to persevere for equality and dignity. Thus, I suggest future researchers study Help as the symbol of African American women’s struggle in persevering for equality and dignity.

2. Suggestions for Teachers

The study reveals that The Help depicts racial discrimination against African American women. The racial discrimination is practiced against them in many types namely insult, denial, antilocution, and segregation. The African American women may seethe at the discriminatory acts as they have endured those acts for years. However, The Help reveals that the African American women 48 never take revenge as an attempt to fight for equality. In fact, they use peace and love to fight for equality and dignity. In relation to the field of education, The Help may become the inspiration for teachers who are in the mission of promoting multiculturalism and tolerance in schools. Discrimination in any form damages the values of friendship, tolerance, and solidarity, which have always been promoted in schools. Thus, I suggest teachers or soon-to-be teachers learn from The Help about how to use love and peace in order to combat any form of discrimination existing in schools. The Help may motivate both teachers and students to appreciate and to treat each other equally without giving any judgmental feeling. Learning activities in school can be the great means for both teachers and students to appreciate others. For example, teachers facilitate a sharing moment in which students can share and talk about everything they learn and experience in schools. From the activity, both teachers and students have subconsciously learned to appreciate and respect others as they listen to the sharing and give solution to any problem coming up in the sharing moment. The Help may also become the inspiration for teachers who are attempting t o develop their students’ critical thinking skill towards the issue of discrimination existing in schools. Teachers can encourage the students to read the novel and give them several questions enabling them to use their critical thinking skill. Teachers are also suggested providing the questions which allow the students to reflect on their experiences when witnessing or experiencing discrimination in schools. By developing students’ critical thinking skill towards the issue of 49 discrimination, students will raise their awareness of any form of discrimination existing in schools and find ways to combat the discrimination. 50 REFERENCES Anonymous. 2009. The help: In a nutshell. Retrieved on October 16,2012 from http:www.shmoop.comthe-help Babbie, E. 1982. Understanding sociology: A context for fiction. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company. Bandhal, L., Hopkins , L. 2007. Fighting racism and promoting equal rights in the field of education. Retrieved from http:cms.horus.befiles99935MediaArchivepdfeducation_en.pdf Donald, L., Keller, S., Calhoun, C. 1989. Sociology. 5 th ed.. New York: Alfred A Knoph. Finke, N. 2012, January 24. Oscars: Nominations by picture. Retrieved on October 16, 2012 from http:www.deadline.com201201oscars-nominations-by- picture-hugo-leads-with-11-the-artist-10-moneyball-and-war-horse-6-each Genovese, E. D. 1974. Roll, jordan,roll: The world the slaves made. New York: Vintage Books. Hine, D. C., Thompson, K. 1999. A shining thread of hope: The history of black women in america . New York: Broadway Books. Hraba, J. 1979. American ethnicity. Itasca, IL: F.E. Peacok Publishers, Inc Jones, C., Shorter-Gooden, K. 2003. Shifting. New York: Harper Collins e-books. Retrieved on March 22, 2013 from http:dl.lux.bookfi.orggenesis513000a6c4236e04e13c4e9d98cdca70fd82e b_as[Charisse_Jones,_Kumea_Shortergooden]_Shifting_TBookFi.org.pdf on March 1, 2013 Jordan, L. M. n.d.. Domestic violence in the african american community: The role of the black church. Retrieved on December 19, 2012 from http:www.hds.harvard.educswrresourcesprintrhbreports05.Jordan.pdf Macionis, J. J. 2012. Sociology. Boston: Pearson. Mentor , D. 2000. Racism in our school: what to know about it; how to fight it? . Retrieved on June 27, 2013 from http:www.crr.cadivers- filesenpubfaShePubFaShRacScho.pdf 51 Pongtuluran , A. n.d.. Student-centered learning:the urgency and possibility. Retrieved on July 6, 2013 from http:uripsantoso.files.wordpress.com201106scl1.pdf Rose, P.I. 1997. They and we: Racial and ethnic relations in the United States. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Schaefer, R.T. 1986. Sociology 6th ed.. New York: McGraw-Hill,Inc Suddath, C. 2009, November 11. Qa: Kathryn stockett, author of The Help. Retrieved on October 16, 2012 from http:www.time.comtimeartsarticle0,8599,1937562,00.htm Sugihartoputri, S. 2012, October 29. Video: Curahan hati ary kirana sebagai korban verbal bullying . Retrieved on June 27, 2013 from http:www.fimela.comread20121029video-curahan-hati-ary-kirana- sebagai-korban-verbal-bullying Suresh, M. n.d.. A voice to the voiceless-erin grunwell. Retrieved on July 7, 2013 from http:www.global1.youth-leader.org201210a-voice-to-the-voiceless- erin-grunwell Wilson, M. 2011, December 20. The Help chosen best film of 2011 by black film critics circle. . Retrieved on October 16, 2012 from http:www.blackfilm.comread201112the-black-film-critics-circle-awards- 2011 Zanden, J.W.V. 1988. The social experience: An introduction to sociology. 1 st ed. New York: Random House 52 APPENDIX A THE SUMMARY OF THE HELP The Help is set in Jackson, Mississippi and begins in August 1962. The novel features three main narrators – Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter. 53-year-old Aibileen Clark starts us off. Aibileen is a black woman who works for a white family, the Leefolts. Mae Mobley Leefolt is two years old, and Aibileen considers the girl her special baby 1.6. Mae Mobley is physically abused and neglected by her mother, Elizabeth. Throughout the novel Aibileen does all she can to boost Mae Mobleys self-esteem and tries to teach her about civil rights and racial equality. Aibileens own son, Treelore, dies senselessly in a workplace accident, some months before Aibileen began working for the Leefolts. Aibileen observes the bridge game being played today at the Leefolts. In attendance are Hilly Holbrook and Eugenia Skeeter Phelan, Elizabeth Leefolts best friends, who are all in their early twenties, like Elizabeth. Hilly tells Skeeter shes working to have a law passed that would make it mandatory for white families to build outside bathrooms for their black employees. Skeeter suggests Hilly should have a bathroom outside, and thus begins a slow boiling feud between the two women. After the bridge game, Skeeter apologizes to Aibileen about the bathroom talk and asks her, Do you ever wish you could…change things? 1.88. On the bus home, Aibileen warns her best friend, 36-year-old Minny Jackson, who takes care of Hillys mother Miss Walter or Miss Walters, depending on whether Aibileen or Minny is talking that Hilly is calling Minny a thief. Miss Walter is going to a nursing home, and Minnys been trying to find a new job. Now she knows why no one has hired her. She tells Aibileen she did something terrible to Hilly, something involving a pie, but she wont say what. 53 Several days later, Minny finds work at the home of Johnny and Celia Rae Foote. Johnny is Hillys ex, and Celia Rae, a Marilyn Monroe look-alike, is from deep in the country. She is shunned by the high-society ladies throughout the novel. Celia makes Minny promise to keep herself a secret from her husband Johnny, causing Minny much stress. After the bridge game at the Leefolts, Skeeter goes home to Longleaf, her familys cotton plantation. We learn that during Skeeters senior year at college, Constantine, her familys maid and Skeeters best friend and confidante for some twenty years, mysteriously disappeared. Nobody will tell Skeeter why, though. We find out Skeeter is in contact with an editor at a publishing house in New York, Elaine Stein. Miss Stein encourages Skeeter to get any job she can find at a newspaper and then use her free time trying to find something controversial to write about. Skeeter scores a job at the Jackson Journal writing the Miss Myrna column, a column about housework and relationships, two things she knows nothing about. With Elizabeths reluctant permission, Skeeter starts meeting with Aibileen to get answers to the questions readers send in. Skeeter learns that Aibileens son Treelore was writing a book about his experiences in Mississippi at the time of his death. This inspires Skeeter to try to convince the local maids to be interviewed for a book that will show their points of view. Hilly sets Skeeter up on a blind date with Stuart Whitworth, a Senators son. Stuart gets drunk and insults Skeeter. She never wants to see him again. In December, Minny is discovered by Johnny Foote, her employers husband. Shes terrified of what hell do to her, a strange black woman in his bedroom. But her fears are in vain – Johnny realized his wife Celia had help as soon as the cooking improved. Hes glad Minny is here. Johnny asks Minny to pretend that he doesnt know about her, though. Aibileen, an avid writer, agrees to work with Skeeter on the book about the lives of the maids of Jackson, and they begin spending their evenings together. Eventually, Minny also agrees to work with them. Aibileen tries to get other maids involved, but they are all too frightened. Skeeter steals a pamphlet from the library that lists Jim Crow laws. Three months after their failed first date, Skeeter and Stuart go out again and even share a passionate kiss. Stuart becomes a regular part of Skeeters life, though he doesnt know about her secret writing project. In May of 1963, Celia has a miscarriage and reveals that its her fourth. Shes afraid that if she cant have babies, Johnny wont want her anymore. When 54 Minny tries to convince her that Johnny loves her, Celia realizes that Minny and Johnny have met. She begs Minny to pretend to Johnny that Celia doesnt know Johnny knows about Minny – got it? In July, Hillys maid, Yule May, steals one of her rings, which happens to be valueless and which Hilly hates. Yule has twin sons and is short the 75 she needs to send both boys, instead of just one, to college. When Hilly refused to loan her the money, Yule stole the ring. Hilly finds out and uses her influence to have Yule fined 500 and sentenced to four years in the state penitentiary. Anger at Hilly over her treatment of Yule May, plus a little persuasion from Minny, convinces eleven more maids to tell their stories for Skeeters book. Skeeter and her family have dinner at Stuarts parents home. At dinner, the topic keeps coming around to Stuarts ex, Patricia Van Devender, who cheated on Stuart with a white civil rights activist. At the end of the evening, Stuart breaks up with Skeeter. Hilly steals the list of Jim Crow laws out of Skeeters bag and says she wont give them back until Skeeter, editor of the Junior League newspaper, prints a notice about Hillys bathroom project in the newsletter. Outdoor bathrooms for black employees in white households, remember? Skeeter does print the notice. She also, accidentally-on-purpose, prints a notice telling people to drop off their old toilets on Hillys lawn. Meanwhile, she hires some kids to deliver dozens of toilets to Hillys place. Needless to say, Hilly is furious when she finds out. Skeeter is subsequently ostracized by the women who used to be her friends. Aibileen, Minny, and the other maids are afraid Hilly will find out that they are writing their stories and hurt them. At the Jackson Junior League Annual Ball and Benefit, Celia Foote gets very drunk and tries to get Hilly to accept her into the high-society ladies circle. She ends up tearing Hillys dress and vomiting on the floor – not good progress there. In the days that follow, Celia is depressed and is on the verge of leaving Johnny because she thinks she isnt good enough for him. Minny convinces her to stay. We learn that during her last days of caring for Hillys mother, Miss Walter, Minny baked a chocolate pie laced with her own poo, and that Hilly ate two slices of the pie. This is why Hilly is trying so hard to ruin Minny around town. Minny convinces Skeeter and Aibileen that their best protection against Hilly, if their book comes out, is to include the pie story in Minnys section. Even if Hilly recognizes the town as Jackson, she wont tell because it would mean admitting to eating poo. Brilliant. 55 In December, Skeeter learns that Constantine, the maid who disappeared mysteriously from Skeeters life, is dead. After Constantines daughter, Lulabelle, and Skeeters mother, Charlotte, got into a confrontation, Constantine was fired. She moved to Chicago with Lulabelle and died three months later. Skeeter gets part of the story from Aibileen and part from her mother. Also in December, Skeeter and Stuart get back together. At the end of December, Skeeter mails the book manuscript, which contains the maids stories and is called Help, to Elaine Stein in New York City. In January, Stuart proposes to Skeeter. She says yes, but when she tells him about Help he takes back his proposal. Also in January, Skeeter, Aibileen, Minny, and the other maids learn that Help is going to be published. They wait with bated breath. When the book comes out, Hilly immediately suspects the book is set in Jackson and begins campaigning against the maids who she suspects are involved. But when she gets to the last chapter, Minnys chapter, and reads the pie story, she does an abrupt turnaround and tells everybody she can that the book isnt about Jackson. Still, Hilly confronts Skeeter about her involvement in the book and vows revenge on Aibileen and Minny. Skeeter is offered a job in New York City and Minny and Aibileen convince her she must take it. Before she goes, Skeeter arranges for Aibileen to take Skeeters old job writing the Miss Myra column. Meanwhile, Celia finally tells Johnny about the miscarriages and about Minny. Johnny and Celia tell Minny she has a job with them for life. However, Hilly arranges for Minnys abusive husband, Leroy, to be fired and to be told that its Minnys fault. Leroy then tries to kill Minny. She takes their five children, leaving Leroy and moving out of town, but still not far from her job with Celia. Hilly still isnt satisfied, though, and proves to Elizabeth that Aibileen is the author of a chapter of Help. Hilly tries to frame Aibileen for stealing silver, but Elizabeth doesnt go along with her plan. She does fire Aibileen, though. After a tearful good-bye to Mae Mobley, Aibileen discovers shes about to start a new life, one in which she plans to spend writing about her life and the people she knows. Taken from: http:www.shmoop.comthe-helpsummary.html Copyright: 2013 56 APPENDIX B THE BIOGRAPHY OF KATHRYN STOCKETT Born in 1969 in Jackson, Mississippi, writer and editor Kathryn Stockett earned her undergraduate degree in English and creative writing from the University of Alabama, then headed to New York City with plans to work in publishing. She spent nine years there, working both in magazine publishing and in marketing, before moving to Atlanta, Georgia, where she lives with her husband and daughter. Since moving back to the South, Stockett has been focusing on writing for herself, having shifted her attention to fiction. Her debut novel, The Help, was published by Amy Einhorn Books in 2009, and proved to be one of the hit books of the summer season. The Help garnered instant attention due to its unusual and rarely addressed subject matter: the relationship in the South between white families and the domestic servants, who were primarily black, whom they employed in their homes during the 1960s. Having grown up during this period in Mississippi, Stockett was familiar with the dynamic, but nervous about addressing it in a novel, understanding that it was a controversial subject and could result in 57 criticism from both reviewers and from general readers. In an interview with a writer for Bookreporter Web site, Stockett explained her attitude as a child: Growing up in Mississippi, almost every family I knew had a black woman working in their house--cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the white children. That was life in Mississippi. I was young and assumed thats how most of America lived. Only after she moved north did Stockett realize that she had grown up in a microcosm, and that her memories of her childhood were not of a universal experience. She found herself reminiscing with other Southerners she met in New York, trading stories about growing up with black domestic help. Gradually, those memories began to spark an idea and she decided to write a story about her relationship with her familys maid when she was a child. Early on in the writing process, Stockett chose to frame her narrative from the point of view of a black maid. It seemed logical, and she had no qualms about her choice because at the time she did not believe anyone else would ever read the story. Only when she reached the stage of getting friends to look at her work did she start to get nervous about how she had portrayed the characters and whether their voices rang true. Stockett told the interviewer for Bookreporter Web site: Ill never know what it really felt like to be in the shoes of those black women who worked in the white homes of the South during the 1960s and I hope that no one thinks I presume to know that. But I had to try. I wanted the story to be told. I hope I got some of it right. In a review for Entertainment Weekly, Karen Valby remarked that Stockett jumps effortlessly between her womens voices. She has created a world of memorable supporting characters--from the bitch in the Junior League to Skeeters oilman suitor--to surround them. Mary Emrick, in a review for the Mississippi Business Journal, dubbed Stocketts effort a poignant novel that gives us hope for a brighter future of mutual love and respect between the two races. Rebecca Kelm posited and then answered an excellent question in a review for Library Journal: Is this an easy book to read? No, but it is surely worth reading. 58 A Publishers Weekly reviewer found the book to be a superb intertwining of personal and political history. Taken from: http:ic.galegroup.comicbic1ReferenceDetailsPageReferenceDetailsWindow?z id=85b87bd611ba4e3d1c2861fa905ef35baction=2catId=documentId=GAL E7C 59 APPENDIX C Mirroring The Help: A Reflection of Racial Discrimination Seen in The Help and Its Relation to Racial Discrimination in Schools The Help , a novel by Kathryn Stockett, clearly depicts the racial discrimination practiced by white employers against their African American domestic servants in Jackson, Mississippi. The study of this novel reveals that the racial discrimination occurs in many types, namely insult, denial, segregation, and antilocution slurring a certain group of people which damages the reputation of those people. Furthermore, the study reveals that the racial discrimination surely creates a great pain among the discriminated people as their opportunity to live in equality is rejected. The discriminated people are only able to seethe inside and withdraw themselves from the discrimination they are coerced to endure. Studying the racial discrimination in The Help reminds me of many racial- discriminatory actions that have been practiced in many fields. In the field of education, racial discrimination has become a prominent issue. We have probably noticed many cases of students who experience racial discrimination in their schools. One example is the story of a Canadian-Indian boy named Michel written in an article by Mentor 2000 entitled Racism in Our Schools: What to Know About It; How to Fight It . Michel receives a racist joke from a friend in school 60 The racist joke from his friend leaves him in pain, thus he feels lonely in the school p.3. What Michel experiences in his school surely becomes a great concern for many people, especially teachers and parents. Many teachers along with parents have been working hard to prevent other same cases like Michel’s from happening in the field of education. According to Bhandal and Hopkins 2007, many people have concerned about preventing racial discrimination in the field of education as they believe that education plays a “vital” role in “combating social exclusion and promoting solidarity” p.4. Thus, it can be concluded that education should remain free from any attempt showing racism and discrimination. Mirroring from The Help, I believe that maintaining a racial discrimination-free environment in the field of education is not as easy as ABC. The Help reveals the struggle of African American people to survive in racial discrimination they endure. Meanwhile, many people especially teachers also persevere to shape a racial discrimination-free environment in schools which enables every student to enjoy equal treatment in schools. Thus, through this reflection, I attempt to relate the story of African American women’s struggle in dealing with racial discrimination seen in The Help to teachers’ attempts to shape a racial discrimination-free environment in schools.

A. Misery of Racial Discrimination: The Stories of Aibileen, Minny, Ary,