She needed an editor with “geechee” roots if she wanted to speak the language of the old South and to write a book about it. The real book for example should have included writting similar to the following: da book bees ok, but E ain’t nut’n close ta da real ting.

The above example was not taken from The Help, but its written to show how most of the maids would have spoken during this time of poorly paid servitude.

i loved the book. i read it for what “it was”. not for verbiage, spelling, speech or whatever. the naysayers need to “get a life”. why oh why cannot you admit the blacks were been treated very very shabbily “back then”?

read the book for what it is. a commentary of how superior some white folks think they were then. perhaps still. i have one question: do you all think heaven is segregated? end of commentary here.

Skeeter, Hilly, Stuart, and the like spoke as if they were from the North in many of the scenes. But what Stockett did isn’t anything new. Many white writers, in an attempt to show how races differ use dialect to achieve this.

The problem occurs when the minority character winds up being a comedic foil because their language skills read so poorly.

In many sections of The Help, that’s what happens with the maids.

Stockett admitted she intended to put “different” voices on the page in this interview:

“My mother and stepmother speak very properly. I really enjoyed putting two very different voices on the page together. I don’t think I’d be capable of writing it any differently.”

http://www.atlantamagazine.com/books/Story.aspx?id=1271657

At least the audio version of the book and the film don’t have the white characters devoid of a regional accent (which would sound rather strange on screen). For example, Hilly screams “You are FARD” at Minny.

The other problem isn’t just how the black characters say things, but what they say. The movie faces the same criticism the book did, with characters uttering stereotypical lines like this:

“Minny don’t burn no chicken” and “Fried chicken tend to make you feel better about life” “You is kind, you is smart, you is im-po-tent”

It’s throwback dialogue. Lines similar to Prissy’s “I don’t know nothing about birthin’ no babies” or TV’s “What you talking ’bout Willis?”

When blacks are saddled with this type of cringe worthy dialogue and dialect, it harkens back to the days of Amos n’ Andy, where these beloved caricatures of African Americans were also sworn to be “authentic”

My parents told me that coffee would stunt your growth. Should short people be offended by that?

It’s ironic to read in this column that some of you who are black would be offended by the movie (didn’t read the book yet…only commenting on the movie) because when we left I told my husband that my white parents (in their 80′s) would be very offended by that movie because they would refuse to believe that whites treated black people that way. Every point didn’t have to be exactly accurate nor completely free of demeaning comments about white or black for the point to be made. I cried at this movie just like I do every time I visit our local civil rights museum because I know how mistreated the blacks were treated.

Some people should just stay away from FICTION.

http://acriticalreviewofthehelp.wordpress.com/2011/06/18/demeaning-ideology-in-the-help/

It’s important to understand Stockett putting this ideology in the mouths of her black characters is nothing new. There have been other celebrated literary novels where white authors took on a black voice and created characters who either expressed a self loathing against their race (The Confessions of Nat Turner, by Pulitzer prize winner William Styron) and used the image of the large, dark, thick dialected black character as either a docile, loyal follower of the main white protag (Imitation of Life by Fannie Hurst’s character of Delilah) or the sassy, mouthy, grumpy maid whose comedic quips endear him/her to readers with their blunt observations, sometimes aimed at their own culture (Mammy from Gone With The Wind. In the Help that character is Minny)

It’s important for readers, particularly African American readers to know this, lest they get embarassed when professing admiration for a novel that has far too many negative myths that were excuses used to block integration and equality.

One major example:
Blacks having diseases.
While Kathryn Stockett has Hilly stating this in the novel, the author also uses Aibileen and Minny to resurrect this slur, as on Pg 23 both women discuss Aibileen’s “ability” to cast a venereal disease on a woman named Cocoa.

The “cootchie spoilt as a rotten oyster” was not only offensive, but touches upon additional negative innuedo spread about blacks during the dark days of bigotry, that we not only carried diseases but in particular venereal disease.

When Aibileen responds with “You saying people think I got the black magic?”

Yet another often used slur. The reasoning was that blacks, no matter what faith we professed would always revert back to “black magic”. Also note that Aibileen is supposed to be a devout Christian. She should be offended by peoples assumptions, however she appears enthralled by the possibility, thus showing how backwards both she and Minny are, causing the reader to chuckle. Which is what Stockett did when she took her show on the road and read Minny’s part in a “pseudo” black voice (video on You Tube).

A few other myths the book includes are the “no account” black males being absentee fathers. Again Stockett uses her black characters to resurrect these slights. Minny states “Plenty of black men leave their families behind like trash in a dump. . .” which is an uncalled for sociological opinion, and one that showed Stockett was playing favorites. No white male lead character is called anything similar. Not even Stuart, who treats Skeeter shabbily. Or Constantine’s father, who has several bi-racial children out of wedlock with her mother.

These males are given a pass even though they practiced segregation. Stockett makes a point to add a twist, telling the readers that either “he’s too honest” (speaking of her father, Carlton Phelan) or “he is a good man” (speaking of Stuart) even Senator Stoolie Whitworth is given a pass, as Stockett portrays him as a conflicted man only doing the will of his constiuents, while he’s really a closet liberal.

No such “twists” are granted to the black males like Connor (absentee father who beds and abandons Constantine) or Minny’s father, who like Clyde, Aibileen’s ex is called “no account” and then there’s the brute character, Leroy, who Stockett uses to show just how slow of mind the character is when he utters the line “You don’t get tired, not till the tenth month” to his pregnant wife Minny, even though this is their sixth child.

And speaking of children, while Minny’s daughter Kindra is only five when the novel begins, Stockett plays favorites even with the littlest members of her book. Kindra is the “bratty black kid with attitude” as Minny hollers and unfairly brands her youngest child. Even Aibileen, who makes it her mission to instill positive affirmations in Mae Mobley has no scenes where she coddles or nurtures Minny’s youngest, and that’s a shame since Kindra is between a rock and a hard place (her sharp tongued mother and abusive father)

And while Minny is an abused woman, because she’s the “sassy” maid stereotype, she behaves contrary to all known medical data on someone subjected to almost daily physical violence, even enlisted to protect Celia, with a knife no less, while carrying her sixth child.

Non fiction books which do a far better job than The Help with less caricature and real testimonials are “The Warmth of Other Suns” by Isabelle Wilkerson and “At the Dark End of The Street” by Danielle McGuire.

Looking forward to the movie… Yeah!!!

I didn’t miss the Skeeter reference. I chose not to answer. Black people are allowed to do that now, you know.

Sorry, where are my manners. For the remainder of my post I’ll just ignore the hysterics in your post because I realize you love the story. I mean, you REALLY love the story. That’s a big part of the problem with the novel, and folks reaction to it, like yourself.

Because when the innuendo, negative idealogy and generations of demeaning depictions of the black culture are gladly accepted as “taken very seriously” in a novel that cracks jokes about the black culture at just about every turn, truly its got best seller written all over it.

It’s no wonder then, that Ablene Cooper or those close to her filed a lawsuit.

I look at the lawsuit as a way to make publicly known that enough is enough. That having a character with her likeness and a similar name who goes to church, yet still wonders if people think she used “black magic” to wish a venereal disease on another woman is not funny, but offensive.
In addition, that telling someone “don’t drink coffee or you’ll turn colored” is not funny, it’s offensive.

An it certainly doesn’t, as you say “take the injustice, wrongness, etc. very seriously.”

And while it’s admirable to instill positive affirmations within an employer’s young child, it’s a coward who’ll ignore her best friend’s children, especially children who witness the violent, physical abuse of their mother on a daily basis.

But of course, if that abused woman is simply the “sassy” maid stereotype, then the abuse may be easily overlooked.

It is also the height of offense to compare brown skin to a roach, especially with more than enough images during the period segregation was legal that demeaned the black culture.

And true enough, Ablene Cooper may not win her lawsuit. But at least the lawsuit may open a dialogue on what constitutes offensive stereotype in a minority character, versus paying homage.

You getting all this down Lily? For as much as you “love” this novel, some of use recognize it for what it really is.
But fear not. After seeing how bad the trailer for the movie is, I think once you see the movie you’ll realize the joke’s on ALL OF US. Because segregation is played for laughs, with the white characters as ditzy sit-com wives.

You might do well to join the real world and take a look at the shame and courage from when segregation was at its height, unless you want to continue to wallow in denial and wax nostalgic over the pages of The Help:
http://acriticalreviewofthehelp.wordpress.com/wall-of-shame-and-courage/

Thanks for your post. Your sentiment was brought up on another board, and I think it’s picking up steam.

That is, while there are quite a few readers proclaiming how much love there was between employers and their “help” (and some of the testimonials are quite touching) those who identify themselves as former domestics speak of no similar affection, or in the large numbers as those who laud Stockett’s novel.

And I believe that’s the problem. So much was regulated by segregation, that now, years later, the controlling of how past employer/employee relationships as well as black/white relations were perceived differ greatly.

Thankfully, there’s enough recorded and documented history to show that affection had nothing to do with winning civil rights. It took blood, sweat and tears. The ultimate toll was the senseless murders of some courageous individuals, both black and white during the struggle for freedom.

OT:
**best non-fiction book I’ve read all year: Isabel Wilkerson’s “The Warmth of Other Suns” which chronicles the great migration of African Americans from the south **

“many African American accents, for lack of a better word, are hackneyed and full of broken English so I liked the way the author presented all the voices”

Just like I wouldn’t presume that many Canadians, for lack of a better word use “Aye?” after the end of each sentence, your post reflects just what is quite frustrating and rather sterotypical about Stockett’s novel. There’s no diversity in the black women, save for the ones closer to white, like Lulabelle, Yule May Crookle (no naps in her hair, signifying “good hair”) or Gretchen who conveniently all speak without a “southern” accent or as you put it so indelicately, “hackneyed and full of broken English”.

Thanks for your comment. You’re probably aware by now that Kathryn Stockett is being sued by a real life maid who works for the author’s brother and sister in law. The woman’s name is Ablene Cooper. More on the lawsuit can be found here:

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/family-maid-files-suit-against-author-of-the-help/

Not only is the article interesting, but the readers comments are quite insightful.

I’d like to recommend one more site. A blogger by the name of Macon D asked this question and a number commentors responded:

“Here’s something that I as a white person can never really know — what’s it like for non-white children when they have to sit through an education system that still normalizes and glorifies white people and white ways, more or less all of the time? A system that also still denigrates the contributions and lived experiences of people of color, more or less all of the time?”

http://stuffwhitepeopledo.blogspot.com/2010/07/force-non-white-students-to-read-great.html

******

Hello P. Archer,

On page 353 of the novel, Stuart reveals to Skeeter that he drove all the way to San Francisco to see Patricia in order to get her “out of his head”. They had it out, and when he came back to Jackson he to let Skeeter know that his feelings for Patricia were dead and gone.