The Controvery Over The Help
It was released way back in 2009, but it’s currently number one on both the trade paperback and e-book fiction New York Times bestseller lists. It’s been made into a hit movie with lots of Oscar talk, especially for lead actress Viola Davis. It’s a summer reading pick by Oprah Winfrey, and the release of the movie has made it a selection at book clubs across the country. A colleague at a conference in Chicago a couple of weeks ago waxed glowingly of the book and told me she plans to see the movie. A colleague at work told me there was no way she was going to see the movie. It’s hot. And it’s controversial.
It is The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Is it another landmark book and film on the civil rights movement, or (as one writer put it) is it “just another example of Hollywood’s interest in black stories, but only if they are told from a white protagonist’s viewpoint?”
The Help is about three women in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi: two black maids and child caregivers (Aibileen and Minny), and a white college graduate who has returned to the south (Skeeter). Skeeter aspires to be a writer, and she has been told by a professor to write about what bothers her. What bothers Skeeter is the racism and hypocrisy in her community, and she convinces Aibileen and Minny to spill their stories about life as black maids in Jackson.
Since Aibileen and Minny are major players in the story, it’s not tokinism that is causing the controversy. Much of the controversy revolves around the fact Stockett is a white writer, which immediately provokes many readers to first question the authenticity of such a story. Is it honest? Is this just going to be another story of a liberal white person standing up for the rights of black people? What does she know about the experience of black maids during that era? (Stockett’s family was cared for by a black maid until she was 16, when the maid died.)
Similar questions were raised when Rilla Askew’s novel about the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot, Fire in Beulah, was published in 2001. But leaders in Tulsa’s black community were quick to see the honesty and authenticity of Askew’s work and her five years of research into the clouded event. More than anything, there was an appreciation that the truth about the slaughter of people and the destruction of America’s Black Wall Street was finally seeing the light of day.
Stockett is finding it harder to win positive reviews from many critics and readers, despite the book’s phenomenal success. She is criticized for the dialogue she writes for Aibileen and other black characters (“You a kind girl”). She is criticized for the dialogue she writes for the white characters (Where is the southern accent?).
She is accused of making Aibileen an Uncle Tom, a “good” minority, a person who absolves the white people around her. The archetypes of Uncle Tom and Mammy are invoked by the characters and setting of The Help. Those archetypes add to the criticism that The Help ignores real history about the state of Black America in the 60s.
I suspect it is mostly a good thing when a book is the subject of debate in America. If nothing else, maybe more people will read it to find out for themselves, or read the reviews and discussions going on surrounding the work to understand the cultural, historical and social issues that are being debated.
Just take a look at what people are reading, writing and watching on the web about The Help:
A Critical Review of the novel The Help: This anonymous blogger has so many issues with The Help you could spend all day on her site. Tons of entries and comments. Honest-to-gosh fascinating!
The Queen’s Castle: Excerpts from Jet magazine and other items on The Help.
NPR: The Help Draws Audiences, and Ire
CBS News: Katie Courie interviews Kathryn Stockett
Check out this article on NewsOK about women who have cleaned homes, past and present.
New Link 8/23/11: MSNBC The Last Word: Melissa Harris-Perry on why The Help is not artistic and ahistorical.
Google reviews of The Help and you’ll get takes on both the book and the film adaption, from the glowing thumbs up, to the disappointed thumbs down.
Okay, it’s your turn: Have you read The Help, or seen the movie, or both? What’s your reaction? Are you staying away from the book and movie for some reason? Tell me, tell me, please…
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Comments
there’s an article out there-girls on film, I think- that talks about who has the “moral authority” to tell such a story. anchor on msnbc did a great commentary on the help too. on my phone so I can’t find the links.
Tory, I’ve actually linked to that article in the post, but here it is:
http://www.movies.com/movie-news/the-help-controversy/4115?wssac=164&wssaffid=news
Also, a colleague at work told me Melissa Harris-Perry (love her!) talked about The Help on MSNBC. I’ll try to find a link!
Thanks for reading and joining in the conversation, Tory. Kitty and I appreciate it!
Found the link to Melissa Harris-Perry’s commentary, and I’m also adding it to the link list in the post! Thanks, Tory!
I have to tell you, this has been an interesting post for me. As I’ve learned more about the issues African-Americans have with The Help, I’ve even edited the post a couple of times.
The comments I’ve received from Facebook friends are universally positive. I should note that all of the comments on my Facebook post have been made by white women. (Susie, Adrienne, Shalalah, Melecia and all you guys: talk to me!)
Facebook friends Tassey, Ernestine, Gloria and Kay loved both the book and movie, and a couple commented on how close the movie follows the book. Debbie gives the movie a thumbs up.
Facebook friends Leslie, Christine, Cokie and Linda loved the book.
Leslie said “being from the south, I have to say the the author knows of what she speaks.”
And Cokie shared the following: “I held off reading it for a long time. I was born in the South in 1961 and mostly raised by “The Help”–in my case a wonderful woman named Jayola whom I adored–and the author captured the time and the mores perfectly. I’m ashamed to say my grandmother had a special bathroom for Jayola, which I used to use as an act of rebellion.”
As a 59 year old white grandmother of an 10 year old bi-racial grandchild I was entertained by the movie but it caused anger & bitterness to see how degrading whites were to the blacks. No wonder there is racial attitudes! Even those blacks treated “well” as we white people say were looked down on & it’s still in our society today! More subtle but it’s there! To think my grandson’s great grandmother was a part of this era saddens me. To be treated less than! The white race of that era (sociallites) & those who had maids now find themselves old, health gone, & the daughters & granddaughters of their maids are still taking care of them in some nursing home, maybe they will experience the humiliation they themselves caused the black race. Where was the church on this issue?
Thanks so much for your comment, Linda. It is hard to reconcile the opinions of our older relatives with how we remember them in a loving, familial way. We are all products of our time.
My grandmother told me the most horrible “biblical” story when I was young, about how god had cursed a particular man and he was the beginning of the black race. This could have been a story about the Mark of Cain, but I don’t remember. Anyway, it’s obvious that ignorant people of faith have used their religion to perpetuate lies and stories about people who are different from them. I suspect that my grandmother had heard a particular interpretation of a biblical story while sitting in a church pew. Yes, it makes me sad that she believed this. Do I love her less? No.
I can certainly relate to your comments about older whites being cared for in nursing homes by the descendents of black maids. My mother and father were in a particular nursing home (mom for three months, dad for three years) that had a mixed resident population and mixed nursing and aide staff. I spoke with one older white woman who was very uncomfortable in this environment. And my dad had an outright racist roommate for awhile. Hard to imagine a man sticking to such beliefs when the people he purports to hate are the ones keeping him clean, fed and comfortable. But there is no logic to such beliefs.
Hopefully, as time goes by and new generations come up, we are starting to become wiser as a nation, and wise to the fact that we are all in this together.
You are welcome, Tory. I can’t always know who comes back to check on the blog after posting, so I shot off the e-mail to you. Glad you were not taken aback by it. And thanks for coming back on the blog!
[...] The Controvery Over The Help It's a summer reading pick by Oprah Winfrey, and the release of the movie has made it a selection at book clubs across the country. A colleague at a conference in Chicago a couple of weeks ago waxed glowingly of the book and told me she plans to see … Read more on NewsOK.com (blog) [...]