6/7/2023 0 Comments Kathryn stockett's the help![]() Now this, on the face of it, should not be a problem. ![]() Aibileen and Minny, the titular help who reveal their stories, are black. Skeeter, an educated and prosperous young woman with no real plans for the future, is white. Problematic in that this page turner is set in Jackson, Mississippi during the early 1960s, and is told from three points of view. Full of plot twists and sly humor, The Help is what you might call an old-fashioned page turner. Entertaining in that it is a yarn well spun, a tale of women’s lives that has its antecedents in books like the Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood or The Joy Luck Club. The story of these unseen women forms the basis of Kathryn Stockett’s entertaining and problematic novel, The Help. ![]() She was, to all intents and purposes, the invisible woman. She could tell outlandish stories, sing spirituals or drop pearls of wisdom – that was part of her “character” – but speaking her true mind was out. Mammy was expected to be chief bottle washer, maid, cook, and helpmeet. ![]() ![]() For McDaniel in Hollywood, like many black women throughout the United States, the only role that white folks would accept her in was a domestic one. Of course, she didn’t have much of a choice. Hattie McDaniel, the Academy-Award winning actress who played Mammy in Gone with the Wind reportedly once said: “Why should I complain about making $700 a week playing a maid? If I didn’t, I’d be making $7 a week being one.” The Help by Kathryn Stockett Putnam, 464 pp. ![]()
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