So I'm going to do it. I swore I wouldn't, but I just couldn't help myself. Ever since I read The Help in July I have wanted to write a post about it. A post explaining why I disliked it.
It seems everywhere I look I see people raving over this novel. And with the movie coming out today I can't turn around without seeing a splash of yellow and purple. I read the book because it came so highly recommended. After reading it I could understand why people enjoyed it, but I did not understand how it became a national phenomenon.
So I am going to do something really unpopular. I have worked up my courage in order to tell you all why I strongly dislike a book that I am assuming the majority of you love. I don't do this to be condescending, self righteous, etc. I just think that someone should politely point out some of the problems with this wildly popular read.
(WARNING: this may include some spoilers.)
Let's just get this out in the open. The Help is not literature. Calling The Help literature is like calling a hamburger a fillet mignogn. I love a good hamburger. But it isn't steak. It just isn't. So let's call The Help what it is. A juicy hamburger. It is not a "classic." It won no awards of any merit. It will not be studied by English majors in 2022.
I did enjoy The Help on a purely entertaining level. Stockett tells a great story. She kept me turning the pages...fast. But as I turned the pages I KNEW what I was consuming was mediocre writing. Sort of the way I can't stop eating mediocre potato chips. They taste good going in, but leave me unsatisfied and malnourished when finished.
The Help is a predominately plot driven novel. You want to keep reading to discover what happens TO the characters, not necessarily to learn WHO the characters are becoming. A good novel has a mixture of both...but always defers to character development. An Author must always be willing to alter her plot if what she has chosen to occur no longer makes sense for her characters. Stockett's characters made choices based on what needed to happen next in the predetermined plot. These choices were not always in line with their character. I believe most readers easily overlooked these issues because the story was so engrossing. I also believe these problems would be more glaring upon a second reading.
Example: Why did Yule May steal from Hilly? It wasn't like her. Well, she had to steal at that point in the story because Skeeter had to discover the evilness of Hilly. How Skeeter managed to go so long without fully grasping Hilly's evilness is a mystery. One of MANY mysteries. Maybe this doesn't bother you. That's fine. It bothers me.
And about that evil Miss Hilly. Why was she so clearly, relentlessly wicked? Well she, like every other character, was a sort of stereotype. The hateful white queen bee? Check. The sympathizing, bolder white woman? Check. The wiser, maternal black woman? Check. The sassy, firecracker black woman? Check. The ditzy, blonde bombshell? Check. I actually thought Celia was the most interesting character with the most unusual story, but Stockett never fleshed it out or resolved it for us.
These literary criticisms (among many others) have already been leveled from a variety of sources. That's not why I am taking the time to write this post. If The Help was just a mediocre novel gaining a lot of popularity I would simply zip my snobby lips and ride it out, but there are themes running throughout The Help that I find very problematic on a sort of moral level.
The Help seems to suggest that black people need white people to tell their stories. I don't say this simply because Skeeter literally writes out their stories. I got this impression throughout the novel.
Although the story was told in three different voices, Skeeter was clearly intended to be the heroine of the tale. Stockett should have never attempted to write the story from the perspectives of the three women. (Um, why weren't Skeeter's sections of the book written in a dialect like the maid's sections are?!? Isn't she from Mississippi???) I realize Stockett was trying to "share" the story so that it didn't seem like it was centered on the white people. But I truly think this backfired.
Stockett could have easily written the novel from the perspective of Skeeter and been much more convincing. Of course, Skeeter is not a very compelling character. She is thin (literally and figuratively.) She never seems to grow over the course of 400+ pages. Sure she starts halfheartedly sticking up for some maids in front of her white friends and starts dressing like a hippie. But those are shallow changes.
Skeeter never seems to grasp the significance of what she is doing with Aibileen and Minny. She always seems most interested in telling the maid' stories so that she can be daring and break into the publishing world. She never seems to be aware of the thickest of prejudices running through her culture...or even herself. Didn't it seem that Skeeter used the maids to accomplish her personal goal of getting published? It all bugged me. People are being lynched because of their race, a lonely, hurting woman is being ostracized because of other's prejudices, and her mother is dying of cancer, but nothing will keep Skeeter from what she wants for herself. And in the end she gets what she really wants without much personal loss at all.
Sure, she loses the boy, but she was going to marry him. He was racist and she would have said YES. He simply wouldn't have her because of her book. What would have been more interesting, more beautiful would have been if she handed back the ring because she had blossomed into someone who had richer beliefs about mankind and wouldn't marry a man who thought of others as lesser. Someone unafraid to challenge the ugliness in the world.
Skeeter never goes there. To the soul changing, heart transforming place of self awareness. Of pain, of truth of LIFE. Stockett never takes her there. Aibileen gets the closest. But no. It all falls short. And by never taking her characters there, Stockett never takes US there. We get to read this entertaining story about one of the ugliest times in American history and come away feeling sort of nice about ourselves. We never have to face our own prejudices. We never have to dialogue with these characters about deeper issues.
Isn't is amazing that nowhere in the novel do Skeeter and Minny and Aibileen really sit down and hash anything out apart from deadlines and the fear of being caught? It is all nicely glossed over. Sure, one angry maid comes in to confront Skeeter, but Aibeleen quickly shooes her out the door. This is what Stockett does throughout the course of her book. Shoo the most challenging issues and emotions out the door so she doesn't have to deal with them.
Skeeter gets to do this great thing for these black maids and gets to feel good about it without ever having to deal with the most challenging issues and emotions. This, I am afraid, is the story I see played out again and again in my line of work. I see well meaning folks strive to help Africans. They accomplish something and feel kind of good about it. It may even have been difficult. But in the end they never get to the very raw, life changing, soul stripping places through their service. They never go there.
This is why the tremendous popularity of The Help troubles me so much. You may say I am being nit picky, but I can't help but wonder why more people aren't noticing these themes. Why people aren't asking more questions. So I am asking them and hoping by asking them others might begin to ask them too.
Ultimately I believe that The Help cheats us. It cheats the types of women it strives to represent. It cheats the women reading it who are not asked to search their souls. The Help does not help any of us as we seek to learn to understand one another or ourselves.
At least that is my little opinion.
So here's your chance. Push back. Argue with me. Tell me why you loved it. Let's talk. I love a good discussion. Leave a comment below. I genuinely want your opinion. I PROMISE I won't think less of you. Did the Help help you? Do my criticisms hold any weight? Let me know.
UPDATE: Make sure to read my follow up post Aibileen's Reading List!
14 comments:
Couldn't have said it better myself. This book haf the depth of a rain drop. This book could have been fantastic but someone else would have haf to write it. She is not a strong enough writer to pull off this story.
Jamie! Great post, I really appreciate you stepping out there and pointing out areas where this book wasn't so great. It has given me a lot to think about, and when I go see this movie, I will have some of your thoughts provoking me (in a good way!)
I am one of the many who genuinely loved this book. I found myself in the middle of the book saying, "I am really loving reading this." I read it over a year ago, so not everything about the story is fresh on my mind, but let me tell you why I really appreciated it.
Growing up in the Northwest, we didn't hear a lot about the civil rights movement. It was just not part of our history (which I know is terrible). This felt like my first exposure to a more daily picture of what life was like back then for help, and for black people. Even if the stories in this book weren't real, it helped me see that not that long ago we as a race were really cruel, and I was born in a century when people were allowed to hang each other and dehumanize others every day.
I like what you said about Skeeter, and I with you, I did have some frustrations with her, but I felt like for most of the book she was just teetering that difficult line between being a Jr. League-r and an activist. Kind of in the same way that Celia (also my favorite character) couldn't just be thrown into high society, Skeeter couldn't just throw away her old life. I actually thought that fact made her character even more rich and deep. She didn't just shun her old life once she realized it was petty and cruel, she still had very strong ties to it. She loved her mother, she wanted to please her by marrying well (which I thought was her motivation for accepting that guy's proposal), and she wanted to fit in with her friends. But there was that tugging in her heart that something wasn't right. I think so many of us can relate to her story.
Her relationship with Hilly reminded me of what it was like to come home from college. I would have grown so much in between semesters, but put me in a room with my old high school friends, and I was back to that same giggly nervous girl and all of my friends fell right back into their old roles. I felt like that was why she couldn't just stand up to her and throw her friendship away. Doing that would have changed everything about what she knew of "home."
(comment continued below!)
Part 2:
I also felt like the heroine of the story was Aibileen. It seemed like even though Skeeter's story was the most told, Stocket had the most invested in Aibileen. I don't know, just my opinion.
In the end, I felt like Skeeter walked away from the book feeling like she didn't do enough. I think she appreciated how it brought many women together and others were able to share their stories, but it seemed to me that she felt like it was still too little and the fact that it had to be anonymous solidified that for her. I didn't get the feeling that she thought she had done a good work at other's expense. I did feel like she needed to be taught repeatedly how dangerous this book was for the maids to write, but that she had more of a motive than getting in with a publisher. But, I really appreciated your insight into that facet of the story line. How often do we see that in missions!? So many people, including ourselves, walk away feeling so good about what we've done, but not realizing that we have made things worse. We had a great discussion about that in our cross cultural training about "when helping hurts." I am still processing all that I learned from that.
One area this book affected me personally is, as a missionary, it is very likely that we will have house-help, and maybe even someone who helps with our children. Because of that, I read this book on a more personal level, realizing just how much our help will be a part of our family - whether we let them in or not - and that we are so responsible in how we treat them, how we treat each other in front of them, and how we share the Gospel with them. This book had me ask the questions of what kinds of boundaries are acceptable to set for house-help? At what point are we asking too much of them, or where do we draw the line in allowing them into our family life? Although we won't see our help as inferior humans because of their race, will we struggle to see them as equals because of their social status? Are we going to forget they are around during an argument or family crisis, or will they always have a very noticeable presence in our home? Very thought provoking for me.
Anyways, thanks again for writing this post. I really enjoyed reading your thoughts on this and completely respect what you said. I do think Stocket should have "gone there" more. Who knows, maybe she tried but her publishers said the book was too long ;) Oh, and also, I enjoyed writing this response. I haven't been able to "think" for a while!
Warmly,
Alicia
I must say I enjoyed the book for it's entertainment value but it did have a lot of holes and was full of stereotypes. If society ranks this up with To Kill a Mockingbird as some have then we are in sad shape. Thank you for challenging me to really think about it. Never apologize for being one to call it as it is. It is too easy to look back on that ugly period of time in our nation and dress it up in a funny story and think we weren't (and aren't today) so bad. We really haven't come that far, my self included.
I agree that I think Aibileen was the heroine. Or, they were more like co heriones. The beginning it was Aibileen, the middle was Skeeter, and then the end was Aibileen, again. The stereotypes really bugged me, too and the fact that she gave Hilly WAY to much power. She would have influence over the junior league but a 23 year old would not have influence over an entire town. Someone Skeeter's mother's age might be that lady but not Hilly!
Thanks for taking the time to engage, Alicia. I am happy to hear your thoughts. I think Stockett was aiming for Aibileen to be the coheroine, but it just didn't come out enough. It is clear she is more comfortable writing as Skeeter because she based that character on herself. Aibileen was the most easily likable character, though.
I don't think to be radical Skeeter would have had to have bailed on her whole life. None of us a can ever escape our own skin. I wanted her to find a way to remain in her world and transform it with dignity and compassion toward all (including Hilly). I wish there was a way for her to be a voice of grace within her culture. I wish I had seen her honor her mother MORE and I wish I had seen her reach out to others in a positive way. Not just the maids, but Celia, Elizabeth and the other suicidal gal in their bridge club.
As a born and bred southerner I am actually concerned that The Help gives a false impression of the way things were down here fifty years ago. In actuality they were much...much worse. I studied that period in history in depth in several of my college history classes. I also took African American Literature which exposed me to the rich world of black writers. To this day, Beloved is one of my favorite novels.
I also love to Kill a Mockingbird. LOVE. It depresses me that some people compare it to The Help. What I love about Mockingbird is that Harper Lee somehow makes every singe character complex and sympathetic. Even the villains. You know they are wrong, but they are never demonized. You see how their environment, lack of education, etc contributed to their hate and fear. It is such a human, nuanced story that teaches us to climb into another persons shoes and "walk around" in them for a while.
I think it is too easy as a white woman to come away from the Help saying "I am definitely not like Hilly" so we feel justified. I would have loved to have Stockett make Hilly a more sympathetic villain. Someone who we would look at and cringe because we see a little bit of ourselves in her. We all have prejudices we need to deal with.
I really think Stockett meant well when she wrote this novel. I think she wanted to accomplish something beautiful. But for me she missed the mark. I also think all the ladies who read and love this book mean well. They want to understand and learn. But it isn't enough. It isn't this simple.
Stockett had a great idea. Maybe she just wasn't the right person to write it.
Love hearing your thoughts on this, Jamie. I really enjoyed the book when I read it, but I think I just took it at face value. I haven't heard the comparisons between it and great literature, but I agree, it isn't a hard and fast classic. But it did cause me to ask questions, which I think is a sign of it's value. When I realized, early on in the book, the time in which the story occurred, I was shocked. I've lived in the south my whole life, but didn't realize how recently this sort of thing was occurring. It sparked a lot of conversations between myself and my mother, who remembers having "help" in her home, complete with separate drinking glasses and all. It has made me wonder, as I've met black women through RA and just out and about, if they or their mothers or grandmothers were treated this way. The most interesting thing to me was, at the beginning of the book, NO ONE questioned the system. Black women expected to be treated as inferior and accepted it. White women (even well-intending) were more than happy to uphold a system in which they thrived to another's detriment. This has caused me to look differently at the systems in our world today- that I've just accepted as normal. Like the education system, for instance. I read this book at the same time as "When Helping Hurts," and it served to open my eyes to areas of my life that I do indeed hurt while trying to help. So...I agree- the book is lacking on a literary level, and I wouldn't call it life-altering...but for me it has been eye opening.
On a side note, I read an article about the opening of the movie, which mentioned that Stockett herself has remorse over writing the book, as they weren't "her stories to tell." As a result, she gives all her royalties away. So, even the author agrees with you on that point. :)
Thanks for responding, Lindsey! Before I picked up The Help I heard many compare it to To Kill a Mockingbird, calling it a "classic.". I do agree that The Help is exposing a lot of younger women to the civil rights movement. I think I didn't realize how little people knew. I have always been an "injustice junkie" reading books about Native Americans, the holocaust and civil rights and I focused on those themes when I majored in history. I took it for granted. So as an introduction I think The Help CAN be helpful in exposing people (in a rather tame way) to what the south was like not long ago. I hope, though, that women who loved The Help won't stop there and will push themselves to go further. I think next week I might post a list of books by female black authors who tell their stories with beautiful and honest writing.
Can't wait for that list! The Lord has been working on my heart the past few months as I've been preparing to teach at RA. If you had asked me a year ago if I was a racist, I would have answered with a loud and confident "NO!" Now, I feel like the Lord has turned a microphone on to my inner monologue, and I'm starting to hear all of the assumptions, stereotypes, etc. that play in my mind constantly. I am not at all pleased with this and am hungry for my heart to be changed. I can't wait to read whatever you suggest.
So, my first question is, did someone say it was literature? Or some sources claim is as literature? It is certainly not but an entertaining novel it is.
I agree with much of what you said, but I wanted to draw on something a bit different. I think the reason why this read was popular is because it is accessible. Stockett set out to write a novel that took on a controversial subject and made that subject palatable for the general (white) public. I think it also gives a lot of white families that still feel that teensy bit guilty about having African American help and for living in segregated times a little bit of relief. After all, they had to be better than Miss Hilly.
I like that the book gets us thinking and talking, but I shudder at the thought that this book somehow still ends with a feeling of white superiority.
For some additional perspectives:
http://acriticalreviewofthehelp.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/the-help-useless-to-african-americans/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/05/the-help-kathryn-stockett_n_346016.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jesse-kornbluth/an-african-american-woman_b_653983.html
Jamie,
I really like what you said about wishing Hilly was a more sympathetic villan. I agree - that probably would have made the story even more rich because you are right, we see someone as evil as Hilly and think, "I would never treat someone like that!" Maybe if her racism was more subtle or if she struggled with it more, we could have identified ourselves in there as well.
I also would never compare this book with "To Kill a Mockingbird." I loved The Help, but Harper Lee's book is my all time favorite. I agree that Lee created beautiful characters who you could identify with, and the story line was much more complex and left me, the reader, wondering what I would have done in that situation.
Fun discussion, Jamie! Can't wait to see what other topics you bring up on the blog!!
I've heard this book compared to the adult version of "Twilight" for older women. I'm not sure I would go that far but it does give me a shiver to hear "The Help" mentioned in the same sentence as "To Kill a Mockingbird." They are incomparable. The first is a work of genius, the latter is a fun beach read. Now just because it's a beach read doesn't mean that it can't raise some interesting conversations...which is exactly what is happening here.
I also had a lot of fun devouring this book in three days. However, my main issue with the book is not that the characters had some moral holes in them, but that the author didn't think that the shortcomings were important or interesting enough to really explore. Every college student is a little selfish, naive, and rude towards her mother like Skeeter. But, like many other things in the book, the author cheerfully breezes over these blemishes.
Also, everything felt a little canned. Every conversation existed to move along the plot, every good character was reading "To Kill a Mockingbird," and the book ends with Skeeter listening to Dylan's "The Times They are a'Changin." Sigh.
While I'm not opposed to positive endings, I feel that a more hopeful ending would have been if Skeeter was deeply moved by listening to Dylan's "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" instead. This song chronicles the true story of a black maid who was beaten to death by her white employer. He killed her for not serving him his drink fast enough and served only 6 months in prison. That's the reality that Skeeter never seems to face or grasp.
Thanks, everyone, for your thoughtful and heartfelt comments! Lots to think about. Next week I am planning a follow up of sorts. Can't wait!
Very insightful post, Jamie. I understand and agree with your literary critic.
I open the can of worms surrounding race and 'The Help' in this article:
http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2011/08/watching_the_help_as_an_africa.html
I'm going to add the link to your post to the comment section.
Thanks for also reading and responding to the discussion where we have begun to ask some of these questions:
http://asistasjourney.com/2011/08/25/the-help-discussion-reflections-we-are-living-proof/
Great dialog! Blessings, Natasha Robinson (www.asistasjourney.com)
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