andygoh

** spoiler alert ** I haven't seen the movie yet, but the book was a five star in my opinion -- which to me means, it changed me in some small way and will stay with me forever. Now, with the opening of the movie, I'm hearing the criticisms; It whitewashes racism, positions the white woman as the rescuer, and doesn't capture the horror that African Americans experienced in the South before and during the Civil Rights Movement. It's freaking me out. Am I so racist that I didn't even recognize the intrinsic racism? Was the book intended to represent the universal experience of every maid in the South? Was the white journalist, Skeeter, presented as the rescuer, the benevolent white angel speaking for her inarticulate lessers? It seems to me that Skeeter, who is definitely the main character although Aibileen was second in prominence, was written as a very imperfect character, motivated initially more by her ambition than by sensitivity to the maids (she began her book only to impress a potential employer). As a white author, if I felt I had a story to tell about the Civil Rights Movement, there's no way I would try to write the story from the point of view of an African American. That, to me, would be horribly offensive. I would only be able to tell the story as an outsider, as Skeeter was. And in the book, at least, she's portrayed as such -- the maids call her on the carpet several times for thinking she gets it. Maybe it's not the story that needs to be told about "The Help" but it was the only story that Kathryn Stockett could tell. As a white reader, I felt called on the carpet, too, by the book, because although Hilly is villainized, Skeeter was the one I traveled through the book with. It challenged me to question myself. How many negative assumptions are so imbedded in me that I'm completely unaware of them? The thought terrifies me. I liked The Help because I felt like it captured that exact thing -- that subtle I'm-a-good-person racism that allows the Hilly's to flourish. If you look to The Help to portray the experience of African Americans in the South, you will be disappointed and probably offended. The story is, at its core, about women who, empowered by friendship and the evolving society around them, take ownership of their souls. Aibileen began the book feeling helpless, still half undone by the loss of her child. By the end, she'd reclaimed her right to read, write and own her life. Minnie broke free of her abusive husband. Skeeter was oppressed by her society and her family. The evolution of their culture – the dissolution of the defacto slavery – triggered and drove their personal journeys, but the story was the journeys.

2023-07-22 16:41