Kathryn Stockett's novel The Help tells the story of several women living in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960s. The novel centers around Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson, two hardworking African-American maids who constantly struggle with discrimination and racism as a result of their environment. With the help of a young white woman named Skeeter, these two women (and many other black maids in the area) get to tell their story while challenging conceptions of their intelligence and worth as human beings. Throughout the novel, racism is shown to be a deeply entrenched part of Southern life, and the difficulties these maids face because of it is the central conflict of the novel.
In Jackson, Mississippi, racism is a pervading element of the culture. The town is full of rich white couples, many young and with stay-at-home wives who do not need to work. However, instead of taking care of their children or looking after the house, the wives often gather and play bridge, while African-American maids raise their children, cook and clean for them. Blacks are barely recognized, and are often treated poorly by the whites who hire them; seemingly all the black people in the town are in positions of servitude, from maids to bus drivers to soda jerks. Jim Crow laws are very much in effect, which bar African-Americans from enjoying many of the same privileges as whites, maintaining the facade of 'separate but equal.'
The chief representative of this conflict is Hilly, Skeeter's childhood friend and member of high society among the girls of Jackson. While the racism in Jackson is institutionalized, Hilly remains the primary antagonist throughout the book, as her prejudice and animosity towards Minny, Aibileen and other blacks in the town remains unfazed. Hilly's first action throughout the book is to ask Skeeter to post a notice regarding her initiative to make separate bathrooms for blacks within the home, a move that seeks to further alienate and marginalize African-Americans who take care of these white women's children.
Hilly maintains her extremely racist viewpoints throughout the novel, continuing to argue that blacks do not deserve equal treatment. They are always treated with scorn by Hilly, who constantly belittles her black maids. Yule May, her maid at the start of the novel, asks Hilly politely to loan her some money so both of her children can go to college. Hilly simply replies that "a true Christian don't give charity to those who is well and able. Say it's kinder to let them learn to work things out theyselves," which is merely an excuse to continue marginalizing Yule May's children (Stockett, 2009). Near the end of the novel (once she has been humiliated after an embarrassing incident is published and shared in Skeeter's book Help), Hilly attempts to get Aibileen fired by framing her for stealing her employer's silver. Elizabeth, the mother of the child Aibileen is raising, does not believe her but still fires Aibileen.
Hilly, as a character, is indicative of the deep-seated insecurities that exist within those who seek to keep people below their own station. Her hatred of others does not extend to just blacks; anyone who is not part of her high society social circle (including ditzy Celia Mae and, eventually, Skeeter) is a subject of much ire and gossip. This tendency to put others below yourself for the sake of your own status sits at the heart of racism, and is represented clearly in the book by the character of Hilly.
One subtheme to the central theme of racism includes the sacrifices that many African-American women will make in order to make a living (or even survive on any type of income). Aibileen, for example, prides herself on having taken care of so many "white babies." Being a maid, she has to keep her own family at home, while she spends her life taking care of the children of white mothers who can pay enough money to ignore the children altogether. Skeeter sums it up early in the novel when she says, "Everyone knows how we white people feel, the glorified Mammy figure who dedicates her whole life to a white family. Margaret Mitchell covered that. But no one ever asked Mammy how she felt about it" (Stockett, 2009).
The occupation of maid and caretaker, invisible and servile, is a very strong allegory for the status of blacks in the American South during this time. Seemingly, whites recognized that, without blacks, they would have to serve their own food, raise their own children and do their own work. In that respect they are vital and needed, but they do not want to recognize their status as human beings - they just want the dirty work done. With this in mind, maids, like African-Americans, remain invisible and unrecognized, lacking any support or means to find their own agency. People like Skeeter find this lack of representation appalling, which is why she attempts to create this account of the maids who shape a society that does not want them.
Aibileen and Minny are shocked and hesitant to tell their stories to Skeeter, for fear that it will get back to them and they will be punished. Living in the Jim Crow South, they fully recognize the trouble they could get in for even daring to speak at all, much less negatively about their employers or fellow whites. This fear of reprisal has robbed them of their ability to make positive change in their lives, leaving them underrepresented and marginalized. They have lost their confidence and sense of self-worth as a result of their treatment by whites, and it is greatly through Skeeter's faith in them that they get the opportunity to make their voices heard. Merely being given the chance to tell their stories grants them an agency they have not had in a long time, and eventually all the maids in Jackson participate in Skeeter's project.
The African-American maids are not the only characters who experience change as a result of the events of the book - Skeeter manages to challenge her own and others' perceptions of blacks in the town. Her connection with her childhood maid, Constantine, is a recurring link to the plight of these maids, as she recognizes how important Constantine was to her growth - "All my life I'd been told what to believe about politics, coloreds, being a girl. But with Constantine's thumb pressed in my hand, I realized I actually had a choice in what I could believe" (Stockett, 2009). Being a strong feminist who chooses a career over early marriage and family life (as her mother and friends want to do), Skeeter is no stranger to social pressure. However, this strength was not taught to her by her white mother, but by Constantine, who tells her to be herself. "'Ever morning, until you dead in the ground, you gone have to make this decision.' " Constantine was so close, I could see the blackness of her gums. 'You gone have to ask yourself, am I gone believe what them fools say about me today?'" (Stockett, 2009).
In conclusion, The Help depicts racism as a subtle but calculating enemy on the respect and personhood of African-Americans. By not outright persecuting them, but instead marginalizing them into menial jobs for which they will be unrecognized, American society in the South gave them the illusion of freedom without the social acceptance they crave and deserve. However, with the help of social progressives like Skeeter, these maids find the courage to start telling their stories and overcome the restrictions that racism has placed on them. In that age of Jim Crow, Skeeter finds a way to start making blacks and whites equal without the separation: "We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought" (Stockett, 2009).
References
Stockett, K. (2009). The Help. Penguin Books.
