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Nur Rahmi Nailah

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Title

: Racial Segregation as Seen in Katherine Stocketts The Help

Published

: 2012

Author

: Hendro Suseno (08/264976/SA/14256)

Background of choosing the subject

1. The struggle against racism that is faced by the characters in The Help impressed
the present writer, because the setting is around 1960s when segregation between
Whites and Blacks in the United States still strongly existed.
2. The novel is capable of showing the irony between the Blacks and the Whites in

the United States.

3. The present writer likes the way Stockett presents in the story.
4. The last is because there are different kind of help discussed in the story.
Theoretical Approach
The approach that is used is Sociological Approach presented by Wilbur S. Scott. He
defines sociological approach as stated below:
Sociological Approach starts with conviction that arts relations to society are
vitally important, and that the investigation of these relationships may organize and
deepen ones aesthetic response to a work of art. Art is not created in a vacuum; it
is the work not simply of the person but of an author fixed in time and space,
answering to a community the present writer used sociological of which he is an
important, because articulate part. The sociological approach, therefore, is
interested in understanding the social milieu and the extent to which a manner in

which the artist responds it. (1958: 123)

Method of Research
Primary data: The Help novel by Katherine Stocketts
Supporting sources: library research, a close book text reading, an exploration from
the articles and the sources from the internet.

Racism and Discrimination

Montagu (1997) defines that racism in general is a policy view or pedagogical
ideology of independent thought that respond negatively to human nature, as well as to

human suffering of ethnicity, human development, cultural differences, aesthetics and

distinctive social and political behavior.
Mclemore explains the beginning of racism phenomenon in America toward African
Americans and others minorities as below:
By the last quarter of seventeenth century the Indian and the Blacks had been
excluded as candidates for full assimilation into Anglo-American society. The fact
that the Indian and the Blacks differed from the Whites in skin color, head shape,
hair texture, and so on did not lead directly to their exclusion. Nevertheless since
the Anglo-Americans were forcibly replacing the Indians and were holding most of
the Blacks in bondage, they did wonder whether there is any necessary connection
between social dominance and physical feature. (1983: 78)
While discrimination is define as the act of prejudice against a person or a group of
people because they have a certain set of characteristics. Discriminated characteristics can
be disability, age, gender reassignment, religion, race, sex, and sexual orientation, etc.
(http://barrierbreakers.com/blog/definition-of-discrimination)
All the above theories about racism fit with the phenomenon that is seen in The Help
which portrays the contrast of social difference between the Whites and Blacks.

Racial Segregation
In the novel, it is mentioned about a booklet containing Compilation of Jim Crow
Laws of the South, below is the quotation of what the booklet says:
No person shall require any white female nurse in wards or rooms in which Negro
men are placed.
It shall be unlawful for a white person to marry anyone except a white person.
Any marriage in violation of this section shall be void.
No colored barber shall serve as a barber to white woman or girls.
The officer in charge shall to burry anyone colored person upon ground used for the
burial white person.
Book shall not be interchangeable between the white and colored schools, but shall
continue to be used by the race first using them.
The board shall maintain a separate building on separate grounds for the
instruction of all blind persons of the colored race. (Stockett, 2009:177)
The novel also explains that the Blacks and Whites are not allowed to share water
fountains, movie house, public restrooms, ball parks, phone booth, circus shows,
pharmacy, post office, etc. (Stockett, 2009:176)

This racial segregation is something that the main characters in the novel want to
erase.

The characters behavior and struggle against the racial segregation

The novel has three main characters whose behavior and struggles are against the
racial segregation. They are Aibileen, Minny, Sketeer.
1. Aibileen is a 53 years old black maid who works for the white family. She takes
care and shows more love toward a baby from a white family more than the
babys own mother. Aibileen is also interested in writing, inspired by her death
son who until his death he was treated unfairly by the Whites and also because of
the bad treatment she got from her masters. In addition, at that time physical
violence toward the Blacks are raising. Another motive is because the white
ladies wicked way that is used when they dislike their black maids. The
segregation in the novel is a reflection of the real social condition in Southern US
in 1960s at that time racial segregation between the Whites and the Blacks
became the national issue.
All the motives that have been explained above encourages Aibileen to speak out
all the suppressed feelings that she has as a black maid. Aibileen tells Mae Mobly
the secret story of the wise Martian who comes from the outer space which
apparently an analogy of what happens at that time: when Martin Luther King, Jr.
led the struggle against racism. The frequently mentioned name of Martin Luther
King, Jr. proved that Stockett links the reality of the United States at that time to
the story of her novel.
2. Minny is a 36 years old black maid highly appreciated for her cooking skill.
Because of some events that happened to her, Minnie holds a strong dislike
towards white ladies. This makes her joined Sketeers projects with Aibileen.
Minnys appearance and attitude is so rough and careless. However, there is a big
sympathy in her heart towards the Whites.
3. Skeeter is a 23 years old single white lady whose appearance is not really good.
Her unawareness to make herself beautiful can be one of the reasons why she is
still single. Sketeer loves to be home because of her black maid, Constantine,
because she feels Constantine is the only one who understands her, even more
than her own mother. Constantine never forces her to do or to wear something she
does not like, unlike her mother who often does not listen to what her daughter
wants. Her mother puts so much pressure on her to look beautiful. That is the
reason why she takes side on the black maids and this is what inspires her to write

a book about the experiences of black maids in working for the white family. Her
big sympathy towards the blacks encourage her to invite Aibileen, Minny, and the

other black maids to secretly join her writing projects.

The significance of The Help
The contents of Help are full with the stories of the racial segregation. How the
black maids see social condition at that time when segregation, discrimination, and
violence towards the Blacks were happening. The Help tells how they cannot share
everything with the White masters even though they have worked all day long they still
have to keep the distance between them. They speak truth so people can see who is right
and who is wrong. They hope that by telling the stories, the Whites realize that they are

all the same: human.

Conclusion
1. The story reflects the social condition of 1960s Southern United States.
2. Even though the three main characters have different experiences and
personalities, they successfully make their books as a media to deliver the

aspiration against racial segregation discrimination.

Comments
Based on our analysis of this graduating paper, and what we have studied in class, we
think that the approach that is used in this paper, which is the Sociological Approach,
matches with the subject that is chosen in this paper. However, we think that it is still
possible for this subject to be analyzed with other theories. Two approaches that came to
our minds were the Historical Approach, and the Mimetic Approach.
Historical Approach can be used in relation to the background of the author itself.
This can be connected to the period in which the events in the stories take place. For
example, the period of when the racial segregation became a major issue in the United
States. The reason or the motivation that drives the writer to produce the work can also
be the aim of using this approach. Therefore, this requires the readers understanding of
the authors biography.
While the Mimetic Approach can be used in relation to the socio-cultural condition of
the period in which the story happens. How well the work depicts the reality at that time
can be the focus of using this approach. It examines whether the imitation of life in the
work examined is accurate. For instance, the issue of racism between the Whites and the
Blacks at that time were similar to what is being told in the story, and this perhaps should
be judged from two point of views, from the Whites and from the Blacks. There should
be some moral values about life that the readers can get.