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Stockett's Representation

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Focusing on Stockett's representation, in terms of authenticity her representation is ambiguous. The reader's main insight of African American maids are Aibileen and Minny. Therefore, if one looks at authentic representation, Stockett needs to represent these characters in a faithful light. Knowing what she was doing, she says: “I was scared, a lot of the time, that I was crossing a terrible line, writing in the voice of a black person.”1 Besides this disclaimer, she was, however, criticised by a number of people for stereotyping these two characters. This varied from the use of exaggerated vernacular2 to Minny's physical representation of 'wild blackness' as she is “She is too much – too much woman to be a lady, too much mouth for a maid, …show more content…

Firstly, her career aspirations are an essential part of her personality. Although the book she is writing is about racial issues, motives to write the Myrna letters and her ambitions to work for a publishing company in New York, are separate from this project. Secondly, Stockett explores in detail her love life. Despite that racial issues are obstacles in Skeeter's relationship with Stuart, there are times when Stockett focuses on their relationship when there is no direct connection with the aim of the novel. This is not to say that the novel should focus constantly on its aim and neglect other aspects of the character's life, yet by doing this Stockett creates an unbalanced representation of her characters. Thus, representing an unequal portrayal of the two 'races' in their …show more content…

Not that much separates us.”8 Stockett's endeavour to understand the 'other' during a time of social change after decades of being silenced, is also an attempt to create a space where African Americans can cross the so-called 'colour line'. What this chapter tried to highlight is that what Stockett's novel aims to do, actually shows that acknowledging and regaining the 'other's' true authentic voice is a process that is highly complicated through society's structure, which embedded people's mindsets at that time. The 'other's' voice is affected by the years of enforced inferiority and a false prejudiced group identity that lacks to view them beyond the colour of their skin. Stockett illustrates how this 'othering' operates and how it affects her main characters. Set in the time of social change, this novel also breaks down barriers between the 'Us' and 'Them' by opening a discourse of a possible third space, symbolised in the relationship between the three protagonists, where African Americans and Euro-Americans can acknowledge each other as people and their equals. This will be discussed more extensively in the next chapter. However, Stockett's attempt to do this, does fall under Spivak's criticism. Stockett and Skeeter are not “transparent mediums” through which African Americans can operate. In case of Skeeter, there was not a different option available. The 'other'

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