Writing in the humanities and social sciences
Below you will find a link to a paper I wrote using reader response criticism to analyze Kathryn Stockett's The Help. The paper was written in ENGL 358, Writing in the Humanities and Social Sciences, and completed August 8th, 2012. At the bottom of the page, the proposal for this project is available for download.
The reformative effects of experience-taking on readers of stockett's The Help
What if a book could brainwash you? Reader-response theory claims that the meaning of a text lies not in what the text says, but in the experience of what the text does to us as we read it (Tyson 176). What would the meaning of a book that brainwashes you be? While Kathryn Stockett’s novel, The Help, follows the production and publication of a biographical book titled, Help, it also includes the reactions to and interpretations of the book by several characters, leading the reader of The Help to similarly consider how they are reacting to and interpreting The Help while they are reading it. In this analysis I will examine the reader’s experience throughout the novel and the ways in which the characters’ process of interpreting the book guides and manipulates the reader’s process of interpreting the novel, as well as manipulates the reader’s values.
Kaufman and Libby define experience-taking as “the imaginative process of spontaneously assuming the identity of a character in a narrative and simulating that character’s thoughts, emotions, behaviors, goals, and traits as if they were one’s own,” (1). Although they do make the point that the process is spontaneous, there are antecedents that they suggest facilitate experience taking: the narrative voice, whether the reader shares a group membership with the character, and the reader’s self-concept accessibility. Based on these antecedents, The Help is structured in such a way that it provides a nearly optimal environment for experience taking.
As the story is primarily told from the first-person viewpoints of three different women, it increases likelihood of experience taking by creating a more “immediate sense of closeness and familiarity to the main character[s],” (Kaufman, 3). Though there are many different possible readers, and different groups they might belong to, it is probable that the reader will be able to relate to at least one of the main characters with a shared group membership, be it through being a woman, being white, being black, being a writer, having a similar personality or some other shared feature. This shared group membership serves to “bridge the psychological gap between reader and the character…[making] it easier to simulate the character’s experience,” (Kaufman 3). Though initially the reader might only bond with one character, the reader’s experience serves to, over time, decrease their self-concept accessibility, allowing them to “forget” themselves, which I believe should cause them to bond with and experience all three main characters.
Regardless of which characters the reader is initially experience-taking, common circumstances occur for the characters, similar to brainwashing tactics. The word brainwashing, though it has an extremely negative connotation in society, is derived from the Chinese word for “cleansing of the mind,” (Winn 1). It is not my suggestion that Kathryn Stockett is attempting to brainwash her characters or readers, but simply to note that these brainwashing tactics lead to a state of mental fatigue or adrenal fatigue, which increases suggestibility and lowers one’s self-concept accessibility (Winn 35). Brainwashing can be induced by many things, including the tactics observed in the book of: degrading conditions and public humiliations served to undermine the ego; being forced to participate in one’s own indoctrination; removal of leaders causing weakened group cohesion; unpredictability of captor’s behaviors; and lastly, induced anxiety, guilt, fear and insecurity (Winn 35). Each character experiences a subset of these tactics throughout the novel, and as the reader experiences these situations and emotions as their own, the process eventually creates enough mental fatigue and suggestibility for the reader that, with their decreased self-concept accessibility, they begin experience-taking through all three main characters.
Skeeter for example, first shares her sense of guilt while on the phone with Elaine Stein by saying why she wants to write the book: “It’s that irony, that we love them and they love us, yet… We don’t even allow them to use the toilet in the house,” (116). Although this might not be “induced” guilt, the experience-taking aspect does make it an induced guilt for the reader. More prevalent throughout the book perhaps is Skeeter’s sense of fear, anxiety, and insecurity. The fear of discovery never seems to be far from her mind as she thinks, “I was the one who assured the colored maids we wouldn’t be found out, and I am the one responsible for this,” (443). This is compounded by the anxiety of her mother’s impending death (396), Stuart leaving her (295), and the book’s deadline (367) among other things. After Hilly discovers her book of Jim Crow laws, she subjects Skeeter to taking part in her own indoctrination by forcing her to write a racist initiative into the newsletter or else be kicked out of the League (301). Furthermore, she is subjected to humiliation through the League when she walks in and notices that her “exclusion is tangible” (373) and then has to sit while she is blindsided by her replacement and further rejection when her position of newsletter editor is voted on (375).
Both Minny and Aibileen suffer the loss of a group leader, Medgar Evars, a local NAACP officer who lives near them (178). They also both have deep fears about being discovered because although the possibility of their tongues being removed for talking is mentioned (275), they know deep down that their very lives are on the line and they could be murdered any time just like Medgar was. Though Minny eventually starts working for Celia Foote who pays her double the minimum wage (45), both her and Aibileen have suffered through degrading and humiliating work conditions, having to be completely subservient and deal with the upredictability of their captors’ (their bosses’ and Miss Hilly’s) behaviors.
Aibileen’s work situation is even more degrading than Minny’s as she is “surprised” by Elizabeth Leefolt with her own private colored bathroom out in the garage (36) because she is “diseased” (106) and isn’t even able to keep her lunch in the same fridge as the family she works for (169). She also has her own fears and anxieties, such as November eighth, the day her son died which she dreads all year long (108). Aibileen worries about whether she will be discovered for teaching Mae Mobley that blacks and whites are equals (318) or that it will get Mae in trouble for expressing such views (458).
Minny is publically humiliated by Miss Hilly telling everybody in the town that she is a thief, even though she isn’t (27). Although she doesn’t feel guilty about getting even with Miss Hilly over this transgression with the “Terrible Awful,” she does suffer some ongoing anxiety over the ordeal as she wonders what Miss Hilly is going to do to get revenge (322). In addition to worrying about being killed for helping Skeeter write the book, Minny is worried that Johnny Foote might come home and shoot her with his pistol because he doesn’t know that she’s been working for him for months (44), and even if Johnny doesn’t kill her, she still has to worry about her own husband beating her (326).
While experiencing the mental fatigue from the characters’ unrelentingly dire situations not only allows the reader to more easily begin experience-taking for all three characters, it is able to help widen the reader’s perspective, by exposing them to the experience-taking of a character they might have been initially pre-disposed to resist experience-taking with. Furthermore, Kaufman and Libby suggest that “experience-taking could be effectively—and sometimes strategically—harnessed to promote changes in readers’ goals, attitudes, and behaviors, in order to achieve socially beneficial ends,” (4). I believe Stockett achieves this, whether or not intentionally, through her usage of metafiction, specifically through the passages where characters provide their reactions and interpretations of the book.
Metafiction is “a term given to fictional writing which self-consciously and systematically draws attention to itself as artefact (sic) in order to pose questions about the relationship between fiction and reality,” (Waugh 2). There are a couple key metafictive passages that I would like to discuss. The first is on page 445 when Skeeter reflects on Lou Anne’s response to the book:
Kaufman and Libby define experience-taking as “the imaginative process of spontaneously assuming the identity of a character in a narrative and simulating that character’s thoughts, emotions, behaviors, goals, and traits as if they were one’s own,” (1). Although they do make the point that the process is spontaneous, there are antecedents that they suggest facilitate experience taking: the narrative voice, whether the reader shares a group membership with the character, and the reader’s self-concept accessibility. Based on these antecedents, The Help is structured in such a way that it provides a nearly optimal environment for experience taking.
As the story is primarily told from the first-person viewpoints of three different women, it increases likelihood of experience taking by creating a more “immediate sense of closeness and familiarity to the main character[s],” (Kaufman, 3). Though there are many different possible readers, and different groups they might belong to, it is probable that the reader will be able to relate to at least one of the main characters with a shared group membership, be it through being a woman, being white, being black, being a writer, having a similar personality or some other shared feature. This shared group membership serves to “bridge the psychological gap between reader and the character…[making] it easier to simulate the character’s experience,” (Kaufman 3). Though initially the reader might only bond with one character, the reader’s experience serves to, over time, decrease their self-concept accessibility, allowing them to “forget” themselves, which I believe should cause them to bond with and experience all three main characters.
Regardless of which characters the reader is initially experience-taking, common circumstances occur for the characters, similar to brainwashing tactics. The word brainwashing, though it has an extremely negative connotation in society, is derived from the Chinese word for “cleansing of the mind,” (Winn 1). It is not my suggestion that Kathryn Stockett is attempting to brainwash her characters or readers, but simply to note that these brainwashing tactics lead to a state of mental fatigue or adrenal fatigue, which increases suggestibility and lowers one’s self-concept accessibility (Winn 35). Brainwashing can be induced by many things, including the tactics observed in the book of: degrading conditions and public humiliations served to undermine the ego; being forced to participate in one’s own indoctrination; removal of leaders causing weakened group cohesion; unpredictability of captor’s behaviors; and lastly, induced anxiety, guilt, fear and insecurity (Winn 35). Each character experiences a subset of these tactics throughout the novel, and as the reader experiences these situations and emotions as their own, the process eventually creates enough mental fatigue and suggestibility for the reader that, with their decreased self-concept accessibility, they begin experience-taking through all three main characters.
Skeeter for example, first shares her sense of guilt while on the phone with Elaine Stein by saying why she wants to write the book: “It’s that irony, that we love them and they love us, yet… We don’t even allow them to use the toilet in the house,” (116). Although this might not be “induced” guilt, the experience-taking aspect does make it an induced guilt for the reader. More prevalent throughout the book perhaps is Skeeter’s sense of fear, anxiety, and insecurity. The fear of discovery never seems to be far from her mind as she thinks, “I was the one who assured the colored maids we wouldn’t be found out, and I am the one responsible for this,” (443). This is compounded by the anxiety of her mother’s impending death (396), Stuart leaving her (295), and the book’s deadline (367) among other things. After Hilly discovers her book of Jim Crow laws, she subjects Skeeter to taking part in her own indoctrination by forcing her to write a racist initiative into the newsletter or else be kicked out of the League (301). Furthermore, she is subjected to humiliation through the League when she walks in and notices that her “exclusion is tangible” (373) and then has to sit while she is blindsided by her replacement and further rejection when her position of newsletter editor is voted on (375).
Both Minny and Aibileen suffer the loss of a group leader, Medgar Evars, a local NAACP officer who lives near them (178). They also both have deep fears about being discovered because although the possibility of their tongues being removed for talking is mentioned (275), they know deep down that their very lives are on the line and they could be murdered any time just like Medgar was. Though Minny eventually starts working for Celia Foote who pays her double the minimum wage (45), both her and Aibileen have suffered through degrading and humiliating work conditions, having to be completely subservient and deal with the upredictability of their captors’ (their bosses’ and Miss Hilly’s) behaviors.
Aibileen’s work situation is even more degrading than Minny’s as she is “surprised” by Elizabeth Leefolt with her own private colored bathroom out in the garage (36) because she is “diseased” (106) and isn’t even able to keep her lunch in the same fridge as the family she works for (169). She also has her own fears and anxieties, such as November eighth, the day her son died which she dreads all year long (108). Aibileen worries about whether she will be discovered for teaching Mae Mobley that blacks and whites are equals (318) or that it will get Mae in trouble for expressing such views (458).
Minny is publically humiliated by Miss Hilly telling everybody in the town that she is a thief, even though she isn’t (27). Although she doesn’t feel guilty about getting even with Miss Hilly over this transgression with the “Terrible Awful,” she does suffer some ongoing anxiety over the ordeal as she wonders what Miss Hilly is going to do to get revenge (322). In addition to worrying about being killed for helping Skeeter write the book, Minny is worried that Johnny Foote might come home and shoot her with his pistol because he doesn’t know that she’s been working for him for months (44), and even if Johnny doesn’t kill her, she still has to worry about her own husband beating her (326).
While experiencing the mental fatigue from the characters’ unrelentingly dire situations not only allows the reader to more easily begin experience-taking for all three characters, it is able to help widen the reader’s perspective, by exposing them to the experience-taking of a character they might have been initially pre-disposed to resist experience-taking with. Furthermore, Kaufman and Libby suggest that “experience-taking could be effectively—and sometimes strategically—harnessed to promote changes in readers’ goals, attitudes, and behaviors, in order to achieve socially beneficial ends,” (4). I believe Stockett achieves this, whether or not intentionally, through her usage of metafiction, specifically through the passages where characters provide their reactions and interpretations of the book.
Metafiction is “a term given to fictional writing which self-consciously and systematically draws attention to itself as artefact (sic) in order to pose questions about the relationship between fiction and reality,” (Waugh 2). There are a couple key metafictive passages that I would like to discuss. The first is on page 445 when Skeeter reflects on Lou Anne’s response to the book:
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I watch Lou Anne slip away in the parking lot, thinking, There is so much you don't know about a person. I wonder if I could've made her days a little bit easier, if I'd tried. If I'd treated her a little nicer. Wasn't that the point of the book? For women to realize, We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I' d thought.
But Lou Anne, she understood the point of the book before she ever read it. The one who was missing the point this time was me. |
Here the reader is not only given what Skeeter now thinks of the book’s message, but has their attention brought to what their own interpretation of The Help is, and if, like Skeeter, theirs has been wrong.
The next passage is eleven pages later on page 456 in an exchange that takes place between Minny and Aibileen:
The next passage is eleven pages later on page 456 in an exchange that takes place between Minny and Aibileen:
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"You know Miss Chotard, who Willie Mae wait on? She ask Willie Mae yesterday if she treats her bad as that awful lady in the book." Minny kind a snort. "Willie Mae tell her she got some room to grow but she ain't too bad."
"She really ask her that?" "Then Willie Mae tell her what all the other white ladies done to her, the good and the bad, and that white lady listen to her. Willie May say she been there thirty-seven years and it's the first time they ever sat at the same table together." |
Besides Louvenia, this is the first good thing we heard.
Again, the reader has their attention brought to not only how characters within the novel are reacting to the book, but also, likely, to how the reader is reacting to the book. Similarly the reader might reflect, as Miss Chotard did, that they might be committing offenses towards others they are not entirely aware of. Even if the reader cannot think of any ways in which they have been wronging others, the reader might at this point commit himself or herself to making an effort to avoid wronging others in the future. The reader would do this, because, as they are thinking like Aibileen, they would think it is a “good thing” to do so, and, as Alcorn and Bracher note, “Reading is a… phenomenon… constituted by grandiose aspirations that, while aiming to reinforce and strengthen the self, also, paradoxically enough, aim to re-form the self into another, more potent form of being,” (352). As such, the reader, in an effort to have a “good thing” come of the book, hopes to transform himself or herself into a better person by not wronging others unjustly like racism does.
Some people might argue that the metafictive devices brings back self-concept accessibility to the reader and pulls the reader out of the experience-taking, inhibiting them from implementing the characters’ views into their own interpretations of the novel and reformation of his or her self. Although I concede that the metafictive devices do indeed pull the reader out of the experience-taking to reflect on reality, I do not think this causes a separation from the characters’ views. As Kaufman and Libby found that experience-taking with a character who voted on Election Day increased the readers’ subsequent voting behavior (10), I similarly believe that experience-taking with the three main characters of The Help causes the reader to ingrain the characters’ values, even after the metafictive devices snap them back to reality. With this in mind, I think it is likely that a reader of The Help would not only become less racist, but also be more likely to stand up to racism and injustice they encounter, just as the three main characters do in their writing of the book. After all, the book does reward the characters for their own stand against racism, and the reader experiences this reward as well. Although the risk of standing up is never far from the characters’ and reader’s mind, the sense of pride in receiving the signed book in the church (425) or the sense that it was all worth it while walking into better days at the end of the book (473) should provide the reader with the sense that the risks of standing up to injustice are worth it.
If, as Tyson states, reader-response theory claims that the meaning of a text lies not in what the text says, but in the experience of what the text does to us as we read it, then what exactly is the meaning of The Help? Although I started by suggesting that the main characters are subjected to brainwashing tactics and that experience-taking of these leads to a mental fatigue for the reader, this mental fatigue helps the reader to proverbially jump in the shoes of characters whom the reader may have been initially resistant to. This serves to widen the perspective of the reader and maybe even, as Skeeter says, helps them to realize that ”We are just two people. Not that much separates us,” (445) and, as Aibileen prays, “to be kind, to love [themselves]; to love others,” (209). If, as I suggest, the text causes the reader to become less racist, or even stand up to injustices, then this gaining of an empathic nexus and sense of justice is the meaning of the novel, rather than a more simple (and maybe oversimplified) interpretation of the text such as “racism is bad.”
Although I have demonstrated how in this book the experience taking, in combination with the novel’s metafictive devices, is “harnessed to promote changes in readers’ goals, attitudes, and behaviors, in order to achieve socially beneficial ends,” (Kaufman 4), it is important for both readers and for authors to realize the potential for abuse. For example, if instead of focusing on developing an empathic nexus and sense of justice, the novel had focused on a statement such as when Minny says, “But truth is, I don’t care that much about voting,” (235) the reader may unintentionally develop behaviors that are not socially beneficial. Although this example may seem far fetched, it is important to consider that the reader should be wary of being manipulated into adopting views without critically examining them, not necessarily because of the threat of a devious or malicious author, but because authors aren’t always right. Furthermore, authors should be wary of how they might inadvertently manipulate their readers in detrimental ways, noting how readers can identify and experience-take with characters they normally wouldn’t, and as such, authors should likewise be wary of the unintended meanings readers might find in their works.
Works Cited
Alcorn, Marshall W. Jr. “Literature, Psychoanalysis, and the Re-Formation of the Self: A New Direction for Reader-Response Theory.” PMLA 100.3 (1985) : 342-354. Web. 22 July 2012.
Kaufman, Geoff F.; Libby, Lisa K. “Changing Beliefs and Behavior Through Experience-Taking.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1003.1 (2012) : 1-19
Stockett, Kathryn. The Help. New York: Penguin Group, 2009. Print.
Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. Milton Park: Taylor & Francis Group, 2006. Print.
Waugh, Patricia. Metafiction: The Theory and Practice of Self-Conscious Fiction. Hove: Psychology Press, 1984. Print.
Winn, Denise. The Manipulated Mind. Cambridge: Malor Books, 2000. Print.
Again, the reader has their attention brought to not only how characters within the novel are reacting to the book, but also, likely, to how the reader is reacting to the book. Similarly the reader might reflect, as Miss Chotard did, that they might be committing offenses towards others they are not entirely aware of. Even if the reader cannot think of any ways in which they have been wronging others, the reader might at this point commit himself or herself to making an effort to avoid wronging others in the future. The reader would do this, because, as they are thinking like Aibileen, they would think it is a “good thing” to do so, and, as Alcorn and Bracher note, “Reading is a… phenomenon… constituted by grandiose aspirations that, while aiming to reinforce and strengthen the self, also, paradoxically enough, aim to re-form the self into another, more potent form of being,” (352). As such, the reader, in an effort to have a “good thing” come of the book, hopes to transform himself or herself into a better person by not wronging others unjustly like racism does.
Some people might argue that the metafictive devices brings back self-concept accessibility to the reader and pulls the reader out of the experience-taking, inhibiting them from implementing the characters’ views into their own interpretations of the novel and reformation of his or her self. Although I concede that the metafictive devices do indeed pull the reader out of the experience-taking to reflect on reality, I do not think this causes a separation from the characters’ views. As Kaufman and Libby found that experience-taking with a character who voted on Election Day increased the readers’ subsequent voting behavior (10), I similarly believe that experience-taking with the three main characters of The Help causes the reader to ingrain the characters’ values, even after the metafictive devices snap them back to reality. With this in mind, I think it is likely that a reader of The Help would not only become less racist, but also be more likely to stand up to racism and injustice they encounter, just as the three main characters do in their writing of the book. After all, the book does reward the characters for their own stand against racism, and the reader experiences this reward as well. Although the risk of standing up is never far from the characters’ and reader’s mind, the sense of pride in receiving the signed book in the church (425) or the sense that it was all worth it while walking into better days at the end of the book (473) should provide the reader with the sense that the risks of standing up to injustice are worth it.
If, as Tyson states, reader-response theory claims that the meaning of a text lies not in what the text says, but in the experience of what the text does to us as we read it, then what exactly is the meaning of The Help? Although I started by suggesting that the main characters are subjected to brainwashing tactics and that experience-taking of these leads to a mental fatigue for the reader, this mental fatigue helps the reader to proverbially jump in the shoes of characters whom the reader may have been initially resistant to. This serves to widen the perspective of the reader and maybe even, as Skeeter says, helps them to realize that ”We are just two people. Not that much separates us,” (445) and, as Aibileen prays, “to be kind, to love [themselves]; to love others,” (209). If, as I suggest, the text causes the reader to become less racist, or even stand up to injustices, then this gaining of an empathic nexus and sense of justice is the meaning of the novel, rather than a more simple (and maybe oversimplified) interpretation of the text such as “racism is bad.”
Although I have demonstrated how in this book the experience taking, in combination with the novel’s metafictive devices, is “harnessed to promote changes in readers’ goals, attitudes, and behaviors, in order to achieve socially beneficial ends,” (Kaufman 4), it is important for both readers and for authors to realize the potential for abuse. For example, if instead of focusing on developing an empathic nexus and sense of justice, the novel had focused on a statement such as when Minny says, “But truth is, I don’t care that much about voting,” (235) the reader may unintentionally develop behaviors that are not socially beneficial. Although this example may seem far fetched, it is important to consider that the reader should be wary of being manipulated into adopting views without critically examining them, not necessarily because of the threat of a devious or malicious author, but because authors aren’t always right. Furthermore, authors should be wary of how they might inadvertently manipulate their readers in detrimental ways, noting how readers can identify and experience-take with characters they normally wouldn’t, and as such, authors should likewise be wary of the unintended meanings readers might find in their works.
Works Cited
Alcorn, Marshall W. Jr. “Literature, Psychoanalysis, and the Re-Formation of the Self: A New Direction for Reader-Response Theory.” PMLA 100.3 (1985) : 342-354. Web. 22 July 2012.
Kaufman, Geoff F.; Libby, Lisa K. “Changing Beliefs and Behavior Through Experience-Taking.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1003.1 (2012) : 1-19
Stockett, Kathryn. The Help. New York: Penguin Group, 2009. Print.
Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. Milton Park: Taylor & Francis Group, 2006. Print.
Waugh, Patricia. Metafiction: The Theory and Practice of Self-Conscious Fiction. Hove: Psychology Press, 1984. Print.
Winn, Denise. The Manipulated Mind. Cambridge: Malor Books, 2000. Print.
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