The Power of Writing and Storytelling

Write about what disturbs you, particularly if it bothers no one else.

Elaine Stein includes this piece of advice in her first letter to Skeeter that appears in Chapter 6, offering advice on how to be a successful writer. Thus far, Skeeter has mainly had experience writing papers for school, personal short stories, and puff pieces for the Junior League’s newsletter. Though Skeeter has aspirations to be a writer, she seems to only know that she enjoys writing and is good at it. Here, she learns that writing can be a vehicle for change rather than a way to pass the time or impress other people, as she first tries to do when she sends her ideas to Elaine Stein. When Skeeter begins to consider what disturbs her, something that is accepted by the rest of polite society, she sees how putting a problem into words can create change. This helps Skeeter not only begin her career in writing but to begin the process of creating change within her community. 

We all know about these laws, we live here, but we don’t talk about them. This is the first time I’ve ever seen them written down.

Skeeter thinks this in Chapter 13 as she comes across the booklet of Jim Crow laws in the whites-only library. The booklet includes laws that ban marriage between Black and white people and say that Black and white people cannot be buried in the same cemetery. These laws and the feelings behind them have been the backdrop for the plot thus far, as the idea of segregated bathrooms in the home stems from Jim Crow laws. However, Skeeter realizes that knowing something is different from seeing it written down in black and white. Even though she and her friends know these laws exist, Hilly sees Skeeter as dangerous once she finds the booklet of laws in her satchel, showing how no one wants to acknowledge the ugliness of these laws. Putting these laws in writing forces people to acknowledge the truth of them and therefore makes it easier to see the injustice of them.

I like telling my stories. It feels like I’m doing something about it. When I leave, the concrete in my chest has loosened, melted down so I can breathe for a few days.

Here, in Chapter 17, Minny admits to herself something she would never reveal to Aibileen or any of their friends. Although Minny complains about meeting with Skeeter and makes sure Skeeter knows Minny is suspicious of her, in the end, Minny is glad to be telling her stories to someone. She feels a catharsis in getting things off her chest, while also adding to a vehicle for change for her children. While writing and storytelling can be powerful on a societal level, Minny sees how they are also powerful on an individual level, as she feels lighter after telling her stories, which she once thought no one would be interested in. By sharing her stories with someone else, Minny feels that the burden of them is lifted. Not only is this good for her as a person, but hopefully by sharing her stories, the burden on all women like her will eventually be lifted. 

The Complexity of People and Relationships

But the dichotomy of love and disdain living side-by-side is what surprises me.

Skeeter has this realization in Chapter 19 once she begins interviewing more maids for her book. She hears stories of how some women are still friends with the white women their mothers took care of as young girls, and she learns of how her acquaintance, Lou Anne, took care of Louvenia after her son was attacked and blinded. However, Skeeter also hears unbridled hatred for the daily humiliations and discrimination the maids experience at the hands of the white women. While Skeeter had only seen her maid, Constantine, as a comforting, maternal figure, talking to the other maids helps her understand that relationship from their point of view. And though many of the maids have good reason to be disdainful toward the white women who see them as inferior, they still recognize their common humanity, allowing for a more complex relationship than that of an employer and employee.

Lines between black and white ain’t there neither. Some folks just made those up, long time ago. And that go for the white trash and the so-ciety ladies too.

In Chapter 24, Aibileen speaks these words to Minny after Minny claims that Celia does not respect the boundaries between her and Minny or her and Hilly. While Hilly and others like her want to put people in boxes based on their race, background, and economic status, Aibileen points out that those boundaries are imaginary and made up by people like Hilly to keep themselves in power. Because societal boundaries or lines are perpetuated by people in power, and because they have been in place for so long, the lines may feel predetermined and constraining. However, in reality, people are far too complicated to be defined by one attribute that is outside their control. Knowing this is what helps people like Aibileen and Skeeter or Minny and Celia form their relationships and bonds outside the bounds of what society deems appropriate, and what helps them realize their self-worth despite what others think of them.

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.

Skeeter thinks this in Chapter 33 after running into Lou Anne, who reveals how Louvenia is the only one who has helped her through her depression. Skeeter had previously thought of Lou Anne as “dull and vapid,” someone not unlike Hilly. However, after this conversation, she wishes she had treated Lou Anne with more kindness in the past now that she knows how Lou Anne suffers in private. Like her friends and so many other people, Skeeter made assumptions based on her own biases and preconceived notions, as well as the airs Lou Anne put on in public, which Skeeter now knows are not always authentic. Just as there was more to the maids than met the eye, there is more to Lou Anne than Skeeter could have known from their surface-level friendship. When beginning the book, Skeeter had thought of it as a purely anthropological enterprise. However, based on her own experiences in talking to the maids and now learning more about Lou Anne, she sees how complicated and unique people truly are. 

The Deception of Appearances

Ugly live up on the inside. Ugly be a hurtful, mean person.

In Chapter 5, Skeeter recalls Constantine saying these words to her when Skeeter was thirteen, upset that her brother’s friend had called her ugly. As an adult, Skeeter knows she is not conventionally attractive, as she is taller than most men and has frizzy, unruly hair. She is also constantly reminded of this by her mother. However, Constantine, who, like all Black women, had been judged by others based on the color of her skin, instilled in Skeeter from a young age that inner beauty is the only thing that truly matters. Skeeter later remarks that this lesson taught her that she had a choice in what she believed rather than accepting other people’s judgment at face value. As she embarks on her book, Skeeter comes to realize that Constantine’s words are truer than she even originally knew, as she finds her own friends are the ugly, hurtful people Constantine referred to. 

I want to yell so loud that Baby Girl can hear me that dirty ain’t a color, disease ain’t the Negro side a town. I want to stop that moment from coming—and it come in every white child’s life—when they start to think that colored folks ain’t as good as whites.

After Aibileen shows Mae Mobley how to use the toilet in the outdoor bathroom the Leefolts had built, Mae Mobley only wants to use that bathroom. Seeing this, Elizabeth hits Mae Mobley and tells her she will catch diseases from using the same bathroom as a Black person. Here, on the way home, in Chapter 7, Aibileen laments that she cannot teach Mae Mobley otherwise. Like all children, Mae Mobley was born not judging people based on how they look, and at two years old, she is still too young to have learned the prejudices of adults. That this is a learned behavior shows the ludicrousness of judging someone based on appearance. However, Aibileen knows that this judgment runs deep in society and, with a mother like Elizabeth and influences like Hilly, Mae Mobley will likely one day espouse the same prejudicial beliefs herself. The fact that Aibileen knows that one day Mae Mobley will take on this way of thinking, and that she can do nothing to stop it, leaves her feeling powerless, angry, and depressed. 

She’s got no goo on her face, her hair’s not sprayed, her nightgown’s like an old prairie dress. She takes a deep breath through her nose and I see it. I see the white-trash girl she was ten years ago. She was strong. She didn’t take no shit from nobody.

In Chapter 24, after Celia beats the naked intruder until he is unconscious, Minny regards Celia, the woman she previously judged for her tight clothes, garish makeup, and disregard for the boundaries of polite society. Due to Celia’s appearance, as well as her tendency to not do much around the house, Minny had also assumed Celia was weak, lazy, and foolish. However, Minny now sees the woman Celia truly is. While Celia tried to dress in a way she thought would help her fit in, no outfits or amount of makeup could take away her inner strength and bravery. This shows that, while Minny resents white people for their treatment of Black people, she has realized that she has also been judging based solely on appearances. Understanding Celia makes Minny realize they have more in common than she otherwise thought.

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