I finished reading The Help recently. I watched the movie very shortly after it came out some time last year, and I found it (of course) really inspirational and moving. The courage displayed by Skeeter made me think about the lack of courage I've seemed to show for a while now. Anyway, I marked down a few of my favorite passages from the book. They're not the very best writing in the world or anything, but they were the most relatable passages to me:
"...I'll never be able to tell Mother I want to be a writer. She'll only turn it into yet another thing that separates me from the married girls....And now she's gripping the rail, waiting to see if I'll do what fat Fanny Peatrow did to save herself. My own mother is looking at me as if I completely baffle her mind with my looks, my height, my hair."
"'It's all about putting yourself in a man-meeting situation where you can--'
'Mama,' I say, just wanting to end this conversation, 'would it really be so terrible if I never met a husband?'
Mother clutches her bare arms as if made cold by the thought. 'Don't. Don't say that, Eugenia.'"
"I shudder with the same left-behind feeling I've had since I graduated from college, three months ago. I've been dropped of in a place I do not belong anymore."
"I flick on the radio, desperate for noise to fill my ears. 'It's My Party' is playing and I search for something else. I'm starting to hate the whiny teenage songs about love and nothing. In a moment of aligned wavelengths, I pick up Memphis WKPO and out comes a man's voice, drunk-sounding, singing fast and bluesy. At a dead end street, I ease into the Tote-Sum store parking lot and listen to the song. It is better than anything I've ever heard.
"...I'll never be able to tell Mother I want to be a writer. She'll only turn it into yet another thing that separates me from the married girls....And now she's gripping the rail, waiting to see if I'll do what fat Fanny Peatrow did to save herself. My own mother is looking at me as if I completely baffle her mind with my looks, my height, my hair."
"'It's all about putting yourself in a man-meeting situation where you can--'
'Mama,' I say, just wanting to end this conversation, 'would it really be so terrible if I never met a husband?'
Mother clutches her bare arms as if made cold by the thought. 'Don't. Don't say that, Eugenia.'"
"I shudder with the same left-behind feeling I've had since I graduated from college, three months ago. I've been dropped of in a place I do not belong anymore."
"I flick on the radio, desperate for noise to fill my ears. 'It's My Party' is playing and I search for something else. I'm starting to hate the whiny teenage songs about love and nothing. In a moment of aligned wavelengths, I pick up Memphis WKPO and out comes a man's voice, drunk-sounding, singing fast and bluesy. At a dead end street, I ease into the Tote-Sum store parking lot and listen to the song. It is better than anything I've ever heard.
...you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.
A voice in a can tells me his name is Bob Dylan, but as the next song starts, the signal fades. I lean back in my seat, stare out at the dark windows of the store. I feel a rush of inexplicable relief. I feel like I've just heard something from the future."
Writing about the truth takes a lot of strength. It involves going out on a limb and not knowing what life will meet you on the other side of that publication. But Skeeter Phelan, fictional character though she is, was willing to take that risk. The courage of that takes my breath away, and makes me wonder what risks I'm willing to take in order to write the truth.
