Both Hilly and Skeeter's mother are deeply flawed characters but they aren't irredeemable. Hilly is a doting mother and Charlotte obviously loves her family and even genuinely cares for Constantine. Are these women simply products of their time and culture? How much of a person is by nurture and how much is by nature? Did this book make you think about who you are as a result of where and who you came from?
-Kelly
Oooh, Hilly to me was irredeemable. It is one thing to have certain flawed thoughts in your head that you act out at home and then worry about. But to actively promote such ideas when you have influence and your husband has influence crosses the line for me.
ReplyDeleteWhile I don't think we necessarily have to be products of our time and culture, I do think it's the path of least resistance... so it's the most well-worn. I think a lot of the women in the book are willing to be just carried along with it.
ReplyDeleteAnd then you have characters like Skeeter and Hilly. Skeeter is willing to fight against the culture, and Hilly seems to be fighting for it... but I guess I'm not entirely sure why Hilly is fighting so hard. Is she really just that passionate about segregation? I think she's more about her own arrogance than anything...
I had a complete change of heart on this question from the beginning of the book to the end. At first I think I was giving those a break that tended to just let the status quo continue and as Melissa wrote, "get carried along with it." However, as I read page 312 that all changed. Aibileen and Minny are having a conversation about "lines" that exist/don't exist in society. Aibileen says "I used to believe in em. I don't anymore. They in our heads. People like Miss Hilly is always trying to make us believe they there. But they ain't." This really struck a cord with me. I think the message is that we CHOOSe to either open our eyes to perhaps an unwelcome truth or we CHOOSE to remain unselfexamined (made up word courtesy of yours truly). I think she is implying that at some point in our life we have to examine what/how our time and culture has influenced us and then decide if that is a personal truth for us individually. I just like the idea of there being some personal responsibility! Go Ailbileen!
ReplyDeleteAs to Skeeter's Mom, I just looked at her more like a parent with good intentions.... horrible execution.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, on pg 242, "It's all a big game to Mother, to show only one side of me, that the real me shouldn't come out until after it's "too late."
Now I know that this quote is about Skeeter and her trying to make sure doesn't blow it with this handsome guy but I think that it illuminates her flaw of "expectations" in other areas such as her view of racial equality. It is like she cares more about the "supposed to" in people than the "what's really there" in them. This is sad because what she misses out on is realizing that sometimes expectations get surpassed by the truth... I mean to think that she never really knew her daughter because of this flaw is actually more discouraging to me than the fact that this flaw also came through in being very closed minded towards the color of ones skin.