Aibileen's Speech

Stockett's character development goes farther than just researching what the times were like in the 60's; Stockett's character development is formed from stereotypes. Stockett's writing made it obvious that Aibileen wasn't very educated. In fact, Stockett said that Aibileen dropped out of high school in the 9th grade to clean houses. Aibileen's speech is very choppy and Stockett gives her a southern drawl. Minny's speech was similar. The way Stockett writes is very stereotypical, although it gave a solid of idea of what the norm was in the 1960's in Mississippi. Of course not every African American back then lived to clean houses and was poorly educated, but through Stockett's writing, it seemed that this was a very common job for black women. It was a time of racism and segregation in the south. Due to some of my knowledge of the south in the 60's, I would also be stereotyping to say that the women didn't have much of an option. It was either clean houses or be poor and on the streets.