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Teach American Culture

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Teach American Culture
Comparing Yo! And The Help: How Authors Use Their Styles to Teach American Culture
Paul Pittman
Rasmussen College

Author Note
This essay is being submitted on June 18th, 2013, for Dr. Candy Henry’s G435 Literature of American Minorities course.

ABSTRACT
The cultural history of America includes much more than what our history books teach us. In fact, it is not until you open books and read stories written by those who have experienced the undisclosed elements of America’s past do you begin to understand how we as a country have developed. Two such stories are Julia Alvarez’s Yo! And Kathryn Stockett’s The Help. But it takes more than a good storyline to bring the past to life. The storyteller must be able to convey the emotion …show more content…
“In 1970s Mississippi I didn’t have a single black friend or a black neighbour. Yet one of the closest people to me was Demetrie, our family’s black housekeeper” (Stockett, 2009). Stockett also related that because of the close relationship she developed with Demetrie, she was able to see things a bit differently and she is ashamed that it took her 20 years to come forward with the story of how her family participated in the affair. The story is about her effort to “find answers to my [her] questions, to soothe my [her] own mind about Demetrie” (Stockett, …show more content…
(2013). Kathryn Stockett. Retrieved May 28, 2013, from Kathryn Stockett.com website: http://kathrynstockett.com/
Donaldson-James, S. (2011, February 22). Black Maid Sues, Says 'The Help ' Is Humiliating [Newsgroup post]. Retrieved from ABC News website: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/lawsuit-black-maid-ablene-cooper-sues-author-kathryn/story?id=12968562#.UaVK7Z3D9Fo
Potts, S. M. (Ed.). (2013). About Me [Fact sheet]. Retrieved April 26, 2013, from Julia Alvarez website: http://www.juliaalvarez.com/about/
Stockett, K. (2009). The help. New York: Amy Einhorn Books.
Stockett, K. (2009, July 18). This Life: Kathryn Stockett on her childhood in the Deep South [Blog post]. Retrieved from Mail Online website: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-1199603/This-Life-Kathryn-Stockett-childhood-Deep-South.html
Walker, S. (2012, March). [Alvarez, Julia] [Fact sheet]. Retrieved April 26, 2013, from Postcolonial Studies @ Emory website: http://postcolonialstudies.emory.edu/julia-alvarez/
Williams, W. (2011, August 4). Kathryn Stockett: Life in the belle jar [Blog post]. Retrieved from Creative Loafing website:
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