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12 Years is a memoir that was published in 1853 and coauthored by Solomon Northup and David Wilson who intended to record Solomon’s experiences between 1841 and 1853 as a Slave in the Southern States of America. Solomon’s father was released from slavery when his master died, this enabled Solomon to live in freedom as a farmer and a violinist with his family. Like many black men, he was kidnapped and spent twelve years in slavery, before being set free by Henry B Northup (a member of the family that Solomon’s father had served.) The Help is a fictional novel by Kathryn Stockett that was published in 2009. It’s set in 1960’s Jackson Mississippi (where Stockett grew up) and it’s about the lives of black maids and an aspiring white writer who desires to write a book about them. Despite the novel is fictional, in the afterword, Stockett states her influence from witnessing Demetrie (her childhood maid) facing discrimination through having a separate toilet and dinner table for the family. Stockett entwined fiction with personal experience when writing ‘The Help,’ in contrast ’12 Years’ entirely focuses on Solomon’s life experience so is completely factual. This shows the author’s contrasting intentions, as Northup wanted to record his exact experiences to highlight the racial inequality in the Southern states, whereas Stockett wanted to entertain and educate her readers on racism. Both texts are based in the Southern States of America and have themes of racial discrimination, therefore, despite being set over one hundred years apart, the characters have similar experiences, which is why I’ve chosen to analyze and compare how both authors use narrative points of view.
Both texts are written in first person, but The Help also uses multiple narrators, so that each chapter is narrated by either Minnie, Aibileen, or Miss Skeeter. This allows the point of view of both white and black characters to be shown and reflects the novel’s theme of equality, in contrast, 12 Years only portrays Solomon’s point of view, and not that of his masters. This could suggest Solomon to be an unreliable narrator, however, due to the frequent enslavement of black men during the 1800s, this is unlikely. It was noted by D. Driftless that ‘the author frequently shows great restraint in the descriptions of the horrors he witnesses, lest he be accused of hyperbole’ (Readers Lane, 2017) and this suggests Solomon’s experiences in slavery to be worse than suggests in the memoir, so if the truth was dialed down it was for the sake of being believed. Stockett’s use of multiple narrators is a feature of modernism which was a popular genre from 1910-the 1960s, so shows the novel is based during the 1960s. Contrasting idiolects are used for the narrators to highlight their different educational backgrounds, this is specifically relevant to Minnie and Miss Skeeter. Stockett uses Minnie’s blunt tone to allude to Medgar Evers’ (‘NAACP Field Secretary’ page 195) being ‘shot…right in front of his children,’ (page 195) which highlights that the novel is set during the civil rights movement. This use of dialogue reflects Minnie’s blunt idiolect which symbolizes the black people’s anger at the discrimination they faces during the 1960s Her lack of euphemisms in this phrase suggests her shock that discrimination had reached as far as murder. The noun ‘children’ symbolizes innocence and highlights the contrast of the crimes of white men, against the innocence of the black people. This reverses the racial role society lived by, as Stockett portrays the racist white people as despicable but the black people as victims of abuse. To contrast Minnie’s blunt tone, Miss Skeeter uses a reflective tone when saying ‘many of their stories are sad, bitter’ (page 255). This phrase euphemizes the maid’s devastating stories, as stories such as the death of Aibileen’s son are more than just ‘sad.’ Her use of the determiner ‘their’ separates herself from the black people and this shows that her upbringing has led to her developing a sociolect of categorizing white and black people separately. This contrast in Minnie and Miss Skeeter’s idiolect creates irony, as despite being better educated than Minnie, Miss Skeeter wrongly uses her education to avoid addressing society’s flaws. In contrast to Minnie’s lack of education, Solomon had ‘an education surpassing that ordinarily bestowed upon children in our condition’ (page 3) and throughout 12 years this surprises many of his masters, as slaves typically couldn’t read but Solomon could. His use of low-frequency lexis such as ‘surpassing’ and ‘bestowed’ show that Solomon intended to use his lexical choices to portray that race doesn’t impact intelligence. By writing this memoir Solomon shows the benefits of his education, as it’s allowed him to be an advocate for change. The irony is created when both texts are considered together, as in 12 Years, despite his race, Solomon uses a higher register than Miss Skeeter does in The Help. This reflects that the authors share the point of view that race shouldn’t separate society.
Both texts use character development to present the text’s morals and themes. The chapters in The Help with Miss Skeeter as the focaliser symbolize society’s option to change from their discriminative attitudes, as Miss Skeeter changes from naïve and discriminative into a mature and independent activist. This is shown through the discourse of marriage, which was a stereotypical young woman’s life goal during the 1960s, in her first chapter as focaliser (pages 54-69), this contrasts the discourse of work in her final chapter as focaliser (pages 414-425) which highlights a modern belief that women can provide for themselves without a husband. Similarly, Solomon’s character changes throughout the memoir but less drastically than Miss Skeeter does. He begins the memoir as a free man aware, then becomes helpless as a slave but this memoir is an example of how he regained his voice after slavery. His character’s development is highlighted through his change in attitude, at the beginning of the memoir Northup says, ‘I possessed the same feelings and affections that find a place in a white man; too independent to conceive how anyone could be content to live in the abject condition of a slave'(page 7). The comparison between himself and a ‘white man’ suggest Solomon’s belief that regardless of race, anyone who hasn’t experienced slavery is ignorant of its hardship. The adjective ‘independent’ denotes self-sufficiency, suggesting that because he’d experienced the ability to provide for himself, he found it harder to be controlled by a Master once he became a slave. This contrasts his view in the final paragraph of the memoir when he describes himself as ‘subdued in spirit by the sufferings I have borne,’ (page 234) this shows he was changed by his suffering as a slave. The adjective ‘subdued’ connotes a sad reflection that all slaves wouldn’t be restored to freedom as he was. This was part of Solomon’s intention for the memoir, as he wanted to pay his respects and acknowledge those he met during his time in slavery. The journeys of both Solomon and Miss Skeeter add to the narrative point of view of the books to which they belong by presenting the theme of how life shapes people.
12 years is written in first person and mostly past tense, apart from the ending where Solomon says in the present tense, ‘I forebear… thankful to that good being through whose mercy I have been restored’ (page 234). By continuously using first-person Northup reflects the personal nature of the style and this is added to when he swaps to present tense, by creating a reflective tone. In contrast, Stockett uses an omniscient third-person narrator in chapter twenty-five of The Help to highlight the genre of metafiction- suggesting the chapter to be a segment of Skeeter’s book. Northup creates a lexical field of positivity through the noun ‘mercy,’ the verb ‘thankful’ and the adjective ‘good’, these show his gratitude for his freedom. He was extremely fortunate as even after Lincoln commanded for all slaves to be freed in 1862 (nine years after this memoir), many remained captive. These lexical choices create a tone of relief, which suggests Solomon’s gladness to have escaped the trauma he experienced in the South. Just as Solomon’s renewed freedom created hope for an eventual end to slavery, Stockett creates hope at the end of the novel by repeating this phrase from within the novel, in her afterword, ‘We are just two people. Not that much separates us.’ (page 418 and 451). The use of two simple and short sentences reflects Stockett’s belief that equality is simple and her intention of making this clear to her readers. Her chosen lexis are monosyllabic apart from the noun ‘people’ and the verb ‘separates’ and this foregrounds them, highlighting her intended moral of equality as nothing should separate people from each other. In a review on the novel, Thabiti Anyabwile says, ‘the book both tells the uneasy, risky truth and⦠hope’ (The Gospel Coalition 2011), this suggests that despite highlighting the hardships of those living in 1960s Mississippi, Stockett wanted to create hope for a better future through her views on equality which are voiced throughout the novel. Similarly, Solomon’s belief that change is a universal movement is shown throughout the entirety of the memoir.
At the opening of the novel, Northup states that the purpose of his memoir is ‘to give a candid and truthful statement of facts’ (page 1). The adjectives ‘candid’ and ‘truthful’ create a lexical field of outspoken honesty, suggesting Solomon’s intended to pre-warn his readers that he was going to be honest about his horrific experiences in slavery. This establishes the absence of hyperbole in the memoir, which may be seen in The Help. This is because The Help is part of the genre of Historical fiction, so alludes to some real-life events that were prominent in black history (such as when Mae Mobley mentions ‘Rosa Parcs’ on page 431) but uses fictional characters and an overall fictional storyline. Northup’s memoir was written in the Northern States of America, so his initial readers would reside there, and would be mostly supportive as by 1804 the Northern States had abolished slavery, whereas the Southern states continued to use black slaves for cheap labor. Solomon only wrote the ‘facts’ of his experience and this was noticed by literary critics who wrote ‘unlike many slave narratives, Northup’s named names… the people who mistreated him were still alive.'(The Guardian, 2014) Criticizing his slave masters could have decreased the memoir’s popularity, but Solomon didn’t care- he wanted to do his part in fighting for change. After losing twelve years with his family, Solomon would be angry, so by ‘naming names’ he was giving his previous slave masters the shame they deserved for the horrific way they treated him. In contrast to this, Stockett entwined names of real people within her fictional storyline to show respect to black activists. In 2013, Amy Sharp reviewed The Help, stating that ‘Stockett manages to merge fact and fiction perfectly… using some of her personal experience of growing up in the deep South’ (The Guardian, 2013.) This suggests that alongside allusions to events in black history, Stockett used her memories from childhood to inspire her storyline. The fluidity of the novel and the distinct character voices makes it believable to the reader, particularly when Mae Mobley says, ‘Back-a-the-bus’ (page 431). The plosive ‘B’ sounds foreground this line, highlighting the prominence of a white child living in a racist town referencing Rosa Parcs. Altogether, the use of phonology in this line allows the reader to believe this is the voice of a real child, so the reader should remind themselves of the fictional nature and only learn from the real events alluded to. Despite 12 Years being non-fiction and The Help being fictional, both authors express the importance of the events in black history that led to closer equality amongst all races.
Both authors portray similar points of view through their thematic choices of equality, hope, and advocacy for freedom. Solomon wrote in his own blunt and matter-of-fact idiolect which gives the reader a stronger understanding of his background, whereas in The Help Stockett created characters with a variety of sociolect, making each character symbolic of key personalities within society in the 1960s. Both authors use emotive language to have an impact on the reader, Northrup this is when he’s reflecting on his experience in slavery and his gratefulness to be free at the close of the memoir, but in The Help, emotive language is seen throughout the novel, specifically at the climax when the characters are worried about the reaction to the book they’ve written. Stockett’s choice of historical fiction allowed her to create characters to whom the reader could create an emotional attachment, which made the novel easier to read than 12 Years, which as a non-fiction memoir described hard-hitting and real-life experiences of black slaves and intentionally made the reader feel uncomfortable due to their inability to change the past.
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