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become a writer and more complete person. Valerie Smith says in her essay, Black Women's
Memories and The Help, "Seeing her own life as uninteresting, she exoticizes the lives of women
who are the victims of racial, gender, and economic oppression within the system of Jim Crow
segregation. Black women’s memories thus launch the plot of the narrative and Skeeter’s own
career trajectory" (29). So while her intent may have been to help, only one person, Skeeter, will
truly benefit from the telling of these women's stories. The way Skeeter exoticizes these women's
lives goes back to the nostalgic way in which white people tend to view black domestic help.
They give no real regard to the feelings of these women, and what it meant to be a black maid in
the Deep South. The erasure of their feelings, thoughts, and the racism they faced are what
continues to fuel the mammy narrative in this film, as society tries to flatten them out into
compliant caregivers.

Being modern day mammies in the Jim Crow south is something that has a profound
effect on the lives of Aibileen, Minnie, and Yule Mae, and that is something Skeeter will never
be able to understand, though she seems to think she does because of her own affection and
empathy for her family's former maid, Constantine. Which, again, is marked by a hue of
nostalgia, and according to Valerie Smith

Skeeter’s lack of knowledge about her beloved Constantine’s life
suggests the asymmetry in the relationship between the black
maids and the families for which they worked. The maids attended
to the most intimate details of the lives of the families that
employed them. Yet even the children who believe they love them
know next to nothing about their private lives. (26)