English 中文网 漫画网 爱新闻iNews 翻译论坛
中国网站品牌栏目(频道)
当前位置: Language Tips > Normal Speed News VOA常速

Anonymous book dishes on Life as a black maid in 'The Help'

[ 2011-09-16 11:38]     字号 [] [] []  
免费订阅30天China Daily双语新闻手机报:移动用户编辑短信CD至106580009009

Get Flash Player

Download

A hit novel about black and white women in the American south 50 years ago has been made into a film that is winning widespread critical acclaim. Alan Silverman has this look at The Help.

"I was raised by a colored woman. We love them and they love us, but they can't even use the toilets in our houses."

It's 1962, and university graduate Skeeter Phelan has come home to Jackson, Mississippi, a corner of the south that the civil rights movement has yet to reach. African-American women like Aibileen Clark work in the homes of white families as maids, cooks and nannies. Skeeter, played by Emma Stone, asks Aibileen to describe what life is like for these black women.

Anonymous book dishes on Life as a black maid in 'The Help'

SKEETER: "I want to interview you about what it's like to work as a maid. I'd like to do a book of interviews about working for white families.

AIBILEEN: "Do you know what Miss Leefolt would do to me if she know that I was telling stories about her?"

SKEETER: "Well, I was thinking that we wouldn't have to tell her."

Anonymous book dishes on Life as a black maid in 'The Help'

Emma Stone says Skeeter didn't imagine that the invitation would be problematical.

"Skeeter is very idealistic and is crazy to think that this would be exciting for Aibileen to be a part of," Stone says.

But Skeeter eventually wins the trust of Aibileen and her co-workers. Their book, published anonymously as The Help, creates a sensation. Viola Davis co-stars as Aibileen and admits to having thought twice about playing the servant.

"It's very difficult because I thought, do I want to play a character that could be viewed as so subservient? But I see her as much more than that. This is all we were back then," notes Davis. "Every once in a while you had someone who broke the norm, but you were maids. You were in subservient roles. And yet she was able to break out of all of that to pursue a goal and a dream and to speak out."

HILLY: "I have drafted the home health sanitation initiative."

SKEETER: "The what?"

HILLY: "A bill that requires every white home to have a separate bathroom for the help."

Anonymous book dishes on Life as a black maid in 'The Help'

Hilly, a socialite, sees herself not as a racist, but as an upstanding citizen in a place and time when speaking out against discrimination is a crime. She's played by Bryce Dallas Howard.

"I had to believe in the things that I was saying and believe that what I was doing was right, which is what the circumstances were back then with these kinds of women and individuals. They actually thought that they were doing good, which is so scary," she says.

The Help is adapted from the best selling novel by Kathryn Stockett. She based the book on her own experience growing up in Jackson.

"Look, I'm the first one to say I'm a white woman. I know that I'll never truly understand what it must have felt like to be a black woman working in the south," Stockett admits. "But it seems like no one had even tried to show that perspective."

MINNY: "All right, I'm going to do it. But I need to make sure she understands this ain't no game we're playing here. Do I have to come up with the questions too?"

SKEETER: "Uh, let's begin with, uh, where you were born."

MINNY: "Belzoni, Mississippi, on my great-auntie's sofa."

The civil rights movement is the backdrop for the story, but Octavia Spencer, who plays the outspoken maid Minny, says it is really about relationships and empowerment.

"It's not about race. It's about doing what's right and finding your voice," Spencer says.

The Help was directed by Tate Taylor, author Kathryn Stockett's childhood friend. It was filmed near where they grew up in Mississippi.

subservient:compliant and obedient to authority 屈从的,奉承的

sanitation: the state of being clean and conducive to health 环境卫生

socialite: a person who is or seeks to be prominent in fashionable society 社交名流

Related Stories:

Young actors make portraits come alive; US woman walks across Africa for clean water

"The art of fielding" is a novel about baseball and much more

African film shows tensions between banana growers, villagers

"The art of fielding" is a novel about baseball and much more

(来源:VOA 编辑:张若琼)

 
中国日报网英语点津版权说明:凡注明来源为“中国日报网英语点津:XXX(署名)”的原创作品,除与中国日报网签署英语点津内容授权协议的网站外,其他任何网站或单位未经允许不得非法盗链、转载和使用,违者必究。如需使用,请与010-84883631联系;凡本网注明“来源:XXX(非英语点津)”的作品,均转载自其它媒体,目的在于传播更多信息,其他媒体如需转载,请与稿件来源方联系,如产生任何问题与本网无关;本网所发布的歌曲、电影片段,版权归原作者所有,仅供学习与研究,如果侵权,请提供版权证明,以便尽快删除。
 

关注和订阅

人气排行

翻译服务

中国日报网翻译工作室

我们提供:媒体、文化、财经法律等专业领域的中英互译服务
电话:010-84883468
邮件:translate@chinadaily.com.cn