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Analysis Of The Help By Kathryn Stockett

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Amanda van der Merwe Wide Reading #6 - The Help “Help people even when you know they can’t help you back”. The Help written by american author Kathryn Stockett was published in the early 2000’s. Set in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962, Stockett’s first novel is narrated by three women: Aibileen and Minny are both black maids working for ladies from the cream of white society, while Miss Skeeter is the 23-year-old daughter of one of those pillars of the community. Aibileen has raised 17 white children, but her own son has been recently killed in an accident at a lumber yard; Minny is forever losing jobs because she talks back to her employers; and Miss Skeeter, so called because she looked like a mosquito when she was born, is ungainly …show more content…

This code of conduct becomes the social norm, where most people see no other way of life. They become completely oblivious to their wrong ways. Provincialism of the caucasian minority is encapsulated by a quote from Mrs Holbrook, “They carry different diseases than we do. That’s why I’ve drafted the Health Sanitation Initiative.” Clearly ‘they’ is people of colour - this is absolutely false, yet people believed it. A similar quote is used in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ , “Prosecuting comes from people who are prejudice”. It would be impossible for children to escape these beliefs if their teachers, who are pillars in their community, are ignorant of their own bias. Stockett incorporated many examples of inequality and discrimination in ‘The Help’ , and gives readers an insight into the prejudiced actions of people in the 1960’s. The important idea of the power of literature is highlighted throughout the entire novel. At the time black maids were victims of constant maltreatment from their employers, because of the beliefs of the communities in Mississippi in 1960’s. People of colour were never seen or treated as equal, leaving them with no escape from the harassment they endure. An example of this is when Mrs. Holbrook accused a maid of stealing some silver cutlery. This maid had no way of protesting or fighting against this injustice. To release and express their feelings against the

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