The Help By Kathrynn Stockett

With a University Master's Degree in Literary Studies at The University of Alicante, Nina Louise Greve demonstrates thorough analysis and depth into the main issues of The Help; enlightening characters stereotypical attributes. One of the main characters, Aibileen, exhibits these traits through her simplistic, faith-ridden approach to societies ordeals. In addition, consumed by fear of the bourgeoisie, she conforms to the rules set by civilization. Nina reveals that through the duration of the text, The African American Females are continuously portrayed to be dependent upon Skeeter to seek access to freedom. This accredits the archetypal character of the ‘Hero’ upon the sole Caucasian character, and further victimizes the African American

After Hilly brings up her sanitation initiative, Skeeter meets Aibileen in the kitchen and apologizes that she had to hear the other bridge club members talk about blacks and all the diseases they have. Skeeter then proceeds to ask Aibileen, “Do you ever wish you could..change things.”(Stockett 88) When Hilly brings up the bathroom initiative, Skeeter feels as if she is being disrespectful towards Aibileen, because Skeeter says something to Hilly in order to defend Aibileen. She the gets the idea to start to start a book to allow the black maids to share what it is like being a black maid in Jackson, Mississippi in the 60s. After Skeeter gets the idea to write a book about what it is like being a black maid from the perspectives of actual black maids, She advances to asking Miss Elaine Stein, the literary agent, for permission to write the book. Elaine Stein agrees to let Skeeter write the book but she gives her a deadline in which the book should be written. When she gets the permission to write the book, Skeeter tells Aibileen, “I want to interview you. About what it’s like to be a black.”(Stockett 119) Skeeter thinks that Aibileen is just going to be willing to risk her job and her family despite the consequences, to help write a book that could help black maids get their voices heard. Aibileen, considering the consequences, declines Skeeter’s offer. She eventually considers Skeeter’s offer and decides to help her write the book. Skeeter risks losing her job to help these black maids get their voices heard, in order to help change society in a positive

Although Skeeter’s freedom is constantly abridged, it cannot compare to the magnitude of Aibileen Clark’s hardships. Aibileen Clark is a black woman who serves as a maid in Jackson, Mississippi. First, her freedom to use specific bathrooms is restricted by her race because of Mrs. Hilly’s rumor that all black people carry diseases. Also, she couldn’t even take care of her own child because of her race and social class, instead she had to care for the white babies. Her freedom of speech is even disregarded because of the color of her skin. Furthermore, it was even illegal for her to speak of equality, as it was to enter white only areas. Aibileen’s future was also hindered by when she

The story takes place in Mississippi, August 1962, where the main characters, Aibileen, Skeeter, and Minny all live and struggle with their own problems. Skeeter is an up and coming author/journalist who thanks the black people in the service industry and wants their stories to be told to others so that things may start getting better. Aibileen is a black maid who is trying to get over her son’s death while taking care of little Mae Mobley, her employer’s child; she always reminds that child how much she loves her even though she stated this “And I just didn’t feel so accepting anymore.” (Pg.3). Minny had demons to face too as a black maid: domestic abuse from her husband, being called a thief by the community and then fight to find work after that. Even though every one of these women are in danger for trying to make Mississippi better by writing their stories, they are still willing and fight to the end.

In the book The Giver, by Lois Lowry. The main character Jonas is not like others in his utopian community. He is a normal 12 year old boy and is living in the same old community of sameness. Until one day he gets selected to be the Receiver of Memory and begins to experience things on a different way because of the memories being transmitted to him. As the changes become more evident, Jonas begins to see flaws in his seemed to be perfect world. Throughout the book, you see how Jonas is a dynamic character and changes in his thoughts, feelings and actions.

In Kathryn Stockett’s The Help, setting influences the characters’ thoughts, actions, and choices, by either limiting them because of social normalities, or by the historical background. First, Skeeter’s actions were restricted by the laws of the specific time period, the 1960’s, as it was illegal for white and colored people to converse outside of an occupation. While interviewing the maids, Skeeter risked injuring both herself and the maids if caught by the police, as she explains, “They’d charge us with integration violation … they despise the whites that meet with the coloreds to help with the civil rights movement,” (Stockett 169-170). In the 60’s, southern states were opposed to any form of suspicious communication in which people

The Help (2011), based on Kathryn Stockett’s novel of the same name, follows the stories of Skeeter Phelan, Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson in 1960s’ Mississippi. These women come together to write a book from the perspective of the “help”, a group of African American women who are mistreated by the white families they work for. I chose this movie for its strong female protagonist and the brave women who risked their lives by letting their voices be heard.

The book , The Help by Kathryn Stockett, is about a women named Aibileen who is a black maid. She is taking care of her 17th white baby now. She works for a woman named Miss Leefolt. Aibileen has never disobeyed an order in her life and never intends to do so. Her friend Minny is the exact opposite. When she is around her boss, she has to hold herself back from sassing them all the time. Skeeter Phelan is different than the rest of the white ladies. She thinks that blacks aren’t all that bad. She decides to write a book about the lives of maids for white ladies. Otherwise known as the Help. She with the help of Aibileen and Minny hope to create a book that starts a revolution about what white people think about blacks.

In today’s society, one can see a divide among people, a world with disorder, and a world dominated by crime. Lois Lowry illustrates in her novel, The Giver, a world unlike any other, a world with no fear and disorder. A perfect society, or so it looks. As the readers go on they come to realize that an ideal society is nothing like it sounds. The readers take for granted our rights to chose what we want to do with our lives; if the audience lived like the people in the novel, our society would have no individual rights. This is a community, created by Lois Lowry, where no one has memories, feelings, or ambitions.

Aibileen Clark is a wise middle aged black maid who has raised seventeen white children, and is the protagonist in the story. She works for Elizabeth Leefolt, and loves and cares for a little girl named Mae Mobley Leefolt. She loves her dearly even though she knows that their loving relationship could hurt them both, because of the racism in Jackson, Mississippi during the 1960s. In the story Aibileen described what she would wear everyday, “I put on my white uniform and put my little gold cross back around my neck and I went to wait on Miss Leefolt cause she just had her baby girl.”

I really enjoyed Kathryn Stocketts debut book, “The Help.” While taking place at the time of racial segregation and the Civil Rights movement, the book does not offer much for readers to relate to however, with the authors use of sensory details, one is still able to catch a sense for each and every emotion experienced. The book begins as Skeeter Phelan, a 22-year old graduate from Ole Miss comes home to her family’s cotton plantation and lands a job at the Jackson Journal writing “Miss Myrna,” a housekeeping column. With little to none experience in this field, she seeks help from the maid of her friend Hilly Holbrook. Skeeter and Aibileen start spending a lot of time together and it isn’t long before Skeeter realizes the mistreatment of

Aibeleen and Skeeter are the most crucial characters in “The Help”. Aibeleen is the black maid who works for Mrs Elizabeth Leefolt (one of skeeters friends), and her character is displayed as emotional and vulnerable unlike any other maid. However there is something phenomenal about her. In the begining of the novel there is a conversation between Aibeleen and an unknown woman. The woman says “did you ever dream of being something else?” Aibeleen nods “yes”. This shows that there is something much more beyond to Aibeleens character rather then just being an

was killed in an accident while she was working. Depressed since the loss of her only child, Aibileen draws strength from both her faith and her best friend Minny. With quiet courage and dignity, Aibileen fulfills her duties as the Leefolt family’s maid, caring for their little girl, Mae Mobley. When she reluctantly collaborates with Skeeter, Aibileen finds herself opening up and telling her stories for the first time in her life even though the seemingly simple act brings with it the risk of retaliation and jail time. The maids had to believe that being a maid for very little pay was the way to get by in life. For most of them that was all they knew, their mom was a maid, grandma, sisters. Since most didn’t have the money to pay for school becoming a maid was the

She cares for Elizabeth’s child and does all of the work around the house. As Aibileen and Skeeter work together to answer the “Miss Myrna” questions, Skeeter gets the idea to write a book about domestic maids. Skeeter submits her idea to Harper & Row Publishing and the company expressed interest. The company said that they would consider publishing under a few conditions- Skeeter had to include at least twelve maids and finish the book before the New Year. Aibileen convinced her candid friend, Minny (Hilly’s mother’s former maid), to get involved in the story but Skeeter still needed ten more. With tensions created by the Civil Rights Movement, Skeeter struggled to find maids that would agree to take such a risk, but when Hilly takes things a little too far, eleven maids from Aibileen’s church agreed to tell Skeeter their

To have a relationship with a person of an opposing race was atypical of the societal norms of the 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi. However, Aibileen and Miss Skeeter challenge this view by developing a relationship characterized by equality and kindness to create a social change.  Miss Skeeter, a recent college graduate, returns from college with a new perspective about race. With the help of the education Miss Skeeter received, she begins to dismiss society’s views. She realized quickly that her actions towards the help are much different from her peers who