‘Every morning, until you dead in the ground, you gone have to make this decision. You gone have to ask yourself, “Am I gone believe what them fools say about me today?” (Stockett)
The help make it easier for (someone) to do something by offering one’s service or resources. Also the help symbolizes black women that are living in white women’s world. The movie ‘The Help,’ is based in Jackson, Mississippi in 1963, which is directed from a black women’s view of how they go through life being a maid for a white women. In the beginning Skeeter ask, Aibileen; “What does it feel like raising a white child when your children are at home are being raised by someone else?” Aibileen was at loss of words, because years ago she had lost her son. Aibileen is a kind woman trying to make her living being a help for Elizabeth Leefolt. She is there for cooking, cleaning, ironing, grocery shopping, and washing. She works the hours of 8 to 4 and gets paid exactly 0.95 cents an hour and makes 182 dollars a month. She works 6 days a week and mostly takes care of Mae Mobley, her sweet girl. Also Aibileen’s best friend Minny works as a help for Hilly Holbrook also best friend to Elizabeth.
…show more content…
She is graduated from Ole Miss and came home wanting to become a write. As entering back into Jackson, Skeeter got a job at Jackson Journal writing a cleaning advice column and has asked Elizabeth if Aibileen could help her. Later, Elizabeth realized Hilly needed to use the bathroom and didn’t want to go due to the fact that a black help use the same bathroom. Hilly says, “They carry different diseases than we do.” Then topic of discussion became black help using the same bathroom as whites. Which brought up the Home Health Sanitation Initiative, a disease prevention bill that requires every white home to have a separate bathroom for the colored
Aibileen’s new separate bathroom was finally finished and Miss Leefolt announced the news. Aibileen's has her own bathroom so there isn’t any spreading of disease. The white family’s at that time always had maids, or also referred to as the “the help.” The women of the white homes did not have to put much effort due to their black maids, who performed all their daily tasks. This quote shows how “the help,” for instance, Aibileen have to obey, with their little to no privileges. They couldn’t express how they feel or what they want. Extreme racial segregation was common during this time. These black maids weren’t treated humanely and fairly, but like something lower just because of their color. For Miss Leefolt to spend her money to build Aibileen
Aibileen, on the other hand, hasn’t obtained as much education as Mrs. Skeeter. Aibileen was black, and back in her days, blacks did not have the opportunity to receive the same education as whites did. Aiblieen was a very bright student and would have been very successful if she could have finished school. Even her teacher, Miss Ross, said that she was very intelligent, “You’re the smartest in the class, Abilieen.” Unfortunately, she could not finish school because she had to support her mother with bills that she could not pay herself. She stopped going to school when she was fourteen years old. She instead went to work as a maid and wait on white families. Because of her lack of education, she did not speak very well. She often used slang
In “The Help”, Stockett utilizes allusions to focus on the social issue of racial segregation in the United States. Firstly, the setting of the book is an allusion, as it takes place in Mississippi, a place which in the sixties was notorious for being a state full of racism and pro segregation. The Book also alludes to a significant amount civil rights movements and figures such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., The March on Washington, sit ins, and Medgar Evers. These
A passage can be found at the beginning, middle, and end of The Help by Kathryn Stockett that shows great examples of tone, diction, and syntax. “Miss Skeeter look real confused. ‘The home… the what?’ ‘A Bill that requires every white home to have a separate bathroom for the colored help… Miss Skeeter, she frowning at Miss Hilly. She set her cards down face up and say real matter-of-fact, ‘Maybe we ought to just build you a bathroom outside, Hilly” (9). This early in the book, we have learned what Stockett’s opinion is based her tone, as well as how she presents Hilly and Skeeter. Hilly is first described through Aibileen, who doesn’t care for Miss Hilly at all because of the way she treats the help. We have already learned that Hilly is incredibly racist and self-entitled. Everyone has a Hilly of some
In the book The Help by Kathryn Stockett main character Skeeter Phelan works with the help, who work for her friends and associates all over town, in secret to compile a book of stories, benign and riddled with malice, about their employers. The author uses contrasting locations such as the plantation owned and inhabited by Skeeter and her family and Aibileen's house across the bridge in the colored part of town to show how truly different these two characters are, and that despite their differences in status, upbringing, and financial state, they still come together to bring to light the injustices suffered by maids, and the need for civil change.
Aibileen is a colored woman in The Help who is selfless by the way she takes care of Mae Mobley who is the daughter of Elizabeth leefolt, and how she teaches mae mobley to be self loving, Aibileen has changed since her son Treelore’s death and finds that she cannot easily accept the way colored people are treated and is now set on the right path to do the right thing for society by showing how colored people are treated. Even after losing everything Aibileen remains selfless, caring, and committed to doing the right thing.
Throughout the book The Help, written by Kathryn Stockett, the author characterizes each person in the book with different traits and personalities. Stockett especially shows this in one of the main characters, Aibileen Clark. The author manages to paint Aibileen with a quiet grace and an aura of wisdom about her. This is shown throughout the book in many different ways, such as when Aibileen has the grace to turn the other cheek when the white women are degrading their help in front of her. Both the movie and the book are able to show throughout the story, Aibileen demonstrates characteristics such as grace, wisdom, and kindness.
The call to adventure is the first step of the heros journey. This is when the hero will be influenced to leave the known world or what is familiar to them. If and when the hero chooses to answer the call, they will leave the familiar and enter the unfamiliar. Skeeter’s call to adventure is when she gets the job as the journalist. At this newspaper company she will write a news column about house cleaning.
The reader receives the information from all three characters but as for the narrator it is Aibileen the novel's chapters develops by telling the stories of other maids and then joins them in together as one. The narrator focuses on the most important parts so the larger issues of the story ,this perspective is used to the effect of this novel. Main characters: In this novel there is three main characters Skeeter, Aibileen , and Minny these three characters are described before their stories are told. Aibileen is a 53 year old black woman who takes care of white babies, she also lost her own son in an accident which put her on the point of killing herself but Minny saved her and took care of her.
Based off of Kathryn Stockett’s 2009 novel, The Help is a movie told from an African American’s point of view during the early 1960’s in Jackson, Mississippi. The three main characters include, Aibileen Clark, Minny Jackson, and Eugenia (Skeeter) Phelan. Skeeter is a young writer who has recently returned from the University of Mississippi. She has been advised by the Elaine Stein, who is the head editor at Harper & Row, to write about a topic she is passionate about, that way she can continue her dream of becoming a serious writer. In addition, Skeeter accepts a writing job down at the Jackson Journal where she writes a housekeeping column. Ironically, she has no housekeeping experience as she grew up with in house help. In order to keep her job she goes to Aibileen, her friend Elizabeth Leefolt’s housekeeper. At this point in her life, Aibileen is just trying to get by. She writes out her prayers on a daily basis as a way to clear her mind since she is fairly reserved on the outside. On the contrary, Aibileen’s friend Minny is also a housekeeper, but she has a rather sharp tongue which doesn’t usually work in her favor. Consequently, she is trying to find a new employer, but is having trouble since there is a bit of discord between her and the most influential socialite in Jackson, Mississippi.
The three girls working together begins to create the solution to the main conflict. The main conflict in this case is blacks are being treated in a way that is not fair. They are being treated as if they are disease carrying things. Skeeter wants to change that perspective on people. That’s why she wants to write a book on how black maids are treated in Mississippi. “I turn and hear Pascagoula’s knock on my door. That’s when the idea hit me. No. I couldn’t. That would be . . . crossing the line.” - (Page 104) This was foreshadowing what Skeeter would do next. It let the reader know what was going to happen. Minny and Aibileen are there to help Skeeter with her book. They are the interviews. At first, the book starts out with Aibileen doing a normal day of work. She notices the Skeeter isn’t like all the other ladies. She’s more polite. When Skeeter gets a job at the local newspaper she starts to go to Aibileen for help with the Miss Myrna articles. She is even willing to pay her to help her. “ ‘For your help,’ I say quietly, ‘ I’ve put away five dollars for every article. It’s up to thirty-five dollars now.’ ” (Page 126) This shows that Skeeter is quite
First of all, the movie The Help tells a story of African American maids working in white southern homes in the 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi. The maids work with a 22 year old white woman, Skeeter Phelan, a returning college student with dreams of being a writer, to create a book portraying their lives. Skeeter interviews African American women who have spent the majority of their lives taking care of prominent white families. Aibileen Clark is one such servant, who works for Skeeters friend, Mrs. Leefolt. Skeeter begins by asking Aibileen questions about cleaning for her newspaper column on household cleaning. However, once Skeeter receives news about her absent elderly servant who
Part 1 - In American author's 2009 book, The Help, the primary thesis is the relationship between Black maids and white households in Jackson, Mississippi during the early 1960s. The story is really told from three perspectives, Aibileen and Minny are Black women, both maids, and Skeeter is the nickname of Eugenia Phelan, daughter of a prominent White family. Skeeter has just finished school and hopes to become a writer. In general, the relationship between the Black maids and the White employers is six sided: On one side we have the White employers who have three views: 1) Their personal and private beliefs that can range from extreme scorn and bias to kindness regarding race; 2) Their public persona that must have the "proper" attitude about Blacks and "the help," and 3) Their employer attitude, which is condescending and parental. The Black view also has three segments: 1) Their personal and private beliefs that usually range from understanding not all Whites are the same and an extreme love and empathy for the White children for whom they care; 2) The public persona that is deferential, polite, and stoic to their White bosses; and 3) Their attitude and view among the Black community, which usually separates the "poor and ignorant but rich" White souls from the Black view of family and common sense. All in all, the relationship is contentious, phony, and based on economic advantage.
Although the maids were struggling and going through a difficult time in 1960’s, The Help portrays that their family members were too. Segregated society against the backdrop of the growing US civil rights movement in the 1960’s has an impacted. “Race also determines who has access to educational, occupational, and economic opportunity. Racial tensions are high as white community members employ violence and coercion to try to keep the Civil Rights Movement from sweeping into their Mississippi town” (Shmoop Editorial Team). The white community in the movie continue to keep the black women as their servants throughout their lives. As Skeeter the white lady, who writes a book about The Help and portrays through the book that the African American women go through. As the white women of Jackson, Mississippi read the book they began to act more violent to the black women. The book is away as the black women to make a statement about the civil rights they have.
Kathryn Scott’s The Help takes place in Jackson, Mississippi during the 1960s. This movie emphasizes tense racial conflicts that dominated the South during this post-World War era. Segregation of whites verse blacks was a prevailing and dominating theme of the decade. The Help attempts to depict this time period by focusing on a white woman, Skeeter Phelan, who aspires to become a journalist. Society considered Skeeter as an oddity for wanting to leave her family and pursue an education. She goes against all social norms and secretly asks her maid, Aibileen, to help her write a book about the lives of maids. Despite the overwhelming danger associated with their relationship Aibileen agrees and even encourages other maids to take part. The intention behind Skeeter Phelan’s book was to spark a movement and change the way white people view their help. The Help suggests that education is the only route to social change.