Preview

The Help

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1221 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Help
“The Help” (Good Copy)
Would you want to live in the 1960’s, have a black skin colour and be considered an “animal” or a “slave”. That’s exactly what happened to the dark coloured citizens of that time, who worked for the white people as slaves or maids. During the 1960’s time there was a small rebellion in Jackson Mississippi influenced by a book called the “The Help”, which was life changing for black citizens.

Skeeter the protagonist of this story gave three big impacts to the black community. First, Skeeter stood up for the black people’s rights by writing the book about the experiences of the maids. Second, is that when the book got published, the message was spread far and wide, both emotionally and physically. The last big effect that took place was that, Skeeter gave the black community confidence, power and strength to stand up for themselves. Personally I believe Skeeter did the right thing by writing the book because it changed many people’s lives and personality even though hers was at risk.

Skeeter stood up to the white people for the maids by writing a book called the help, about the experiences of the black maid’s daily life. By writing the book Skeeter has made the readers feel sensitive towards the black people in a good way by describing what the black maids have suffered through out their life. In the movie Skeeter wrote about a maid who served a family for at least 10 years and got fired just because the maid used the washroom in the white people’s house. In the end Skeeter has shown what hardships the maids had to go through. It was also a hard time for Skeeter because when she published the book people who knew her got frustrated and mad. Even though she knew people will find out, she still wrote and published the book for the maids. For example, when Skeeter’s boyfriend found out she wrote the book, he felt really frustrated and betrayed so in the end he finished their relationship. This was another way of how she has stood up for the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The concept of “opposites” is found very frequently throughout the book and the theme of “black and white” that goes along with this concept is very strongly highlighted by the author. On one hand of the spectrum we find Shirlee’s mother, a child of a family that has been reaching and struggling to obtain the white side of life. This struggle begins generations upon generations before the birth of Shirlee or her mother. This beginning to this struggle can be pinpointed to the union of an offspring of a black slave and her master and an abandoned Irish girl. These were Shirlee’s grandparents from generations back and their children were the first to experience both the hardships of being black and the opportunities that lay in being white. These children grew up and all but one either died or assumed the identity of one who was technically a different race. They had lived in their youth fighting for a chance to survive as black and found that there was no road to success aside from utilizing their light skin as the escape from the inequality and unfairness of a racially…

    • 924 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In ‘The Help’ the character Skeeter is the catalyst for change. The change she causes is a change in mentality towards the African American helpers. This change in mentality is represented through Skeeter’s mother.…

    • 584 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Let’s stop believing that our differences make us superior or inferior to one another”- Don Miguel Ruiz. The novel “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett is a controversial and heart-wrenching story that depicts the cruel brutality and inequality that African Americans faced in Jackson, Mississippi during the early 1960’s. In the novel, Stockett shows the inequality between races, how Caucasian Americans believed they were superior, and the bigotry between social classes through the characterization of the main characters and bringing forth facts from that time setting. These issues have changed over the years but are yet still here in a more subtle way.…

    • 102 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Your responses were meticulously developed and I thoroughly enjoyed reading them. Although we chose different characters I like the evidence you provided for Skeeter. She did not conform to the standards of the community she resided in, wanting to give the colored maids a voice in the world. You provided excellent explanation and evidence for the majority of your responses. I too found that Aibileen was most at stake regarding writing the novel. I did not think Skeeter was because she was apart of the white supremacist society, and did not have to fear the consequences as much as the colored. I can see where you are coming from, Skeeter lost many friends and a potential husband. I completely agree with saying “I didn't like the idea of Aibileen…

    • 193 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The lives of Black Americans during 1945-52 were shaped greatly by the reconstruction of America following the Civil War a century earlier; the lives of these people were largely dictated, especially in the Southern states, by policies of disenfranchisement and segregation implemented between these time periods, specifically the ‘Jim crow’ laws, though it can be said that certain occurrences, such as Trumans input and the NAAPC between these times, began to combat the oppression Black Americans faced, which in turn began to improve their lives for the better. The movements that occurred provided the platform for the changes that were implemented in later years, but because of society’s unwillingness to accept change, the larger part of what could have happened was merely the catalyst which in time won the support of the majority and allowed Black Americans lives to be changed for the better.…

    • 1212 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel, The Help, Skeeter is described as an abnormally tall, lanky girl who has trouble fitting in with most of the other girls. Skeeter has always been different-she does not follow the crowd (or Hilly) like the other woman do. Skeeter is a very caring and loving person, especially for her old maid Constatine whom she looses contact with. “I miss Constatine more than anything I’ve ever missed in my life” (Stockett 60). She believes in the rights of both colored and whites; she is constantly judging her friends’ decisions in her…

    • 1941 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Wasn't that the point of the book? For women to realize, we are just two people. Not that much separates us (p. 530).” Descriptions of historical events of the early activities of the civil rights movement are sprinkled throughout the novel, as are relations between the maids and their white employers. The novel is filled with details from the early-1960s culture in the United States like Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous march on Washington…

    • 586 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Elie Wiesel's The Help

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Help is a very inspiring story about racism, bravery, and change. The main character skeeter, struggles to become a writer for Elaine Stein publishing company, she must create an “original” idea to write about for her first article in the paper. Aibileen also narrates the story and she’s describing what she feels throughout the story. The Help is important for our society to read because it’s reminding us that racism was a problem that happened and it’s important to learn about it.…

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The author was very successful in proving her point about the racism going on in the world. She first proved a point by telling her story because she is admitting that racism is something, and how she knows that it is. Her purpose was to inform people that racism is something and if someone that is young with a very racist family can overlook those things her family did, then she knows that people now can start to overlook t what happened in the…

    • 1129 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The three-decade period beginning in the 1940s and carrying over into the 1960s was a highly important era for the African-American Freedom Struggle. During this period, black Americans were living in a highly militant environment, not just in the Deep South but in the entire United States as a whole. The era was also defined by highly organized efforts by black Americans to defend their personal dignity, to achieve legal recognition of civil rights and to gain greater socioeconomic status. The importance of the Second World War (WWII) regarding African-American rights and freedom is frequently overlooked in today’s society.…

    • 3847 Words
    • 16 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Jim Crow

    • 1394 Words
    • 6 Pages

    C. Vann Woodward’s book The Strange Career of Jim Crow is a close look at the struggles of the African American community from the time of Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Movement. The book portrays a scene where the Negroes are now free men after being slaves on the plantations and their adaptation to life as being seen as free yet inferior to the White race and their hundred year struggle of becoming equals in a community where they have always been seen as second class citizens.…

    • 1394 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    She calls upon the of a number of maids who works for her friends; Aibileen, Minny and Pascagoula in order to make her book a real like interpretation of the struggles they face on a daily bases. Jackson has a community that seems to be very racist and oblivious and close minded towards change and fait treatment towards citizens that reside there. The community seemingly split in two divided over an adequate racial line that has been passed down from generations to generations. Stern guidelines and regulations are put in place in order to separate the blacks and white. The writer gives us a glimpse of the Mississippian world back in the day and how maids were treated and the amount of racism and hatred that occurred in Jackson Mississippi. White Mississippians had been brought up and through social conditioning they had a mentality that prevented them to change their views and allow blacks to live the same luxury they had. Whites had more freedom blacks had, they allowed their communities to grow and flourish whereas blacks’ community became congested and overcrowded due to the restrictions preventing their community to grow “Jackson is just one white neighbourhood after the next” and “the coloured part of town be one big…

    • 1770 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    During the early 1960’s African Americans faced hardships so that maybe one day they could be considered equal. They were banished, shunned and even killed by the white race in the South. During non-violent protests they were treated like animals and were ridiculed by people who were against them having equal rights. In the novel “The Help”, written by Kathryn Stockett, she goes in depth of what it was like during this era for African Americans. She ties in fictional things and events to give you a feel of what it may have been like for people back then through her characters.…

    • 1289 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    At the start of the book a naïve, young and innocent African American girl lived life almost oblivious to the socially constructed issue of race. She did not see the difference of skin color and believed it was perfectly normal to socialize with whites. As far as she was concerned raced did not exist. This view was quickly altered and changed as the little girl named Essie-Mae Moody grew up fast in a society dominated by racial boundaries involving whites, blacks and a hierarchy of people who had parts of both. Essie’s first encounter with race which initiated her first change, from being oblivious to being confused, occurred early in life. When she was young, she was friends with and often played with white children. This all changed when an unknowing Essie-Mae tried to sit with her white friends in a white’s only section of a movie theatre. After being harshly corrected of her errors by her mother her eyes were opened for the first time to a world with race. “I knew that we were going to separate schools and all, but I never knew why.”1 At this point her innocence was lost and confusion took hold of her. At this point she realized the bigger picture, that she and her friends were different because of their skin color.…

    • 1283 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Throughout the 1960’s, the widespread movement for African American civil rights had transformed in terms of its goals and strategies. The campaign had intensified in this decade, characterized by greater demands and more aggressive efforts. Although the support of the Civil Rights movement was relatively constant, the goals of the movement became more high-reaching and specific, and its strategies became less compromising. African Americans’ struggle for equality during the 1960’s was a relentless movement that used change for progress. In essence, the transformation of the Civil Rights Movement throughout the 1960’s forwarded the evolution of America into a nation of civil equality and freedom.…

    • 2441 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays