As Zora Neale Hurston once said, “If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.” In The Help by Katherine Stockett, three brave women of different races join together to stand up for what they believe in and publish an anonymously written book based on the treatment of black maids working for white families in Jackson, Mississippi during the 1960s. In the novel, Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter tell their stories from different perspectives in order to give voice to those who cannot be heard. Aibileen, a black maid working for Elizabeth Leefolt, has taken care of eighteen white babies and watched them grow from innocent children into children influenced by their parents beliefs of racism. When Skeeter is talking to Elaine Stein, she mentions that the help loves the children and the children love the help, but before they know it, the children are grown and become the employers of their once loved help. Aibileen is empowered to contribute to the novel because of her extreme love for Mae Mobley. Aibileen is able to empathize with Mae Mobley because neither Aibileen nor Mae Mobley fit in with society’s standards. Throughout the novel, Aibileen teaches Mae Mobley lessons of self-love and racism and prejudice. At first, Aibileen denies Skeeter’s proposal into writing the book. However, once the Home Health Sanitation Initiative is set into place and Aibileen hears all of the terrible things Miss Hilly has to say about blacks, such as the diseases the
The book “The Help”, written by Kathryn Stockett, is a book that takes place in Jackson, Mississippi, around the 1960's, when the blacks were segregated from the whites. The story is mainly about a black woman Aibileen whose main job is to take care of children as well as to handle household duties. Along the way they meet a woman Skeeter's whose lifelong dream is to become a writer however the only job she can find, is with the Jackson Journal writing a housekeeping advice column which she knows very little about. To succeed in the job, Skeeter turns to her friend's maid, Aibileen, for answers and help to write the column.
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.
The Help is written from the view of the three main characters Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter from a small town named Jackson, Mississippi. First Aibileen, she is one of the primary African-American maids in the novel that works for the Leefolt family. Secondly, Minny is the feisty, smart-mouthing African American maid that works for Mrs. Holbrook till she is fired and later begins working for Mrs. Foote. Lastly, Skeeter is a young Caucasian woman who has returned from graduating college and dreams to be a writer. Skeeter hopes to change the typical southern views Jackson has of blacks that is apparent on every page of this novel. This sparks an ambition to write a book about the “helps” point of view on working for white families that is so
The most compelling character of this novel was Aibileen, an African-American maid working her days taking care of precious Mae Mobley Leefolt and the Leefolt’s house. She cooked and cleaned and earned little to no pay while doing so. Aibileen faced many conflicts throughout this book such as working through her son, Treelore’s death as well as raising a white two year old in a strict white woman’s house. She taught this girl to learn to love herself because her own mother was not. “Gave Mae Mobley one more hug, whisper, ‘You a smart girl. You a good girl.’” (Stockett 111) The biggest conflict Aibileen faced, however, was sitting down everyday and being interviewed by Skeeter Phelan who was a privileged white girl trying to make it as a writer. Skeeter asked Aibileen questions about what it is like to work as a maid, the challenges she faced daily, and trying to overcome the segregation gap in Jackson, Mississippi. As hard as it was, Aibileen answered all of these questions honestly in attempts to help Skeeter publish a book about working as a black woman during that time. Aibileen was developed well by the author because she showed the relationships she developed with white characters such as Skeeter and Mae Mobley. During that day and age, a black woman working together with a white woman was unheard of. Throughout The Help, Aibileen was going against the norm of society to try and find peace in this splintered town which made
The Help has a very important and relevant plot. Skeeter Phelan, a strong-headed young woman who sees the reality of racism the black maids face in her town of Jackson, Mississippi, decides to write a novel exposing what it is like to be working as a coloured woman tending to white families. After much effort, she convinces a friend’s ‘help,’ Aibileen Clark, to share her stories and recruit other Jackson maids to tell theirs. Through struggle and abuse, Minny Jackson continues to work as a maid to Celia Foote who is a slightly off-her-rocker, but well-meaning woman. Skeeter is involved in an on-again-off-again relationship with a Senator’s son, Stuart Whitworth, until he finally gives up trying for her when she admits to him her secret. Finally Miss Hilly, the town’s self-appointed queen, rules the racism with an iron fist and tries her hardest to sabotage Skeeter’s project. This book fits the theme
Civil Rights literature has been in hiding from the millions of readers in the world. Kathryn Stockett’s book, The Help, widely opens the doors to the worldwide readers to the experiences of those separated by the thin line drawn between blacks and whites in the 1960s. Kathryn makes her experiences of the character’s, making their stories as compelling as her own.
Set in the 1960s, Kathryn Stockett’s novel, The Help, is a story of black maids working in white Southern homes in Jackson, Mississippi. Portrayed through multiple character perspectives, Stockett’s writing largely focuses on a maid named Aibileen. Aibileen is a compassionate, strong-willed, and wise character. She teaches the white children she rears important values and throughout the novel Aibileen grows in the face of racial adversity. Aibileen is a protagonist.
However, she later decides to take a risk and help with the story, and she becomes much more fearless. Minny also helped persuade many other maids to share their life stories and include them in the book. I believe that this relates to a text to world connection because I think that in real life, people who take risks for the good of the world are very strong. Another important character is Aibileen, who is Minny’s best friend. Aibileen and Minny are different in many ways. For one thing, Aibileen is much quieter than Minny. Aibileen is always afraid to say the wrong things in front of the white families she works for, because she has a fear of getting fired. Aibileen also wishes that black and white people didn’t have to be separate, while Minny doesn’t mind the racial segregation. Aibileen works for Elizabeth Leefolt, and she cares for Elizabeth’s child, Mae Mobley. Aibileen and Mae Mobley have a very special bond, and Aibileen loves her as if she’s her own child.Aibileen is the first maid who agrees to help Skeeter write her
Kathryn Stockett’s, The Help, introduces two main characters in the novel who reveal their drastic experiences of the day-to-day life of an African American during the early 1960’s. These hard working ladies, Aibileen Clark and Minny, dedicate and spend their lives taking care of white families and raising their innocent children. Discrimination played a big role in the society during this era, and was considered normal; however, these tough and independent women took every day as a new challenge to look for the the best outcome. In the novel, Kathryn Stockett interprets nature imagery to symbolize the traumatic experiences and struggles each black minority undergoes.
Everyone in this world has in some way a strong bond with their mother because after all she is the one that gave birth to us and was there every step of the way as we grew up. Like any other typical person, one would tend to argue with their parents based on certain beliefs or ideas they uphold. An example of this would be how both Jing-Mei from the passage Two Kinds by Amy Tan and Skeeter from The Help by Kathryn Stockett, both characters are standing up for themselves and are staying true to their opinions. But one of the main things that cause both passages to differ from each other is the setting and tone that is used by the authors. For a parent and child to have a strong understanding of each other, they must first go through a journey of self-discovery.
I thoroughly enjoyed your interpretation of The Help. You answered the questions wonderfully, providing excellent explanation and evidence from the novel. I did not choose Skeeter as my favorite character, but I can easily see how you like her so much. Her self drive to give the colored maids a voice in the world, is a courageous risk to take. Your answer to number ten stood out to me the most, because of what currently happens on Las Vegas. Your response was easily related to today's society, by “a person’s character is based on the things they go through.” Moreover, I think you could write an excellent epilogue to this book, depicting the characters lives perfectly in ten years. I love how to paired Miss Celia and Minnie in opening a local
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.
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
“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
Jackson, Mississippi, is the home to many audacious minded folks, and amid the sea of offensively opinionated white women, Minny Jackson stands out. Minny is black woman who like most, in the early 1960’s, is one of the help. Though being a maid is quite monotonous, Minny finds ways to make things precariously exciting. Due to Minny’s assertive nature she often struggles to keep her attitude from submerging throughout every aspect of the day. Although She is prone to cause mischief, her best friend Aibileen repeatedly attempts to subdue Minny’s temper in order to protect her from herself. In Kathryn Stockett’s The Help, she thoroughly develops Minny Jackson as a character through her bold actions and defiant thoughts.