The Characters Of The Book : Minny Jackson

3. Examine the cover of the novel. What images do you see? How do you think the images are connected to the story?

Key Characters: Name the three (3) most important characters in your novel, describe each character using two (2) adjectives and provide two (2) concrete details (quotations and page numbers) to support your choices.

There are many artistic elements located throughout the book The Help by Kathryn Stockett. These elements help to create images in the readers’ minds, which make the book a strong piece of art. At the same time, the book is also a powerful cultural artifact due to the incorporation of valuable past and present themes of culture. Even though Stockett artfully enhances her book with literary elements, The Help is a stronger cultural artifact than it is an artistic work of literature.

He got the idea from a book called “The Invisible Man”, and Aibileen decides to help Skeeter with it because of Miss Hilly. Unlike the book, Skeeter comes up with the idea of writing what it’s like to be a black maid working for a white family herself, and Aibileen chooses to help her with it because of God and Miss Hilly. Near the end of the book, Aibileen gives Skeeter a copy of “The Help” signed by everyone that helped out. In the movie, the church (filled with everyone who helped the book) gives Aibileen a signed book.

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

Sample Question 2: “The struggle to achieve dominance over others frequently appears in fiction.” Choose a novel in which such a struggle for dominance occurs, and write an essay showing for what purposes the author uses the struggle. Avoid plot summary

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

She works for Elizabeth, an affluent white woman who is pregnant with her second child, even as she neglects her first child. Aibileen is the liaison between Skeeter, Elizabeth’s best friend, and the other maids.

2.      Identify the author’s main idea(s). In other words, what is the main point the author is attempting to make about the book?

By writing her book, The Help, Skeeter is changed and is finally able to see everything for what it truly is. “But then I realize, like a shell cracking open in my head, there’s no difference between these government laws and Hilly building Aibileen a bathroom in the garage, except ten minutes’ worth of signatures in the state capital.” For instance, Skeeter and her mother shared a somewhat stable relationship, but after she is diagnosed with stomach cancer, their relationship grew

Being long life friends with Miss Leefolt and Hilly Holbrook takes a sharp turn when she decides to share her thoughts with her community. Her ladies all look down on colored women but Skeeter feels the opposite. Skeeter maintains her strong mind of that people like Aibileen and Minny are just as imperative as the high-society white women that treat them like the garbage on the side of city streets. In the start of the story Skeeter would talk to Aibileen in private, she was the only one in Miss Leefolts space that would respect someone like Aibileen. “The doorbell ring

As the three men were eating, well Harry and Chief were eating; Jackson was drinking coffee and doing more pushing the food around the tray than eating. Once Harry cleared his throat, Jackson stopped what he was doing to take another bite before pushing the tray away because the pancakes were making him so sick he wanted to puke. As his next act, Harry placed a bowl of oatmeal from his tray in front of Jackson before pointing at it. Glaring at his friend, Jackson ate the entire bowl, whereas Harry promptly placed another bowl in front of him, causing Chief to smile at the antics of the two men. Henceforth, knowing he wasn’t going to win this battle, Jackson chose the route of least resistance and ate the second bowl without voicing any objection.

One aspect that stood out to me was dialogue. Dialogue is found at the start of the scene where Skeeter is finalising the book with the maids that helped to publish The Help, (Aibileen and Minnie), they said “ So you just send it off then we wait” to which Skeeter replies “Well i still have one story left to type up but other than that were good” which the maids say “Which one you got left” , “Uhh, Mine” Skeeter replies. This is later taken to Skeeter telling

My favorite character in the book is Mary’s Grandma (in the book they call her Grandma) because she is a trustworthy person. Mary trusted her even though the thought Grandma was doing wrong but really she was doing well, like taking a can of Bootsie (Mary’’s cat).

The plot was very well written and was easy to be understood. The story was sad, tragic, distressing and a definite tear- jerker. The characters were more human, they were much more flawed, but real. I do like and admire Theresa because of her attitude towards taking care of Kevin, her son. It showed her undying love and passion because even though she is a single parent, she still managed to raise her son. I also like Garrett because he showed how devoted he is to his ex-wife Catherine. He has a very truthful and real attitude just like his well-written letters. The character that I love the most is Jeb Blake, Garret’s father. Even though he only had few exposures in the book, I learned a lot from him especially with his fatherly-advice, his words of wisdom. I can relate to it because just like Garret, I have a father who likes giving advices, who always remind what and what not to do. If I were to choose a third main character it would definitely be Catherine. Although, she was already dead, everything in the novel was because of her, about her, for the sake of