The Help By Kathryn Stockett

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

As a journalist for the Miss Myrna column at the Jackson Journal, Miss Skeeter gives advice on housekeeping and relationships. Since she doesn’t know anything about housekeeping she has to go to Aibileen, one of her good friends Elizabeth’s maids. Through this they create a friendship and Miss Skeeter decides to expand her journalism career by writing a book about the experiences the maids have had working for white families. During this time it was unacceptable for different races to communicate outside of work, so the friendship Miss Skeeter made with Aibileen and Minny can cause a lot of harm for all of them.

Skeeter is a young educated privileged daughter of a cotton plantation owner. The fact that skeeter participates through many different changes as the story progresses and realizes that it is her own choice to choose what to believe in, and shows that she remains a dynamic character (2009:63). Skeeter decides to cross dangerous lines and start writing a book that contains the real stories of the black maids in Jackson (2009:102) as a result of that skeeter became more and more distanced from her white friends , and closer to the black people remains her as a round character because of her developed personality and multiplied traits, beside from that skeeter decides to go against all the people and go her on way. On the other hand Alan Ward is a FBI agent who is a

The Help is a novel that explores the lives of black maids living in the racially unjust, Mississippi in the 1960s, by using the perspective of two black maids and a female, white writer. Minny and Aibileen are the two maids who are close friends and like many other maids, have spent the majority of their life cleaning up after white families and raising their kids. Skeeter is the third character the novel centers around; she fondly remembers her own maid, Constantine but lacks information about her disappearance and current whereabouts. Her ambition to write and love for her childhood career lead her and the maids to eventually come together and become involved in a dangerous project which puts all their lives at risk.

In post-slavery America, being black wasn’t easy. In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God the struggle black Americans went through is quite evident. Although Nanny and Janie don’t actually suffer through many economic hardships (they lived with a white family and were provided with most necessities), Nanny, not wanting Janie to go through the same things she did, expects her granddaughter to marry someone who will provide her with both financial security and a chance at a safe life. Throughout chapters one through four, marriage plays an important role in characterizing both Janie and Nanny, besides also proposing the story’s initial conflict.

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.

Skeeter has to be very careful about what she talks about and who she can socialize with in public. Another way in which Skeeter is similar to the maids, is how she is always friendly and welcoming to everyone. She is able to look past the color and looks of a person and be able to see them for who they truly are. She thinks the Help are extremely mistreated and deserve better conditions. As Skeeter talks with Miss Stern on the phone she explains the goals of her book.

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

“all the white woman in jackson having babies but not miss skeeter, no man and no babies” director uses a voice over from aibileen, which portrays to us that skeeter does not care for those things but she will in time when she's lived her life and is ready. Charlotte and skeeter have a fight after she knows her mother fired her maid and best friend, constantine “she did you the biggest favour of your life, she raised me” which is showing the audience that the black help raise the children more than their own mothers do. We see an extreme close-up of skeeters face with tears running down her face, we feel pity for her as she has lost a friend who meant a lot to her, skeeter does not see colour but the person of who they are . later on in the resolution charlotte sticks up for skeeter when Hilly comes to argue with her. The director chooses dialogue to showcase this “If I didn’t know any better Hilly, I think you have been eating too much pie” to illustrate Skeeter’s mother,

Over the course of the novel, The Help, Stockett uses women of different backgrounds to depict the various effects that society has on an individual. Oftentimes, Skeeter does not conform to society, as she has differing values and beliefs than the other women her age. Growing up, Skeeter was often in conflict with her mother who firmly believes that a woman’s main purpose is to care for their family. As a result, she does not tell her that she aspires to become a writer in New York one day in fear that “she’ll only turn it into yet another thing that separates (her) from the married girls” (Stockett 65). Skeeter’s mother holds high standards for her daughter and is constantly trying to shape her into becoming the perfect image of society.

This ultimately makes her a more resilient character, who is not afraid to stand up and speak her mind, as she is not following the social conforms of a traditional and conservative society. Skeeter does not want to follow the traditional path of marriage and motherhood, but instead to work in the writing industry, a workforce dominated by men in Mississippi. Although Skeeter and her best friends, Hilly Holbrook and Elizabeth Leefolt, all attended Ole Miss University, Skeeter was the only one to graduate, as the other woman attended university solely to find a husband. When Skeeter gets a job at the Jackson Journal, she tells her friends at her bridge club. Although they congratulate her, they are initially shocked, and it can be clearly seen from their gestures and facial expressions that they do not approve of Skeeter’s career choice.

This job was not a suitable job for him because of his size. The only reason he took this job was to help support his family. Aibileen also struggles with helping Skeeter with her housekeeping column as well as the book. She understands how life threatening her contributions to helping Skeeter complete the book is. She also knows how important it is to Skeeter to succeed as a professional writer and does everything she can to help 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.

I selected this book, The Help by: Kathryn Stockett because I think it is interesting how in history women help with many different situations, I wanted to try reading a new type of genre, and to know something about history. I admire what women do historically to make our society the best it can be. When I found out the story revolves around women, I thought I’d read the book.

The main character, Skeeter Phelan is a college graduate, who was raised by a black maid named Constantine. Skeeter is a very well educated woman, however after returning to her home town, realizes that she is very different from the people she grew up with. She had the idea to write the book from observing the relationships between black maids and their white employers throughout her whole life. Since she was raised by a black maid, and through social learning, she does not see a difference