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"The Help" Research Paper

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The Help 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. The Help by Kathryn Stockett, is a book set in the early 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi, told by three different women: Abilene, Minny and Skeeter, in each of their perspectives. Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan is a graduate student whose dream is to become a writer, but when she tries for a position at the local newspaper, she is given the job of writing housekeeping tips. …show more content…

They feel strongly that the dialect was wrong for the whites and was very strict with the blacks. Saying, “Responses have been generally very positive towards The Help, which details the lives of black maids in 60's Mississippi and the white women they work for, but some seem disconcerted by the idea of Stockett, a white woman, writing, with heavy dialect, in the voices of black women” the author made it clear that the other review should’ve included this. I liked that the author was able to back her opinion and have excerpts from other reviews as proof. I am glad that they put things that they did and didn’t like about the book giving the reader a thorough book review. Literary Analysis The Help was an enjoyable book. The author’s writing allowed me to relate with the characters making it enjoyable. Although the book was generally good, the most outstanding flaw of the book was the dialect of the characters. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to immerse themselves in history. It is hard to put down, and seems to be in line with historical facts. The outstanding flaw to me was that the book seemed a bit racist. The dialect given to the black characters was continuously incorrect. For example, “Oh, like your Miss Patterson ain’t...Law, that woman crazy,” both showing incorrect dialect from a black character. Now, looking at a white character’s dialect, “Minny cooks fine...I’m just not so hungry like I used to be.” This character’s dialect

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