By Ricardo Martin of Duncanville High School in Duncanville, Texas Finding Light in the Darkest Hour Aibileen Clark, the main character of the fiction novel The Help by Kathryn Stockett, finds her voice in a place filled with prejudice, weak-minded racists. This character is a black maid in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962. With the loss of her son, Treelore, she becomes stuck in a sea of racial slurs, bridge clubs, and tending to the Leefolts. Toward to end of the novel, Aibileen along with her new friend, Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, and her best friend, Minny Jackson, produce a novel that consists of testimonies from maids around Jackson, Mississippi. Aibileen is an inspiring character who harnesses traits such as being wise, outspoken, and strong. …show more content…
She was only fourteen when she first cared for a white child. Throughout her career, she has taken care of seventeen children and her own son. Skeeter Phelan asks Aibileen to assist her in her “Miss Myrna” questions because she knows of her experience and how long she’s been a maid. While pondering on the fear of terrible consequences, Aibileen realizes that “white [women] like to keep their hands clean.” (pg. 220) She knows what will happen if any white women were to find out that Skeeter, Minny, and her wrote about the women of Jackson. Aibileen knows how they think and what their reaction is going to
The Help by Kathryn Stockett Segregated bathrooms, lunch counters, and schools. Being treated like nothing more than dirt. For many African Americans living in the South this was part of their everyday life. The Help, written by Kathryn Stockett, is the story about the problems with racial prejudice and the mistreatment of the African Americans, many of which worked underneath whites. The bitter seed growing inside of Aibileen is a symbol of how she feels about her mistreatment of blacks.
Anne Moody has gained major life lessons by working as a maid for white families at an early age. She has learned the power of race and how white people lives were different from the blacks. Linda Jean and Mrs. Clairborne treated moody like a family. In fact, she used to dine with them at the same table. On the other hand, Mrs. Burke treated Moody with hatred and jealousy.
Daughter of a sharecropper, Anne Moody soon at a young age came to the realization that her skin color made her part of the inferior race, inferior to the white race and subject to the control and merciless power of the white society and government. As a child after her father abandoned her mother, Moody live in continuous poverty. Poverty caused her mother sincere depression and planted a seed of bitterness in little five year old Moody. ”Mama cried all night.” Stated Anne Moody.
The novel’s protagonist, Janie Crawford, a woman who dreamt of love, was on a journey to establish her voice and shape her own identity. She lived with Nanny, her grandmother, in a community inhabited by black and white people. This community only served as an antagonist to Janie, because she did not fit into the society in any respect. Race played a large factor in Janie being an outcast, because she was black, but had lighter skin than all other black people due to having a Caucasian ancestry.
Cathy Ames has been criticized because she is completely evil. It has expressed throughout the novel that Cathy is inhuman. She has no emotion, no feelings, and no good in her. Many state that she is a symbol for Satan or a witch, who is pawn of Satan. People go so far in declaring that she is one of these evil spirits because even from birth she was filled with extreme evil and darkness, lacking characteristic that make up a human.
By an anonymous writer later revealed as Skeeter also known as Eugenia Phelan. Skeeter, a white woman, returns to her hometown (Mississippi) to discover that her motherly nanny Constantine has left but no one tells what happened. Soon Skeeter realizes the injustice her society practices and decides to write a book where voices of black will be raised. She approaches Aibileen for sharing her narrative to which Aibileen responds positively and also let’s Minny in their secret. Minny, Aibileen’s friend, another black help, reveals a secret about Miss Hilly that ensures Miss Hilly’s silence after the publication of their writing project.
The Help focuses on the story of a upper class writer that tries to find her social identity as well as others. With help from the maids of Jackson, Mississippi, they all overcome stereotypes and discrimination. Aibileen's story was the foundation idea for Skeeter because she had been through so much in her life that she decided to tell her story. The fact that she was black, and a woman the role of a maid for the upper class families were passed down from generations so she saw her fair share of being looked down upon. Being a part of the Black/African African race, there were certain things
In the novel, Kindred, by Octavia E. Butler, a lot of ignorance and intelligence is demonstrated all through the book which in a way is dangerous. Kindred is a wonderful work of science fiction that catches the attention of readers by telling a story of Dana, a modern-day African-American woman, who is abruptly transported from California in 1976 to the antebellum South. Not only is Dana abruptly transported back in time but she’s able to experience first-hand the cruelty of enslaved black women and men in the 1800s. The experiences of Dana and the enslaved women in the novel were viewed as mostly women working in households.
Kathryn Stockett’s The Help, attests to the hateful and cruel reality that is the life of African Americans in Jackson, Mississippi circa the 1960’s. Stockett writes many anecdotes surrounding the relationship between Constantine, an African American maid, and the child she cares for, Skeeter. Skeeter reflects upon a memory of Constantine and
In the novel, The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, there are many characters that can be identified as an antagonist throughout the story. However, Hilly Holbrook is the most significant of them all. With her attitude towards colored people, her controlling personality, and the methods she uses in order to have her way, it is obvious that Ms. Hilly is a definite villain of this novel. In the novel, many white families, including Ms. Hilly’s, had hired African American maids to help them around the house.
“ Courage sometimes skips a generation. Thank-you for bringing it back to our family”. The Help shows that courage is needed to bring about change. ‘Discuss Tate Taylor’s film The Help is set in the early 1960’s of Jackson, Mississippi.
(The Help, 2011) Inspired by this, Aibileen amends her fear and becomes the first of the maids to disclose her story to Skeeter. She realizes the danger that could result from her decision, but she embraces the risk and relies on her faith for guidance. Aibileen wrestled with just how much courage she would need to do what Skeeter had asked her to do, despite the "bitter seed" planted inside of her. The convergence of Skeeter and Aibileen is a result of the courage demonstrated by Aibileen. Subsequently, Aibileen muses to herself, “God says we need to love our enemies, it hard to do, but it can start by telling the truth."
Adelina Amouteru, the main character of The Young Elites Novels, develops throughout the books as a villain affected by various known forces of society. The girl’s past involves discrimination from the world and even her family. All the bad influence as a child leads her to fight for one of the good forces of society, justice. Justice, however, turns into revenge when she suffers through a series of events. Adelina portrays both the despicable and honest powers that exist in a common society, such as being judged by her appearance and true identity.
In the novel The Help, Stockett writes about the lives of the African American women working for the prominent white families and the trial and tribulations that they have encountered. The African American women are the people who are taking care of the white families home and children while being disrespected and unappreciated by their boss. “I’d like to write this showing the point of view of the help. The colored women down here.' I tried to picture Constantine's face, Aibileen's. '
Throughout the novel Aibileen's character triumphs in the face of adversity by neglecting what is around, but the growth is slow and painful process. Aibileen's anger and silence towards the whites, the conditions of the black maids and the events around her make she realizes that she has more to do in life than being a maid and finds the courage to try something new. The book she writes with Skeeter and the other maids empowers her to stand up for injustice. Her identity is determined by her place in society as a maid, but she embraces a role in writing project about the suffering of the black maids, so she finds a new identity as a writer and a fighter. She embraces the risk and relies on her faith for guidance.