Examples Of Archetypes In The Help

HOOK********.The Help by Katheryn Stockett demonstrates literary elements that help tell the story. These include archetypes, irony, and symbolism, among others.
All books display various character and story archetypes. An archetype is a model or an example of a typical character or story stereotype that is universally known. One example of a character Archetype in The Help is the ¨Ruler¨ role, someone with power and strong influence- Miss Hilly. She has more power than any other ladies in the group because she can destroy their social lives with minimal effort. When Hilly spreads rumors about Minny being a thief, nobody in town hires her; she scars Minny’s reputation. Celia is the only person who would employ Minny. Celia’s archetype is ¨innocent¨, unaware of the problems surrounding them. She is oblivious to the world around her, doesn’t understand why the ladies in town hate her, and doesn’t see the lines between races and classes. When Celia insists on sitting at the same

Verbal irony is an oral statement that implies a meaning opposite to the words, like when Skeeter said, ¨ That’s great, Mother¨, while her mom was comparing other ladies to her life. When actions have opposite effects than intended and expected, it is situational irony. For example, Skeeter had people dump toilets off at Hillys yard to get back at her for making her advertise the Home Sanitation Initiative. However, Hilly uses these toilets to build bathrooms in garages for colored help and drives her initiative. Dramatic irony is when the audience can see that a character is making a terrible mistake that will have a poor outcome while the character is oblivious. Hilly finds Skeeter’s book on Jim Crow laws and is upset that she disagrees with them at all, but she doesn’t know that Skeeter isn’t just reading about black problems, but she is helping to solve them and working with colored help while the audience knows all of this