Identity In Kathryn Stockett's The Help

The Help, a novel by Kathryn Stockett, tells the story of a young woman named Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan. She persuades African American maids to help write a book of interviews that will ultimately change the way Southerners see their maids forever. One of the main characters, a black maid named Aibileen, trusts Skeeter first and tells her amazing but dark story. On the other hand, Celia, a white upper middle-class woman, has a mysterious past that shaped her life. This book weaves a beautiful tale with many literary skills, but identity, which defines a person, prevails above all. Reinforced and shaped through actions and thoughts, someone’s identity can have an infinite number of possibilities. Aibileen and Celia convey the claim that a person’s past experiences can alter their present identity.
First of

For example, once a naked white man came out of the bushes on Celia’s estate. Trying to scare the man away, Minny comes out of the house and chases after him, which escalates to him striking her across the ear. Celia, noticing this, runs out and almost kills the man with a fire poker, successfully saving Minny from the man. When she looked at Celia, Minny thought, “I see it. I see the white trash girl she was 10 years ago. She was strong. She didn’t take no shit from nobody” (365). Celia originates from the town of Sugar Ditch, Mississippi, a place Minny describes as, “...as low as you can go in Mississippi” (39). The shows that Celia’s past made her strong and independent, as she had to survive Sugar Ditch. Where Celia comes from, the people protect the ones they care about, causing her to protect and rescue Minny, who