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Moral Responsibility In Miss Hilly's The Help

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Would you stand up for your morals, even when no one else supported them? In the book The Help, Miss Skeeter refuses to print Hilly’s Home Help Sanitation Initiative, and, in addition, she gets caught carrying a booklet of Jim Crow laws, with the intent to change them. Because of this, Miss Skeeter is therefore alienated from the other members of the Jackson Junior League through Miss Hilly’s influence, and from the rest of society. Consequently, the alienation of Miss Skeeter shows the corrupt moral values of the League members, the League elite, and her society as a whole, and how these values overcome long friendships. The reason why Miss Skeeter was alienated is key in knowing the values of the League members. Therefore, this quote shows that Miss Hilly does not approve of Miss Skeeter’s actions, …show more content…

Both of her closest friends show that she’s not wanted around them anymore. For example, Miss Leefolt doesn’t directly say it, but it is implied. Miss Hilly, however, says to Miss Skeeter's face that “‘You are sick,’ she hissed at me. ‘Do not speak to me, do not look at me. Do not say hello to my children’” (Stockett 406). Her exclusion, from her closest friends to people she doesn’t even know, has negative effects on Miss Skeeter. Society cast away Miss Skeeter, to the point where she had nothing left to keep her in Jackson. In conclusion, Miss Skeeter was excluded from the rest of her society because she refused to print the Home Help Sanitation Initiative and because she was carrying a booklet of Jim Crow laws. These two highly discriminatory reasons for alienating Miss Skeeter show that the society around her is highly discriminative. The extent of Miss Skeeter’s exclusion from the society around her shows the extent of the discrimination of her society. Even her closest friendships are broken as a result of their conflicting values. In the words of Judy Holliday, ‘Lovers have a right to betray you… friends

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