ipl-logo

Overcoming Racial Tension In Skeer's The Help

1002 Words5 Pages

The Help has a plot that tells about American history and how times have changed over the decades. It shows what the lives were like of many different people in the 1960’s. During that time, there were many racial boundaries that stopped African Americans from being free as well as separated them from the same rights that the whites had. The theme is represented by the main conflict in this story, whereby a white lady named Skeeter writes a book to show the lives of African American maids in the 1960’s. In addition, she writes about the struggles of keeping it a secret without everyone in Jackson, Mississippi finding out. If anyone found out, she and the other maids would be accused of breaking the Jim Crow Laws. The conflict created in The Help supports the theme of overcoming racial tension. For starters, Aibileen tries to overcome the death of her son because …show more content…

It describes how the rights for African Americans were clearly different from Whites. As stated above, the theme is represented by the main conflict in this story. Skeeter felt inspired to write a book about African American maids in her hometown while struggling to keep it a secret from everyone. Risk of anyone finding out would be breaking the Jim Crow Laws. The conflict created in The Help supports the theme of overcoming racial segregation. Aibileen struggles with the death of her son because white people did not offer to help save him. Aibileen adores Mae Mobley despite Elizabeth’s negligent actions. Minny desperately tries to uphold a job to help support her family. All of these topics describe how African American maids were not treated fairly. Finally, it describes the different types of relationships between African Americans and white people as well as how lives were different for some people in Jackson, Mississippi in the

Show More
Related

  • What Does Aibien Symbolize In The Help

    660 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Pursuit Of Dreams In Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God

    824 Words  | 4 Pages

    The pursuit of dreams has played a big role in self-fulfillment and internal development and in many ways, an individual 's reactions to the perceived and real obstacles blocking the path to a dream define the very character of that person. This theme is evident in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, which is about the search for identity. A woman of a mixed ethnicity resides in several communities, each playing an important role and serve as crucial influences on her life. During the story, she endures two failed relationships and one good relationship, dealing with disappointment, death, the wrath of nature and life’s unpredictability.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Racism In The Help

    1574 Words  | 7 Pages

    Nazish S. Quraishi Professor Ahmadi ENGL 101-13 10 January 2016 Courage Triumphs over Racism The film “The Help” (November 24, 2011) of genre historical fiction directed and scripted by Tate Taylor is a faithful adaptation of the bestseller novel The Help penned by Kathryn Stockett. It is a story about how three women team up to form an alliance and secretively work on a writing project that would be shunned otherwise. The film portrayed the time when segregation existed between the whites and the blacks to be specific in the early 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi. The film began with a flash-forward scene where Aibileen a black domestic maid is being interviewed, how it feels to work for a white family?

    Read More

  • Examples Of Racism In A Raisin In The Sun

    1584 Words  | 7 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Aibileen In The Film The Help

    258 Words  | 2 Pages

    The opening scene of The Help, you see Aibileen, a black female that works for Mrs Leefolt. Aibileen opens the film with heartfelt stories of her personal experience in the maid industry. She says a saying through out the film to one of her white babies which is “you is kind, you is smart, you is important.” This quote I believe is an important one because Aibileen is teaching the baby to believe in herself and know that she is smart, kind and important. Aibileen also covers in the start of the film why she was a maid and how she came to become and made and that was “because her mama was one and her grandmamma was a house slave.”

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried, By Zora Neale Hurston

    1746 Words  | 7 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Characteristics Of Gandhi In To Kill A Mockingbird

    1453 Words  | 6 Pages

    In the movie The Help, Skeeter wants to write an article about what it’s like to be a black maid. She wants to hear their thoughts, and their view on life. A black maid by the name of Aibileen Clark is the first to be interviewed, and then later, her friend Minny Jackson helps out. With the help of “the help”, pages and pages of mistreated people were printed. The book surely got everyone’s attention, especially the white who began develop a different idea about blacks after having their eyes opened by the book.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Help By Kathryn Stockett

    1546 Words  | 7 Pages

    “Write about what disturbs you, particularly if it bothers no one else”(pg. 71). In 2011, a movie adaption was released of the book, “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett, a book told from the perspective of three women in the 1960’s as they write a book about the lives of maids in Jackson, Mississippi. The two media forms of the same story have many similarities, along with differences. Four significant elements, listed from least to most important, are assessed for how they affect the same story told in two different ways. The least important thing to be kept or changed is that in both forms of “The Help”, Miss Charlotte, Skeeter’s mother, refuses to die.

    Read More

  • Character Development In The Help By Kathryn Stocket

    1856 Words  | 8 Pages

    JOURNAL # 1 CHARACTER DEVELOPMET: SKEETER The novel that I read throughout this quarter was ' ' The Help ' ' by Kathryn Stocket. Character development took place in many different characters in different ways. The Character that is seen to develop the most throughout the novel is Miss Skeeter Pheelan.

    Read More

  • Hilly Holbrook In The Help

    589 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Courage In The Help

    696 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Help (2011) directed by Tate Taylor, is an inspirational, courageous and empowering story about Southern women in the 1960s. It's the story of the help: the black maids of Jackson, Mississippi, and the relationship with their white employers. The central theme of the film is courage, and how the characters embrace courage to overcome obstacles and fight for social justice. Whether it is their ability to deviate from in-group norms, or overcome fear, courage is essential throughout the characters' journeys. In this essay, I will analyse the situations endured by the characters, and how they respond to these situations with courage.

    Read More

  • Social Stratification In The Movie The Help

    610 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Help is set in Jackson, Mississippi during the 1960s. Skeeter, a southern society girl, interviews the black women who have spent their lives being servants for wealthy white Southern families. There are various scenes throughout the film that show social stratification, racial inequalities, gender inequalities, and class inequalities. Massey’s Social Stratification Theory states that humans allocate people to different categories. These categories often lead to inequality which is implemented socially.

    Read More

  • 5 Paragraph Essay On The Book 'The Help'

    432 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Help was a book full of love, bravery, courage, judgment, and most of all friendship. When a small town writer wants to write about something important she gets the help of maids that work for rich white families. They help write a book about their lives and what they have experienced while working as maids. They all come together in friendship and do what should not be done. Everyone portrayed bravery and courage while others were cruel and judgmental, but that is what made The Help a fun book.

    Read More

  • What Is Aibileen's Change In The Movie The Help

    455 Words  | 2 Pages

    At the beginning of the film, Skeeter who is a white woman and is an anti-racist, wants to interview Aibileen in order to publish a book about what it is like to be a Black maid working for a white family. But Aibileen rejects Skeeter’s interview by saying in a low quiet careful voice, “You know what’d happen to me if Miss Leefolt knew I was tellin’ stories on her.” She is afraid of revenge from Whites, for example losing her job and being in danger, by telling about her life for Whites. By using this dialogue the director, Tate Taylor, portrays that Ailbileen has no courage and strong will to alter the view of the world about them because she doesn’t think racism would disappear and the world would be changed. In the comparison dialogue in the ending of the film shows that

    Read More

  • The Help Movie Analysis

    3436 Words  | 14 Pages

    1.0 INTRODUCTION The Help is an example of American drama film. It was released in August 9, 2011 and its length was 146 minutes and directed by Tate Taylor. The film was adapted to a novel, where there has been a long tradition of African- American women serving as “The Help” for upper-middle class white woman and their families. Descriptions of historical events of the early activities of thecivil rights movement are peppered throughout the novel, as are interactions between the maids and their white employers.

    Read More

More about Overcoming Racial Tension In Skeer's The Help

Open Document