Power Struggle In Kathryn Stockett's The Help

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.

In Kathryn Stockett’s novel, The Help, characters’ actions demonstrate the importance of finding one’s inner voice and making right decisions even though they go against social prejudice. As the novel suggests, women live in Jackson are expected to play the role of virtuous wives and caring mothers. Miss Celia is one of the characters that suffers from the gender stereotype and is not able to control their own life. Fortunately, she finally overcomes these gender norms and decides to present her true self. After the Benefit, Minny tells Celia the pie story about Miss Hilly, which motives Celia to cut down the Mimosa tree. Minny states her observation by saying,” I heard a groan and see the tree crash to the ground, leaves and dead fronds fly

The social groups focused on in this novel are white housewives, whose group consists of Skeeter, the privileged daughter of a farmer, who just returned from college, and “the help” or a group of maids who are of course of African American decent. The help is forced to obey their irrationally needy bosses, cooking for them, cleaning for them, and even raising their children, only to be treated inhumanely and unfairly by petty housewives. For example, one of the housewives, Hilly Holbrook, a seemingly conflicting character alone, was very suggestive of a bathroom act being enforced, which made it mandatory that every home have a separate bathroom for its help as a “safety precaution” because they could transmit diseases through their bodily functions. In situations like these, African Americans were very alienated, and it really displayed the gap in reality for the two groups. This in turn caused conflict between them, as African Americans were looked down at by whites and the whites were seen as threatening and wicked minded by African Americans.

Kathryn Stockett’s novel, The Help, is a novel that not only shows the severe discrimination in the south but also reveals the dishonorable act of keeping secrets. The novel is set in the early 1960’s in Jackson, Mississippi. This teaches us how the unfortunate truth of how african american maids were treated by the white families they worked for. It explains the lives of Celia Foote who was a white lady who doesn't believe in the social boundaries of Jackson, Mississippi and a strong african american women named Aibileen Clark. Secrets are impractical because they don't come without a cost, not all secrets are as bad as you think they are so why keep them, and at the end of the day you will feel a breath of relief and feel free.

(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."

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. '

Cassie Logan, the central protagonist of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor, has, all her life, been shown confidence, love, and pride in herself, her history, and, most importantly , her family. During this year, though she is only nine years old, Cassie is shown the real world of cruel racism and supposed white superiority. Many people treat blacks as if they are inferior to whites, such as Miss Crocker, the Night Men, and Lillian Jean Simms. These people have specifically impacted dark-skinned Cassie; they have tried to degrade her, and destroy her pride and confidence. Throughout my essay I will be discussing how the characters listed above have tried to reduce Cassie’s worth--only because of her skin color-- and if they have succeeded or not.

Power? Power is the ability to do something or act in a particular way, especially as a faculty or quality. Many people have power like the President, parents, the law, but not as much power as of what happens in the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” This story is about a great trial involving a man named Tom Robinson and a lady name Mayella. The story is based on a trial because the man Tom Robinson was accused of rape and the beating of Mayella. Mayella is going to be powerful and powerless. Is it possible Mayella is powerful in her class, gender, and race? Although Mayella is powerless when it comes to class and gender. Her race ultimately makes her powerful.

During the entire film African Americans are treated poorly. Whether it was them not being able to use the same toilet as the white people or have to move to the back of the bus when a white person entered. The maids Aibileen and Minny take on Skeeter’s suggestion to share their awful experiences. They build up their bravery and take a risk “Alright, I’m gonna do it.

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

To most of her neighbors, women went to college to find a husband, not get a degree. When Skeeter began writing The Help, she and the maids faced the threat of arrest or worse for what they were writing (Taylor). This scares her, but also makes her all the more determined to write what people have been hiding. Skeeter believes in writing the truth, even if it is not what people want to hear. She realizes how theses laws restrict anyone who supports blacks and wants to tell the truth of how they are treated.

As a result of Aibileen’s changes, Aibileen’s voice is brittle, tremulous and quavering while expressing her perspective because she is angry at the inequality. Now she cannot accept this unfair and irrational discrimination from the world. She changes amazingly. She showed her courage and opinions to white racists. The other blacks starts to pluck up courage to confront the whites’ wrong view about racism, for example Minny who is a black maid participates to help Skeeter publishing the book and then all of maids start to decide telling their stories for a book.

The movie clearly exposes the many ways that the human dignity of African- American maids was ignored. They had suffered daily embarrassment but were able to claim their own way dignity. The film described about empowerment of individuals as well as about social justice for a group. It is a moving story depicting dehumanization in a racist culture but also the ability to move beyond the unjust structures of society and to declare the value of every human being.

As an experienced maid who comes from generations of slaves and housemaids, she takes great pride in her job. She describes her life as “Taking care a white babies,” “along with all the cooking and the cleaning” (Stockett, 7). =, it seems as though Aibileen allows her job to take over her entire life. In order to compensate for a white mothers’ lack of care for her children, Aibileen is shown to be caring to her charges.

At another level, it is a clear narration of how internalized concepts of beauty works in the minds of blacks and they themselves become their oppressors. All through the novel we can find numerous instances where “whiteness” is the measure for beauty. This is evident in all the characters in the novel who degrade themselves for not being fair and lovely like the whites. The novel is narrated through the eyes of a ten-year old girl Claudia McTeer who witnesses white hegemony around her as well as this superiority being unquestioningly accepted by the blacks. Sexism is one