Social Norms In Kathryn Stockett's The Help

Power can be defined as the possession of control over others. Throughout history, there has been a constant struggle over power. The matter of who should dominate over others and who should not have sparked many debates in America. Kathryn Stockett illustrated in her novel, The Help, the power struggle in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi. The fictional novel follows a maid named Aibileen as she tells her story in an attempt to fight for the hope of change in her community. She battles to free herself from the power that white Americans hold over her and her community during this time. With the help of a few fellow maids and Miss Skeeter, the white women who sparked the question of change, Aibileen hopes to change people’s opinions about how they perceive blacks

Identify and describe the setting of your novel: The Help is set in Jackson, Mississippi from August, 1962 to late 1964. At this time African Americans were not treated equally as whites or given the same opportunities. Identify and describe the main characters: Minny and Aibileen are the main women representing ‘the help’- the black women who make life more comfortable for their white female employers.

"But symbolism is very fallible, in the sense that it may induce actions, feelings, emotions, and beliefs about things which are mere notions without that exemplification in the world which the symbolism leads us to presuppose" (Whitehead 6). In The Help, chopping down the mimosa tree symbolizes Celia's willingness to take control over her own life. Celia hates the tree and finds it repugnant, but she leaves it for appearance's sake. In a similar way, she tries to adapt with Jackson society, but when she realizes they will never accept her; she decides to take control of her life. She is angry because of this situation, so she decides to express her anger by destroying and removing everything she hates

Mr. Freeman realizes, unlike Melinda, that the tree is much like a human. He tells Melinda to “[b]reathe life into it. Make it bend - trees are flexible, so they don't snap. Scar it, give it a twisted branch - perfect trees don't exist. Nothing is perfect.

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 paragraph four, when the children encounter the tree, Mary “trudged solidly forward, hardly glancing at it”. Her reaction to the tree proves that she does not need or seek the comfort the tree may provide. Alternately, the details of Karl’s reaction, how “his cheeks went pink, he stretched out his arms like a sleepwalker” and “floated to the tree”, prove that he needs the comfort the tree provided. The environment’s impact on the children causes them to react in this way. Erdrich effectively uses selection of detail to reveal these reactions.

The profound novel, The Help, can be interpreted as having many themes and subliminal messages about life, but to truly understand the meaning of them, the conflicting points must be recognized. Due to the fact that the setting of the novel is during segregation, the friction between blacks and whites is what creates the novel. Although it is easily recognizable that one of the main conflicts is segregation, there is a major conflict between two prominent characters, Hilly and Skeeter, wealthy white women. Some of the issues within this novel lye in location and the social aspects of living in a small southern town in that time. There are several underlying conflicts in The Help, but the main one that sets up all the themes are the conflicts

Later, Walter realizes that he needs the 50 cents. Walter gave up his money for his son. In order for the family to be nurturing, they must be understanding and be willing to step up for one another. There were some important examples of the plant signifying family. Lorraine Hansberry shows in many ways that it takes hard work to have a healthy plant or even a healthy family.

Growing up Janie had a pear tree in her yard and the tree grows to have significant meaning for her as she began to consider herself a sexual being. Janie’s infatuation with the pear tree and the bee symbolized her desire for real love. The blossoms on the pear tree resembled Janie’s budding sexuality as a woman, as the bees resembled the men needed to keep her sexuality in bloom. Each of Janie’s three marriages served as a development stage in her quest to find a man that she loves. Janie is unexcited with Logan, and mistreated by Joe Stark.

“Schoolteacher’s nephew represents a dismissal by whites of the dehumanizing qualities of slavery”. When Sethe is raped, schoolteacher observed how her body is exploited. The scars on Sethe’s back are so many that they resemble the trunk of a tree with its branches. Sethe bear scars on her back because she was whipped due to her try of escape. Amy Denver, a white girl that helped Sethe when she was running away from Sweet Home, calls the tree a chokecherry tree.

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.

Although a futile act it may seem, as she in the end cannot stop the cancerous ulcers she has from taking her life, her stubbornness about her death, allows her daughter, Skeeter, to have the courage to accept the job she was offered in New York City, along with a push from Aibileen and Minny. This is the second least important element, as although there are more things that have been kept or altered between the two forms, it wraps up Skeeter’s part in the book, putting it on the bottom of the list. The second least important element in this book to be kept or change is How Minny left Leroy. In both forms of “The Help”, Minny Jackson ends up leaving her husband, Leroy, with her kids, but why and how she leaves him changes with the media. In the book Minny tells the readers that while she is pregnant Leroy does not beat her

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.

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. '

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