The Help
English 142
The Help
ENG 142
01 August, 2015 – Research Paper Writing Help Service
The Help
The book novel ‘The Help’ by Katherine Stockett,explores what it is like to be a maid during the Civil Rights Era of the 1960’s and 1970’s in Mississippi. Ms. Stockett writes the book novelin a way to make each and every one of the characters as real as if you were there. Each maid is unique in the situation they is the sentence in plural or singularare in and how they are treated by their employer. They all have stories to tell of what has happened to them to make them work as maids.Each of the maids has raised white children as if they were their own children. Ailibeen Aibileenteaches the children she raises the values of respect and understanding and that every one everyone is the same, not to judge people by the color of their skins. You need a thesis statement
I feel that The Help is a realistic novel based on how the black maids were treated in the South especially Mississippi during the Civil Rights Era. Many of the maids come from families that their mothers were maids and that were what was expected of them when they grew up. In the book, Ableene’s Aibileen’s mother was a maid and that was all she knew how to do-. Black people did not have much of a choice in what area they could work when they got older. It was still expected expected what?
Inthe The book it talksdescribes about how the black maids had not only to worry about the white women they worked for,but in reality the maids not only had to worry about the women, but also worry about being framing framedthem for breaking the laws when they did not, they had to worry and about the white men of the house. In slavery time, many of the maids were raped by the white men in the house, and this still was prevalent during the racial riots in the southSouth. MinnieMinny, one of the maids, was beaten by her husband but really black women were much more likely to experience intimate violence at the hands of white men.cant understand this sentence The only think thingthe book discusses is if the white women of the house will let the black maids use the same bathrooms. In The Help, it talks describesabout how the black maids did not say anything when their employers corrected them but in reality domestic workers have a long history of standing up for themselves. In 1866 the maids went on strike for more wages. Up till then they were paid very little an hour and had to work every day and late into the night to make a decent wage and yet at times that still was not enough.
Skeeter models AbleeneAibileenafter her maid that whoraised her, Constantine Jefferson. Black maids loved their thewhite children they took care of but did they really love them as much as the children loved their maids this sentence is ambigous. Many people that grew up in Mississippi in the ’60s never considered that their maids might have an opinion of how they were treated. They were just taken took itfor granted that it was ok. They were happy with the way things were and they never voiced their dissatisfaction,that they would work similar tolike slaves.
The book does not accurately represent black-white relations in the Civil Rights movement. In the early 1960’s Mississippi was the poorest state in the nation with 86% of all non-white families lived below the national poverty line. Most of the blacks could not vote because they had to pass a test which when they could not read, they could not pass the test . But whites got to vote even if they did not understand any of the questions. Marion Barry on August 18 went to Mississippi to start teaching the blacks how to take the test and pass. Medgar Evers, a peaceful NAACP field director, was denied access to the University of Mississippi, even though he fought in WWII. He was shot to deathdead on June 7th as he returned home.
On June 21st 200 students from Ohio left to travel to Mississippi and they never showed up. The police said they were just hiding but nobody ever found any trace of them that was because they were all killed by the people in Mississippi. The people did not want any changes to be made to the way they had lived for centuries and especially by some young Northern students.
During this time, Freedom’s Summer classes were started. Northern lawyers taught legal classes and others taught the black’s ordinary classes that would help them to understand what was happening. The blacks were kept uneducated and poor. They were not allowed to go to school in the southSouth and had to sit in the back of buses or give up their seats to the whitesthe white people their seats.. They were not allowed to eat in the same places as whites or use any facilities that white’s whites used. Even though this was in the 60’s and 70’s, they were treated no different than they were during the slave days. The only difference was that they did not live in their employers’ houses and had families of their own and wasthey were paid very little salary, just enough to keep them existing.
During the march on Washington in 1963, women were not included. There were many different origins of races that were included in this marchpresent, but black women were excluded. They were expected to participate in the preparation and work hard of making sure it happened, just dobut not show up to participate in marching, you are since they were not allowed. Black men thought that because they asked questions gender-related questions, they did not understand race equality and was making a fuss about an insignificant issue. They assumed that women thought the march was about sexism not racism. Yet these are the women that whowere not treated fairly because of the color of their skinsskin. Sex had nothing to do with what they asked or any of the reasons they wanted to participate, they wanted equal rights just like the black men did. The women of this era was wereexpected to mobilize the workers going to Washington and to do the clerical and domestic position jobsin the Civil Rights organizations but not be part of the movement. The movement had Mahalia Jackson in the walk and she was supposed to represent the women, but the women did not feel that she did. She was not allowed to speak at the rally so how could she represent the women.
The book does accurately portray white and black relationships during the Civil Rights movement. Blacks and whites did not share anything. Blacks had their own rest roomrestrooms,and eating and living quarters. The workers were not allowed to use anything that was for the whites. The Civil Rights movement could now happen because the “spontaneous generation” theory could address American socio-political structure than it was previously.(Joseph, pg. 4)tense. Also, many Mississippi Southerner’ s’ said that “outside agitators” from the North were distracting and distorting the southern way of life. Blacks believed that the prolonged denial of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” was had beendenied long enough and now it was time for change.
The novel was written as a stereotype for black or white womendoesn’tsound right for me. Blacks are stereotyped as working in the houses of white women and be the head of their families, and this is what Ailileen Aibileenwas. She had no husband or children but she raised white folk children and taught them to be strong, important and loved. Black women since slavery days were expected to work in the fields, in the slave’s masters’ homes and breed more slaves. Women had no control over their bodies. They were for the use of masters, overseer or a male slavecheck grammar. White women were to be protected from any hard work and threats by white men. White women possess the quality of piety, purity submission and domesticity. Black women worked hard and was wereused as sexual things objectsto be abuses. This sentence is not understandable
Many black women had abortions so as not to continue the slave market. Black women who had children took the role of motherhood seriously. In this role they were in control. They allowed the black women to transmit teachvalues and survival skills to her children and to teach them about their proper place in society for their survival. (Joseph, ed.)
Another strong force that pushed the black women into the Civil Rights Movement was the fact that mothers had to teach their daughters to be strong and to protect themselves yet show them how to be women. Also the economic position pushed them to participate in the Movement. 28% of black families were headed by women who made far less than the men did. Their households were likely to be poverty stricken. The work women did were wasless important than that of the men.
The only way that The Help was marketed for a white race conscious audience is because it was black women being maids to white women who often miss treatedmistreated them. Hilly would have no problem lying about her maids to get them fired and often arrested for stealing something they had not. Hilly was a vindictive person and often mistreated Minnie Minnybecause someone said something she did not like. Elizabeth was more laid back less demanding and accusing toward the staff.
Skeeter may have been racist in the beginning but I do not think so.avoid first person She was white, but she was raised by a black woman whom she loved dearly and who loved her. She understood all the hardship these women went through but also she left Mississippi and went to school in the North where she was exposed to all sorts of different ideas.White people are just as able to understand repression as black people. But white people do not understand all the feelings that goes with being a “slave.” Nobody had ever given these women thoughts or thefeelings a thought. When Skeeter starts to talk to Aibileen about what it is like to be a maid, that is when she learns that these women have thoughts about the positions and what they do just like everyone else. Before, they were just there without any thought of them being human.
To understand reproduction rights, yes you need to be a woman. Men do not understand how it feels to carry a child and have that baby grow inside of you as women do. It is a great thing. Things may have changed in today’s world regarding carrying children, because that is entirely a women right to do it or have an abortion, but back in the early days, women had to carry the child no matter what. So when black women aborted them it was disgraceful.
I particularly like the ending of the book because it was when Aibileen became a voice. She stood up to Miss Hilly and told her that she would tell the world the little secret everybody knew about her and the pie. It signified that women take and taketake in so much until finally one day they stand up and say enough. And this just reinforced that action. That everybody at sometimes times makes a stand for themselves and say that is enough. Eileen Aibileenremembered her son and what he said about there being a writer in the family and she decides that she will write about all the experiences she has had in many houses as a maid . That makes her happy and gives her a reason to go on and be proud.
You have written a good article except for some grammatical errors. You need also to check on the punctuation to ensure it brings out the desired meaning. The tense is mixed up and avoid using first person reference ‘I’. Check to ensure you spell the proper nouns of the characters in the novel correctly.
The racism theme you have done a good job and helped me get some insight on it. You can add few points on stereotyping and elaborate the points you have already written on the same. Some citations also a bit of correction.
REFERENCES
Golden, M. and Shreve, S. (1995). Skin Deep: Black Women & White Women Write About Race. New York, Doubleday.
History and The Help. (2014: 2024 – Essay Writing Service. Custom Essay Services Cheap, February 24). Harvard University Press.
Joseph, T. (n.d.). Black Women in the Civil Rights Movement. CDS.library.brown, edu
Maslin, J. (18 February 2009) Racial Insults and Quiet Bravery in 1960s Mississippi. New York Times.
Travis, T. (2015 – Research Paper Writing Help Service). Is The Help Realistic? It Depends. University of Washington. BlackPast.Org.
Stockett, K. (2009) The Help. Gale, Cengage Learning.
