Controversially, “The Help” is a drama packed novel based on the 1960’s civil rights movement in the south, told through the view of three main characters Aibleen, Skeeter, and Minny about how colored maids are treated by their white employers. Along the way, there are many themes continuously displayed in the novel; although, the most ostensible themes in Stockett’s novel are racism, feminism, and civil/social disobedience.
First, race is where the primary emphasis of this book is positioned where the African Americans are the primarily hired help for rich Caucasian families that are most of the time not treated adequately. Kathryn Stockett captures this essence of the struggle that Blacks had back in the 1960’s. This was a matter that affected …show more content…
It was taboo to have sexual intercourse before marriage or even to stay the night with a man. Skeeter knows this, yet she still considered staying with her boyfriend over the weekend. Skeeter thinks back to what her two best friends would think, “Elizabeth would be mortified by the thought of sharing a room with a man before she was married. Hilly would tell me I was stupid to even consider it. They’d held on to their virginity with the fierceness of children refusing to share their toys” (Stockett 283). Skeeter did not feel the need to conform to the projected image of most females back in the sixties, “Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, the principal white character, yearns for more than marriage, children, and a cozy life in Jackson, Mississippi, her hometown, the conventional path that middle-class white women like her mother and girlhood friends followed during the 1950s and '60s” (Smith, Black Women’s Memories and The Help). At the same time, many African American maids had a certain anticipated standard that they would be punished for not following. The maids were anticipated to clean the house, cook the meals, and even raise the children in a home. Aibleen’s employer Miss Leefolt has her mother over only a couple times in the novel; however, during a visit Miss Leefolt’s mother, Miss Fredricks, states “You don’t know how to hire proper help, Elizabeth. It is her job to make sure Mae Mobley has good manners” (Stockett 233). In either case, women had certain standards that the south expected that “there is also an effective contrast between the black help as breadwinners in their families and middle-class white women unhappily unemployed as a result of gender prejudice”
First, race is where the primary emphasis of this book is positioned where the African Americans are the primarily hired help for rich Caucasian families that are most of the time not treated adequately. Kathryn Stockett captures this essence of the struggle that Blacks had back in the 1960’s. This was a matter that affected …show more content…
It was taboo to have sexual intercourse before marriage or even to stay the night with a man. Skeeter knows this, yet she still considered staying with her boyfriend over the weekend. Skeeter thinks back to what her two best friends would think, “Elizabeth would be mortified by the thought of sharing a room with a man before she was married. Hilly would tell me I was stupid to even consider it. They’d held on to their virginity with the fierceness of children refusing to share their toys” (Stockett 283). Skeeter did not feel the need to conform to the projected image of most females back in the sixties, “Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, the principal white character, yearns for more than marriage, children, and a cozy life in Jackson, Mississippi, her hometown, the conventional path that middle-class white women like her mother and girlhood friends followed during the 1950s and '60s” (Smith, Black Women’s Memories and The Help). At the same time, many African American maids had a certain anticipated standard that they would be punished for not following. The maids were anticipated to clean the house, cook the meals, and even raise the children in a home. Aibleen’s employer Miss Leefolt has her mother over only a couple times in the novel; however, during a visit Miss Leefolt’s mother, Miss Fredricks, states “You don’t know how to hire proper help, Elizabeth. It is her job to make sure Mae Mobley has good manners” (Stockett 233). In either case, women had certain standards that the south expected that “there is also an effective contrast between the black help as breadwinners in their families and middle-class white women unhappily unemployed as a result of gender prejudice”