he Help is a novel written by Kathryn Stockett and published in 2009. It was Stockett’s first published novel, it talks about black maids in the town of Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960’s. The Mysterious Affair at Styles was Agatha Christie’s first book too; she was introducing the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and his great skills in solving a complicated crime that took place in Styles Court in Essex. Although the two books are a far cry from each other, yet there are some similarities between them. First of all, both novels have first person narration. In The Mysterious Affairs at Styles, Captain Arthur Hastings, a former British Army officer, is the first person narrator. He gives his opinion about the crime; which mostly turned
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The Help gives the readers a crystal clear insight to the white community during the Civil Rights Movement. While reading it, I was able to imagine the community during that time and how violence was used against black citizens. Stockett mentions the tragedy of Medgar Evers, an African-American civil rights activist and major figure in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's who got shot in the driveway outside his house in front of his family in Jackson. The characters were very affected by that tragedy, after all Evers was only defending the rights of black people. Although he is a minor character in the novel, Robert Brown plays an important role in showing the readers the brutality of the community back then. He is attacked by two white men for accidentally using the white bathroom, he loses his sight and the two men are never arrested. On the other hand, in The Mysterious Affair at Styles there is no extreme violence unlike the Help. Only in chapter three we find violence in the description of Mrs. Inglethorp's death, Christie's description of the death was very graphical. At the end of the novel, the murderer is revealed; Alfred Inglethorp is the one who committed the crime with the help of his cousin Evelyn Howard who acts that she hates Alfred since the beginning. It is a shock to the readers as all the characters suspected Mr. Inglethorp from the beginning; which made the readers believe that he is not the murderer. Moreover, it is more of a shock that Miss Howard is his assistant. She seemed to be the only honest character. Miss Howard was Mrs.Inglethorp's friend, she was kind to her. This friendship betrayal is another shock to the readers. In the Help, Hilly starts treating Skeeter differently after she finds a copy of the Jim Crow laws, a set of laws legalizing segregation between white and black people, in Skeeter's satchel. The conflict between them
The Help gives the readers a crystal clear insight to the white community during the Civil Rights Movement. While reading it, I was able to imagine the community during that time and how violence was used against black citizens. Stockett mentions the tragedy of Medgar Evers, an African-American civil rights activist and major figure in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's who got shot in the driveway outside his house in front of his family in Jackson. The characters were very affected by that tragedy, after all Evers was only defending the rights of black people. Although he is a minor character in the novel, Robert Brown plays an important role in showing the readers the brutality of the community back then. He is attacked by two white men for accidentally using the white bathroom, he loses his sight and the two men are never arrested. On the other hand, in The Mysterious Affair at Styles there is no extreme violence unlike the Help. Only in chapter three we find violence in the description of Mrs. Inglethorp's death, Christie's description of the death was very graphical. At the end of the novel, the murderer is revealed; Alfred Inglethorp is the one who committed the crime with the help of his cousin Evelyn Howard who acts that she hates Alfred since the beginning. It is a shock to the readers as all the characters suspected Mr. Inglethorp from the beginning; which made the readers believe that he is not the murderer. Moreover, it is more of a shock that Miss Howard is his assistant. She seemed to be the only honest character. Miss Howard was Mrs.Inglethorp's friend, she was kind to her. This friendship betrayal is another shock to the readers. In the Help, Hilly starts treating Skeeter differently after she finds a copy of the Jim Crow laws, a set of laws legalizing segregation between white and black people, in Skeeter's satchel. The conflict between them