Kathryn Stockett's The Help

In Kathryn Stockett’s The Help, setting influences the characters’ thoughts, actions, and choices, by either limiting them because of social normalities in Jackson, Mississippi, or by the historical background. First, Skeeter’s actions were restricted by the laws of the specific time period, the 1960’s, as it was illegal for white and colored people to converse outside of an occupation. While interviewing the maids, Skeeter risked injuring both herself and the maids if caught by the police, as she explains, “They’d charge us with integration violation … they despise the whites that meet with the coloreds to help with the civil rights movement,” (Stockett 169-170). In the 60’s, southern states were opposed to any form of suspicious communication in which people may be trying to eradicate the social placements. …show more content…
Another example of characters in the book being impacted by the setting, this once again involved the social normalities, was on the day where Minny was interviewed to become a maid for Miss Celia. However, the conversation that occurred didn’t involve Celia, it was between Minny’s mother and her fourteen year old self, where she was learning how to obey the rules of being a maid. The cause of Minny having the occupation of a maid was explained, “But with my sister’s heart problem and my no-good drunk daddy, it was up to me and Mama,” (Stockett 45). Furthermore, because colored people were seen as less educated, the minimum wage for maids, and other occupations colored people could have, was significantly lower than what is necessary for a family to live. In addition, because the setting was a time period in which medical technology wasn’t as advanced, Minny’s sister’s heart condition wasn’t real, and because of the inaccurate diagnostic, Minny had to get a