Racism Exposed In The Help By Katheryn Stockett

The Help, a novel by Katheryn Stockett, is about a group of African American maids and housekeepers that are known as “The Help.” The book starts off in August of 1962 and shows that the Help They work for a group of white women in Jackson, Mississippi. The group of maids consists mainly of Aibileen and Minny at the beginning. Minny gets hired by a women named Celia Foote. Celia has no idea how to clean or cook, so she hires Minny without telling her husband. But, her husband eventually finds out and is completely okay with it. Celia also treats Minny as a friend and this is very strange for Minny at first. A woman named Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan gets the opportunity to start writing a book about the stories that the help has from all of their time …show more content…
It’s depiction of the blatant racism that happened and still happens in places like rural Mississippi today. Racism now is not shown in things like making one maid clean a whole house for two dollars an hour. However, it is shown in things like alienating or shunning people because they are friends with or simply associate with people with colored skin. The Help did a great job with showing this kind of racism. Another big strength of this book was the ways it showed the non-racists. The characters like Skeeter, Celia, and Johnny (Celia’s husband) are all great examples of non-racist people. Skeeter feels uneasy about the way “the help” are treated. This is why she decides to write this book about their stories. Celia comes from an uneducated background, and has no idea that white women usually treat their African American maids with disrespect. Johnny is simply grateful for Minny’s help. All of these character go against the stereotype that would have been placed before them. One of the big strengths, at least that I think personally, that this book has it the way it is laid out. Switching between the different characters is an interesting method that keeps the reader’s