In Kathryn Stockett’s fictional novel, The Help, she pokes holes in the logic of the 1960s— that whites are superior to colored people. Stockett cleverly uses devices such as metaphors and similes, foreshadowing, bitter irony, colorful imagery and characters, and allusions that parallel the real world of the ‘60s to illustrate in her compelling story how life for colored women were during the Civil Rights Movement. Interestingly enough, she takes on a lighthearted tone while discussing the serious issue of racism that makes her audience keep coming back for more.
Before we delve into the themes of racism in the book, first we must get a background of racism. Racism has always been around, actually. A country or empire will see themselves high …show more content…
This is where Jim Crow Laws and the phrase "Separate but Equal" comes in. As mentioned previously, Jim Crow Laws existed purely to segregate the two races. The South especially enforced that phrase, supported by the book on multiple occasions. The most recurring example in the book is Hilly 's "Home Help Sanitation Initiative," created to add a separate bathroom for the help, advertised to be "a disease preventive measure" (184). This sound ridiculous, but it was often the belief of many white people in the ‘60s. Many public facilities were separate in that time, despite efforts to end that. Though it wasn 't just facilities and buildings that whites tried to build barriers barring blacks from society, it was also jobs that had limitations. Many African American men were janitors, cooks, drivers, gardeners, farmers, trash collectors, or other limiting jobs. “It is one of the great ironies of American labor history that enslaved workers toiled at a wider variety of skilled tasks than did their descendants who were free." explains Jacqueline Jones, "...but after emancipation, whites attempted to limit blacks to menial jobs” (prospect.org). Other African American people, if lucky enough, could own small businesses or work at grocery stores, if they lived in colored …show more content…
By the end of The Help, the book Skeeter has written, thanks to the help of the help, has been published, and everything starts going wrong, or could it be a blessing in disguise? An example can be found in the book of how the barrier between whites and blacks is finally breaking, as we see growing friendships blossoming between people like Skeeter and Aibileen, Minny and Celia, which ensures jobs for both maids, maybe not forever, but for a while. When you jump back into reality, you see that African Americans are finally getting the rights they deserve. In a timeline by Borgna Brunner and Elissa Haney, they list many ways rights are gained in effect of the Civil Rights Movement. The best example is when President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. “The most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin. The law also provides the federal government with the powers to enforce desegregation” (www.infoplease.com). Other rights that were eventually gained or changed are interracial marriage, the right to vote (previously literacy tests and other requirements restricted blacks from voting), and much
Before we delve into the themes of racism in the book, first we must get a background of racism. Racism has always been around, actually. A country or empire will see themselves high …show more content…
This is where Jim Crow Laws and the phrase "Separate but Equal" comes in. As mentioned previously, Jim Crow Laws existed purely to segregate the two races. The South especially enforced that phrase, supported by the book on multiple occasions. The most recurring example in the book is Hilly 's "Home Help Sanitation Initiative," created to add a separate bathroom for the help, advertised to be "a disease preventive measure" (184). This sound ridiculous, but it was often the belief of many white people in the ‘60s. Many public facilities were separate in that time, despite efforts to end that. Though it wasn 't just facilities and buildings that whites tried to build barriers barring blacks from society, it was also jobs that had limitations. Many African American men were janitors, cooks, drivers, gardeners, farmers, trash collectors, or other limiting jobs. “It is one of the great ironies of American labor history that enslaved workers toiled at a wider variety of skilled tasks than did their descendants who were free." explains Jacqueline Jones, "...but after emancipation, whites attempted to limit blacks to menial jobs” (prospect.org). Other African American people, if lucky enough, could own small businesses or work at grocery stores, if they lived in colored …show more content…
By the end of The Help, the book Skeeter has written, thanks to the help of the help, has been published, and everything starts going wrong, or could it be a blessing in disguise? An example can be found in the book of how the barrier between whites and blacks is finally breaking, as we see growing friendships blossoming between people like Skeeter and Aibileen, Minny and Celia, which ensures jobs for both maids, maybe not forever, but for a while. When you jump back into reality, you see that African Americans are finally getting the rights they deserve. In a timeline by Borgna Brunner and Elissa Haney, they list many ways rights are gained in effect of the Civil Rights Movement. The best example is when President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. “The most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin. The law also provides the federal government with the powers to enforce desegregation” (www.infoplease.com). Other rights that were eventually gained or changed are interracial marriage, the right to vote (previously literacy tests and other requirements restricted blacks from voting), and much