Bravery And Discrimination In Kathryn Stockett's The Help

In the powerful literary text The Help by Kathryn Stockett, a captivating tale of bravery and discrimination is based upon three extraordinary women's attempts to confront and battle racial segregation in Jackson, Mississippi, during the early 1960’s. The author evokes the theme that racism is detrimental to society due to the inequity of basic human rights. This theme is shown significantly in the conflict between Skeeter Phelan and Hilly Holbrook, when Miss Holbrook declares her proposal, to force a policy that would demand every white family to install an outdoor bathroom for colored maids. Skeeter, appalled by her friend’s idea, decides to ask Aibileen Clark what she thinks about Hilly’s proposal. However, since it is considered forbidden for a …show more content…
Hilly’s proposal can instantly be seen as an act of racial discrimination and shows how corrupted the justice system is. Another example being, it is illegal for a colored person to express his or her thoughts or even emotions. More significantly, when Skeeter asks Aibileen for help in writing the book, this conflict demonstrates just how many obstacles were designed to specifically prevent colored people from speaking out and effectively shows what the consequences are, if these laws are broken. However, the conflict which best exposes the bitter display of inequity is shown when Aibileen gets fired. Hilly goes to incredible lengths to make sure that Aibileen, Minny and along with other maids are fired for having wrote the book. All this confirms is, people such as Hilly Holbrook are the reason racism still exists and it reveals how Hilly will stop at nothing to keep manipulating the system for her own personal satisfaction. In each of these examples of conflict, The Help, exposes how racism is damaging to society due to the lack of justice of human