The overall outlook surrounding the story described in The Help can be told from two different perspectives: those of the African-American maids of the south, along with their family and friends, and the White employers who oppose the rights of the African-Americans, including the central stereotype: Miss Hilly Holbrook, who is also seen as the infamous antagonist in the story. Miss Hilly is the uptight character whom most of the African-American maids loathe, for her mistreatment among the rest…
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In “The Help”, Kathryn Stockett addresses three key issues using the main antagonist, Hilly Holbrook, as a mode of representation. Firstly, her attitude towards the maids and the African American community reveals her blatant racism and discrimination. Secondly, her attitude towards her old friend and recent enemy, Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, highlights the traitorous qualities in Hilly as she continues to harass and isolate Skeeter throughout the book. Lastly, her attitude towards Celia Foote and…
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Interracial Relationships In Kathryn Stockett’s, The Help, Skeeter writes a book that shows the peak of racial segregation. Minny and Aibileen are very close friends, and they are both maids in Jackson, Mississippi. Skeeter, Elizabeth, and Hilly are white ladies who are friends in a bridge club together. Hilly seems to have friends, but they are not genuine. Hilly treats her mother with no respect and sends her to a nursing home. Although Hilly is very demanding, she is in control and gets what she…
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Goodwin English 9H 22 May 2014 Separate but Equal The fiction novel "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett is set in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s during the civil rights movement. The book is based on African Americans called the help that work for the white people in their homes. The main help in the novel are Aibileen and Minny, Also there are ladies of the junior league that are Skeeter, Miss. Hilly, Mrs. Leefolt, and Celia. Separate but equal was a legal doctrine that justified systems…
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Kathryn Stockett’s novel The Help is set in the year of 1962 in Jackson, Mississippi. During this time period the Deep South is alive and thriving with segregation and racism. This novel follows several women both black and white as they struggle to accept or reject what is their daily lives. While some characters are decent enough to have compassion on others, some do not possess this trait. Stockett shows compassion through the nefarious Hilly Holbrook, the unsympathetic Miss Leefolt along with…
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the novel Mississippi Trial, 1955 and the film The Help share a similar premise: racism. Racism was extremely common in the 1950s and 1960s, as seen in both the film and the novel. This essay will depict just how alike the antagonists are in both Mississippi Trial, 1955 and The Help. Hilly Holbrook is the racist antagonist in The Help. Although perceived as an innocent white woman and even a supporter of a charity for African children, Hilly has shown her true colors many times. She truly believes…
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Individuals are faced with conflict every day. Minnie Jackson from “The Help” overcomes many conflicts that come upon her. She is one to speak her mind and stand up for herself whenever she needs to. Racism was a huge issue where the help took place. If you were to speak up to a white person, you could lose your job, go to prison, and in harsh cases lose your life. Minnie is not afraid of these things, she is brave, resilient, and caring for all people. Whenever something happened, she was ready…
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ideal, but this world is full of oppression and so we must look for some hope in the darkness. Although oppression has many terrible aspects such as psychological pain and physical torture, it, in some way, can help in creating empathetic human beings. Both Kathryn Stockett’s novel The Help and Frederick Douglass’ autobiography “Of my bondage my freedom” study the topic of oppression and within it bring up the “silver lining” of it. One person in Stockett’s plethora of character’ is Celia Foote…
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In the novel The Help, written by Kathryn Stockett it challenges the readers’ views on racism and inequality. This novel reinforces the society’s white supremacy, set in the 1960s in Southern America, Jackson Mississippi. These ideas in the novel encourage the readers to think about the kind of world to not want to live in. Throughout the novel racism is a major theme in the novel, which challenges the readers’ ideas of a type of world not to live in. In the novel the black maids such as Aibileen…
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Reply to Zuleicka Suarez’s Discussion In “The Help,” by Katheryn Stockett, Miss Hilly says, “It’s just plain dangerous. Everyone knows they [African Americans] carry different kinds of diseases than we do” (Stockett 8). I agree with Suarez that this quote had many interesting dimensions to it, in relation to Aibileen’s chapter, chapter one. In fact, chapter one was full of literary devices that foreshadowed the unrest within the community due to the social norm of racial divide due to Jim Crow Laws…
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