How Does Stockett Create Tension In The Help

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 of the 1960’s. This quote illustrated not only Miss Hilly’s desire to control and persuade the women around her in favor of her views, but this quote also allowed the reader to view possible conflicts towards these pushy, demeaning views. For example, after this quote Miss Hilly then talks about the “Home Help Sanitation Initiative” and describes the bill that she's working on “As a disease-prevention measure” (Stockett 8). This caused tension in the room at Miss Leefolt’s house and Miss Skeeter almost automatically replies in a hostile tone, “Maybe we ought to just build you a bathroom outside, Hilly” (Stockett 9). This also caused tension towards Aibileen, who in fact went into the kitchen in order to hide from the remainder of this conversation (Stockett 9). The fact that these two characters were …show more content…
Yet, the way in which these chapters where constructed illustrates and foreshadows the main plot of the novel, which in fact is amazing. Only a few chapters in and Stockett has already written an interesting hook and foreshadowed a mysterious suspenseful plot for the reader. It's going to be interesting to see if these predictions for the literary devices given will be correct. It will also be interesting to see if the characters overcome the depressive laws segregating the people of the

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