Unveiling Racial Dynamics: 'The Help' Analysis

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“The Help” is a novel that takes place in the early 1960s in the town of Jackson, Mississippi, and tells about both the white and colored families that lived there and how they interact everyday. The book is told from three different points of view, Aibileen’s, Minny’s, and Skeeter’s. The book first starts off with Aibileen Clark. She is a colored maid that is now taking care of her seventeenth white child, Mae Mobley Leefolt. Aibileen loves Mae Mobley and struggles throughout the book to help raise her to be loving and not see race, despite what her uncaring mother might tell Mae Mobley. Minny is also a colored maid with many children and an abusive husband and Aibileen’s closet friend. Minny can be very sassy and opinionated, something that …show more content…

After being fired from Mrs. Walters’ house by Hilly, Minny did something that she later calls ‘The Terrible Awful’. She baked Hilly a special pie but instead of the usual ingredients, Minny also included a portion of feces to get revenge on Hilly. This cause Hilly to tell everyone that Minny is a thief and the only person that would hire her is Celia. They include this in ‘Help’ because it will act as protection against Hilly. When Hilly find out that the book is about Jackson she cannot tell everyone because then they might figure out that Hilly act the pie. Celia had a dangerous miscarriage and Minny saves her life and later Celia saves Minny from a crazy man that attacks them outside of the house. Celia’s husband, Johnny, now knows that Minny has been working there and is grateful for her saving Celia’s life. Minny is now pregnant with another child and it is the only reason why her husband, Leroy, has stopped hitting her. After much nagging, Hilly is able to have Skeeter put her bathroom bill in the league newsletter but Skeeter made one edit, she changed the coat drive to a toilet drive and tells people to put their old toilets on Hilly’s front lawn. This was one of the main breaking points for Hilly and she is furious at

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