Creative Writing: The Help

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I was so moved and inspired by The Help. It was possibly one of the greatest books that I have ever read. I went into reading the book thinking that it was going to be just another piece of literature on the Civil Rights Movement, but it was much more than that. The Help encompasses all aspects of life while portraying the 1960s perfectly. It touched my heart in many ways. The first way that the book spoke to me was through my identification with one of the main characters, Skeeter. Skeeter is a young woman who aspires to be a writer. Ever since I can remember, I wanted to become an author. Instead of playing outdoors or spending the night at friends’ houses, I spent the majority of my childhood summers endlessly reading books and drafting …show more content…

However, I was still dead set on becoming an author one day, that is, until my dreams were crushed in sixth grade. Our teacher gave us an assignment to do a brochure of the occupation that we wanted to pursue. We were supposed to include the average salary, required work skills, etc. Since the wage for an author varied, I asked my teacher what I should put down for it. She snatched the paper from my hand and then proceeded to give the class and me a speech on how careers such as being an author were not attainable and that we needed to pick a reasonable career. She listed off pointless stats about the number of individuals who actually become writers or the like. That is when I gave up my decision to become a writer. She somehow managed to convince me that my dream could never happen. I rediscovered this dream as I was reading The Help. Everyone told Skeeter that her aim to become a writer was unrealistic. Her mom did not believe in her. A publisher doubted her work, and men looked at her like she was delusional. Yet, her decision to become an author did not waver. This drive that she had to accomplish her dream led her to attain greater heights than she ever thought imaginable. She wrote a successful novel, and she even received an editing job in New York. That is …show more content…

Black people were beat senseless for absolutely no reason at all. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave speeches and led marches. Medgar Evers was shot dead by the K.K.K. Blacks and whites had separate buildings, schools, and bathrooms. It all seemed surreal, but it all went down right here in Mississippi. Looking around now, I just cannot see how something so horrid as that time in our history could have ever happened. I came to the realization when I was mentoring regarding how much things have changed since then. It had just been M.L.K.’s birthday, and the first graders were completing a worksheet about him. One of the questions on it was, “What would you tell Martin Luther King if you saw him today?” A boy walked up to me confused about the question. I asked him if he knew who Martin Luther King, Jr. was, and he looked at me and nodded his head no. This little, black boy really and truly had no idea who I was talking about. He had no clue that the reason he was even going to school with his white friends was because of what MLK and many precious other individuals had done for him all those years ago. The fact that this 7-year old black boy did not know M.L.K. is not neglect on his teachers or parents part. It is a miracle. He is lucky that he can think of his white and black classmates as all the same. He is fortunate to be treated the same and given an equal education. It is an incredible thing to know

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