Being her first published novel, I think author Kathryn Stockett did a terrific job at writing, “The Help.” This novel won awards from Goodreads, The Choice Awards, best fiction and was voted the New York Times number one bestseller. I like how this novel is based around the theme of prejudice, making it easier to understand because prejudice is a big thing in our history. “I want to yell so loud that Baby Girl can hear me that dirty ain’t a colour, disease ain’t the Negro side a town. I want to stop that moment from coming - and it comes in ever white child’s life - when they start to think that coloured folks ain’t as good as whites… I pray that wasn’t her moment, pray I still got time.” I also liked how the author, Kathryn Stockett, gave each character a southern accent, therefore the novel came across as more realistic. The ‘flow’ of the novel is easy to follow and isn’t …show more content…
complicated at all. I liked how the author changed narrators every couple chapters to get different point of views from different kind of people living different lifestyles. Last but not least, I liked how the novel and the film were very similar, therefore no dramatic changes that could confuse the audience. I did however find that not everybody would enjoy this type of novel, some may find it boring and that it doesn't have the ‘action’ they're looking for, not everybody is interested in reading novels about prejudice that are based on facts of reality. I highly recommend this novel to a year 12 book reading club because it is funny: for example, when one of the black maids, Minnie, baked a pie for her previous employer who was really not at all the definition of icing on a cake and baked it with her own feces in it. “Eat my Shit.” “Excuse me?” “I said eat… my… shit.” “Have you lost your mind?” “No ma’am, but you about to, cause you just did.” This novel is very engrossing, especially for students who have interest in the history of prejudice and human rights and the history of the 60’s fashion and environment.
I highly recommend this novel to a year 12 book reading club also because it is an important life lesson: knowledge of what went on in the world over 50 years ago, meaning the prejudice actions e.g assigning certain jobs and towns according to race, making white and black people not be able to use the same busses, houses, toilets or be in a relationship/married, etc. Also how the use of racism has decreased majorly over the majority of the world. “Ever morning until you dead in the ground, you gone have to make this decision. You gone have to ask yourself, “Am I gone believe what them fools say about me today?” “
I not only think that year 12s will enjoy this novel and that is should be included in a year 12 book reading club, but I also recommend that this novel (or film) be used for school assignments and should be analysed by year 12 students for school purposes in subjects like english, history or social
studies. This novel teaches us about the world in which we live in because it tells us what it was like to be black or white in the 60’s and it shows the positive progression of racism across the majority of the world to this day. It also teaches us that our generation have a lot more freedom of choice e.g. women rarely become stay - home mothers compared to the 60’s and women who become doctors, mechanics, builders, lawyers, engineers, etc… are increasing everyday. This novel connects to me because I am from South Africa, where much of the prejudice has not improved over the past 50+ years, therefore I have experienced a lot of prejudice going ons e.g. most of the homeless and poor people are black and most of the wealthy people are white. This novel connects to me also because I like reading novels about prejudice because it is interesting and if it is a well written novel, like this one, then it offers lessons which I can learn from and important information that if I were to ever be around serious prejudice (racism or sexism) then I know how to avoid it. “… I realised I actually had a choice in what I could believe.” This novel also teaches me to never judge a book by its cover: this novel’s cover (three birds sitting along a twig) looks quite plain and not very eye catching, but inside the novel it is filled with engrossing information about the history of our world, over half a century ago. This novel connects to my society and the wider world because yes, the use of major prejudice has decreased dramatically over the past decades throughout most parts of the world, but not all major prejudice is wiped out completely: Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe (aged 91), is the leader of a campaign called, “The Final Solution,” where he is attempting to wipe out every single white person on earth. He also calls it, “The White Holocaust.” “We will show no mercy even to white children. We will grab the sucking baby from its mothers because and break its neck. We will beat the mother to death with the baby’s corpse. I will rip the babies from the wombs of white women and strangle them with my bare hands! We know that white babies will only grow up to be oppressive white racists! I am not afraid to get my hands dirty. I look forward to personally participating in the slaughter! It will be a beautiful genocide against an evil race!” This is only a small fragment of the horrifying speech Mugabe announced in April 2014, but what I’m trying to show is that Robert Mugabe is being extremely racist saying that all whites in the world are racists and that they all must die because we are ‘Evil’. Meaning that major prejudice and racism is still very much present in Southern Africa.
In conclusion, I would highly recommend this book to early teens who are fans of drama and comedy because they could probably relate to most of the issues discussed to a certain extent. Girls my age, especially, would enjoy this book as they could relate to the issues discussed and they have probably already experienced similar
The Help is a novel written in 2009 about African-American maids working in Southern homes in the 1960’s and a young white woman pursuing to write a book about the maid’s lives. Stockett was born in 1969 in Jackson, Mississippi. She worked in magazine publishing in New York before attempting to publish The Help, which was rejected by 60 different literary agents. Stockett’s personal background played a major part in her ability to tell this story so well. She grew up with African-American maids working in her household and grew up shortly after the decade in which this novel takes place. The society that she grew up in and her experience working in a magazine helped her to write from the personal viewpoint of African-American help and a woman striving to become a journalist in America during the 1960’s. In The Help, Stockett uses specific setting, point of view, and allusions to tell the incredible story of three young women of different ages, backgrounds, and race that join together in a work that readers will never forget.
The most meaningful part of the book for me, was the sit-ins, a form of protest in which demonstrators occupy a place, refusing to leave until their demands are met. The reason the sit-ins were so meaningful is that it really brought attention to how Americans were segregating the African Americas. Just as if you do nothing when a bully, whites, is picking on you, blacks, they will continue picking on you until you fight back. The sit-ins were a nonviolent way to show that they no longer will or have to take the abuse.
Scout's perception of prejudice is evolved through countless experiences in Harper Lee's, To Kill a Mockingbird. Written in the nineteen thirties, To Kill a Mockingbird promotes the understanding of self-discovery through Scout, an intelligent and outspoken child living with respectable family in Maycomb County, Alabama. Throughout various encounters in the novel, Harper Lee causes Scout's perspective to change and develop from innocence to awareness and eventually towards understanding.
Three students kicked out of a high school for threatening to bring a gun to school. Why would they? Because people were prejudice against them because other students thought they were “losers”. Moral: You shouldn’t not like a person because they aren’t like you. Prejudice was far much worse in the time period of To Kill A Mockingbird. But, Prejudice is the reason for much social injustice. Three characters named Nathan Radley, Atticus Finch, and Aunt Alexandria show us this in the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird.
Discrimination and prejudice were very common acts in the early and middle 1900's. Prejudice in this book is displayed by the acts of hate and misunderstanding because of someone's color. People of color were the majority that were treated unfairly. During this time in the southern states, black people had to use separate bathrooms, drinking fountains, sections in restaurants, churches, and even go to separate schools. Although much of the discrimination was directed towards blacks, there were plenty of accounts towards impoverished families by those that had money. Discrimination is prevalent when people that are different are called names. Some people thought blacks were automatically dumb because of their color. They weren't allowed to do anything but menial tasks (such as chopping wood) and hard labor because they were thought too dumb.
One way the novel accurately interpreted the tragedies in the Civil Rights Movement is when it displays the Jim Crow laws. For example, in the book the Logans could not ride a bus to school because the white children were using it. One of the Jim Crow laws stated that African Americans had to give their bus seats up to whites. The book clearly illustrates the Jim Crow laws in
In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Kathryn Stockett’s The Help, and the Scottsboro Trial the African-American community was degraded while the rest of society would not speak of any racial tensions because of their belief that they were contributing to their own communities. In The Help the African-American women of Jackson, Mississippi would take care of the white children, to a point where the children may even consider their “help” of a part of their family than their own parents, along with trying to take care of their own families. In To Kill a Mockingbird Tom Robinson is convicted of the rape of Mayella Ewell on the assumption that all black men are evil and can do no good. In the Scottsboro Trial, nine African-American teenagers
Prejudice is arguably the most prominent theme of the novel. It is directed towards groups and individuals in the Maycomb community. Prejudice is linked with ideas of fear superstition and injustice.
A example of this is the trial, the death of grandma, and grandpa's outlook on the south: “Our way of life is precious. It's the way I live, the way my daddy lived, my granddaddy, and his daddy before him. It's going to be the way you live too, if I have anything to say about it” (Crowe, 11). Grandpa has a lot of emotions when it comes to the south. He heavily believes that Whites and African-Americans are not equal, that Whites are superior over African-Americans, and that the African-Americans are meant to be the workers. This is a racist view that goes back for generations in grandpa's family and he intends on continuing to raise his family this way, since grandpa believes there is nothing wrong with this way of life. This contributes to my feelings towards the book in many ways. I feel as if the book was a little too serious and grim for my liking. Some major conflicts in the book were Emmett Tills death and the trial. I felt that the book was well written in the sense that it covered the gruesomeness of the death very well. I think the major theme in this book is perspective, seeing things through new eyes. I think this because Hiram grew up listening to his grandfather and the ways of the south, and how his father did not agree. After the trial Hiram saw racism and the south the way his father
Discrimination is “the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things.” On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks was ordered to give up her bus seat to a white passenger and refused. This act of opposition defied all normalities for the average black woman. The treatment of a woman who was black compared to the treatment of a white woman in that age was completely discriminatory. Rosa Park’s strength to influence justice against racial segregation has slowly influenced justice against all discrimination. “The Help,” a 2009 novel written by American author, Kathryn Stockett, is a story about African-American maids working for white households in Jackson, Mississippi set in the early 1960’s. “The Help” depicts these women as individuals similar to Rosa Parks, who want to influence change and equality. Through “The Help,” the reader can relate the thoughts and views of the characters to our society today, particularly on the grounds of race, class and gender.
It was about time someone said something one of my favorite quotes stated by Ghandi “Be the change you want to see in the world”. If we all sit around and watch the problem of racism grow and we don't do anything about it its just going to get worse. Beverly used real situations with real people and she didn't just focus on black and white she talked about the asian, the latino, and the Bi-racial. This book is a challenge to everyone to speak up talk about whats in the dark. This book was so enlightening to me because i never thought about racism in this way. I never truly realized how important it was to be talked about. If you think about it racism is like a bad word, no one wants to say it. Everyone believes they are not races at all but its the actions we take in certain events in our life that proves we all are in some way. I love the idea of talking about racism early because thats where the problem usually starts and kids start to question their skin color or other things. Overall this was a excellent book so relevant to my everyday life i would recommend this book to anyone its a real eye
Curtis GreenTiffany ConleyENGL213027 April 2016 The Help is a book written by an American novelist, Kathryn Stockett. The story takes place in a time in Jackson, Mississippi where racism was still highly existent just as it is today. During this time, we learn of the black maids who are taking care of any needs that should be met by the white families whom they look after. Throughout the novel, we see many deals of racism as well as the way that it impacts both sides. While racism is still an issue in today 's general public, it could be incredibly decreased if we had more individuals like Miss Skeeter who showed the powerful usage of differing qualities while displaying understanding.“These women collaborate on a book detailing the “real”
The novel “The Help” was written in 2009, by Kathryn Stockett. “The Help” is written about African American women working in white homes in Jacksonville, Mississippi in the early 1960s. During this time, people were facing severe segregation and mistreatment of African Americans. Stockett created a moving novel using humor and hope to show the harsh reality of how African American women were being treated especially by other women. It is written in third person but features three first- persons narrator's, Aibileen Clark, Minny Jackson, and Skeeter Phelan.
What I liked most about this book was the reality it revealed. It showed how brutal and cruel the society was. This book made me realize that racism is deeply embedded in the life and history of the nation, and it still exists in today’s society.