The Maids Now Have They Say Persuasive Essay

505 Words2 Pages

To the Editor: “Racial Insults and Quiet Bravery in 1960s Mississippi”,” by Janet Maslin and “‘The Maids’ Now Have Their Say,’” by Manohla ‘s Dargis both reflect the ignorance of the white women in the South during the 60s, rather than the ignorance of “The Help.” Stereotypically, black people in the 60s were uneducated, and problematic. Despite the civil rights movement, white children were raised and loved primarily by the help and never acknowledge the helps life outside of their southern plantations. The novel, by Kathryn Stockett explores the white white characters troubled relationships, lack of parenting skills, and problems similar to those experienced by the black characters. Stockett and Skeeter, the narrator of the novel, share the idea that the emotional needs and struggles of “The Help” should be recognized and credit should be given to these women who are the foundation of the white family. During the …show more content…

Its that irony, that we love them and they love us, yet…we don’t even allow them to use the same toilet in the house”(125). It is because of this, Skeete writes about the help, due to her social privilege to make a change and give a voice to the black women that was closest to her in her life.Maslin, Dargis, and I share the idea that the emotional needs and struggles of “The Help” should be recognized and credit should be given to these women who are the foundation of the white

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of Frogmen, By Amina Gautier

    793 Words  | 2 Pages

    Amina Gautier has been awarded with Best African American Fiction and New Stories from the South; in addition, she has successfully created At Risk. Gautier’s story is based on the African American community and the different types of struggle families can realistically face. However, if a white person would have written this exact story it could have been misinterpreted and considered racist. Stereotypes such as fathers not being present, delinquencies and educational status are presented in the various short stories. “Boogiemen”, “Afternoon Tea” and “Some Other Kind of Happiness” are all examples of stories in which the father is not present.

    Read More

  • Leith Mullings' On Our Own Terms: Race, Class, And Gender In The Lives Of African American Women

    874 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Author of this book (On our own terms: race, class, and gender in the lives of African American Women) Leith Mullings seeks to explore the modern and historical lives of African American women on the issues of race, class and gender. Mullings does this in a very analytical way using a collection of essays written and collected over a twenty five year period. The author’s systematic format best explains her point of view. The book explores issues such as family, work and health comparing and contrasting between white and black women as well as between men and women of both races.

    Read More

  • The Relationship Between Mae Mobley And Aibileen

    826 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 1962 racism was a big issue and African-Americans were treated tremendously and dehumanized. Mae Mobley’s innocence of a child helped her to look beyond the atrocious actions of her culture and create a special bond with her caregiver, Aibileen. The relationship between Mae Mobley and Aibileen was strong in the sense that Mae Mobley saw past the depths of Aibileen’s skin colour and saw Aibileen as she saw herself. Living in what seemed like two different worlds their love for each other was truly powerful and unbreakable. Aibileen cared for Mae Mobley as if she was her own child, giving her advice and making sure Mae Mobley knew she loved her. She was also concerned about her throughout the day and gave her the attention her mother did not. In result of little neglect from Mae Mobley’s mother Mae acts out

    Read More

  • River Of Names

    1456 Words  | 3 Pages

    In today’s society people are eager to categorize what they are unfamiliar with. They perceive people who are poor, and from the south as “white trash.'; Their own socio-economic background of course influences this perception. Allison is from the back woods of South Carolina and presents these people in a way that challenges the expectations of the American public and at the same time does not romanticize their lives. The story is told by a narrator, who is nameless, and her experiences while growing up in this type of family and follows all the stereotypical images that come to mind: “broken teeth, torn overalls, and the dirt.'; She does not gloss over the ugliness of this poverty. Her words are not simple, but hard edged truths. Dorothy Allison speaks through this narrator with unflinching honesty about a world where pain and love intersect.

    Read More

  • Movie Review: The Help By Kathryn Stockett

    1079 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Help by Kathryn Stockett has become many critics’ favorites since its release in 2009. The novel became an instant success and later made its way into Hollywood in 2011 with a film adaptation also titled The Help. The film takes place down in rainy Jackson, Mississippi during the 1960s, when civil rights and JFK’s assassination were the nation’s main topics. The movie focuses on the colored help and their work environment, especially emphasizing the helps’ relations with their white employers while exposing the hidden stories behind many families’ door through the eyes of a dozen colored maids. The Help is a victorious story about the ability to create change through human interactions in relationships.

    Read More

  • Courage In The Help

    856 Words  | 2 Pages

    'The Help' set in Jackson, Mississippi conveys the struggles for the African-American society throughout the civil rights movement, where the rights of citizens for political and social freedom and equality was pushed to be equalised. The film "The Help" directed by Tate Taylor is an adaption of the novel written by Kathryn Stockett. It explores the lives of the African American maids and how they were treated throughout the civil rights movement during the 1960's. The theme of courage is explored through many characters’ lives as they stand up for what they believe, take a step out of their comfort zone and face many challenges. In the film it is shown through physical, social and moral courage, all of which play a significant part throughout ‘The Help’.

    Read More

  • The Help by Kathryn Stockett

    1285 Words  | 3 Pages

    The author Katheryn Stockett reveals that for a person to find hope, he/she must overcome the conflicts they have towards with characters and their environment. Aibileen and Skeeter live in different social situations yet they experience similar conflicts. Discrimination on any level is not acceptable. Katheryn Stockett revealed an environment that is unfair to different races. When we talk about equality in humanity, there is no dominant side but both sides are equal. “The Help” is written according in the time of 1962, when there was brutal social and political environment for black people. How can people in such an environment be protected from injustice.

    Read More

  • The Help, by Kathryn Stockett

    1159 Words  | 3 Pages

    Feminist theory is a term that embraces a wide variety of approaches to the questions of a women’s place and power in culture and society. Two of the important practices in feminist critique are raising awareness of the ways in which women are oppressed, demonized, or marginalized, and discovering motifs of female awakenings. The Help is a story about how black females “helped” white women become “progressive” in the 1960’s. In my opinion, “The Help” I must admit that it exposes some of our deepest racial, gender, and class wounds as individuals and social groups, and that the story behind the story is a call to respect our wounds and mutual wounding so that healing may have a chance to begin and bring social injustice to an end. The relationship between Blacks and whites in this novel generally take on the tone of a kindly, God-fearing Jesus Christ-loving Black person, placidly letting blacks and whites work out their awkwardness regarding race and injustice. Eventually both the black and white women realize how similar they are after all, and come to the conclusion that racism is an action of the individual person, a conclusion mutually exclusive of racism as an institutionalized system that stands to demonize and oppress people based on the color of their skin and the location of their ancestry.

    Read More

  • Analysis of The Help by Kathryn Stockett

    1282 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the story “The Help” written by Kathryn Stockett, we are taken back in time to Jackson, Mississippi in August of 1962, where we meet three women by the name of Aibileen, Minny and Skeeter. Aibileen and Minny are black women who work for white families as the help. Skeeter is a young white woman in her early twenties who befriends the other two and gets them to tell their stories of what it is like to be the help. They reluctantly hesitate, but eventually give in knowing that the stories they are telling are more important than the negative impact it could have on their lives. While reading “ The Help” you cannot help but notice the symbolism that drips from almost every page.

    Read More

  • The Help Movie Analysis

    875 Words  | 2 Pages

    For this assignment, the movie “The Help” was chosen to review and analyze because it presents a story of fighting injustice through diverse ways. The three main characters of the movie are Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, a young white woman, Aibileen Clark, and Minny Jackson, two colored maids. Throughout the story, we follow these three women as they are brought together to record colored maids’ stories about their experiences working for the white families of Jackson. The movie explores the social inequalities such as racism and segregation between African Americans and whites during the 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi.

    Read More

  • How Does Stockett Use Feminism In The Help

    1742 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Help, written by Kathryn Stockett, is a novel published in 2009, set in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi. The novel involves a white woman dealing with societal pressures that involve having no career or aspirations and two African-American American maids who find the courage to talk about the most taboo subject in Mississippi. Skeeter is a young, white woman, who has recently graduated from college and is hoping to become a writer, whilst dealing with society and the view on women’s role in society. Aibileen and Minny, are two African-American maids, who have been dealing with oppression based on the colour of their skin since the beginning of their time. These three women come together to create a book, in the hopes of changing and informing society on how they feel they are being treated. Skeeter writes about her want for a career and society’s want for her to stay at home and be the wife to a working husband and mother to children she doesn’t raise. Aibileen and Minny write about their experiences working for white families and how they raise white children while their own are at home alone (GoodReads, n.d.).

    Read More

  • Kathryn Stockett's The Help

    310 Words  | 1 Pages

    1. Kathryn Stockett’s The Help is a historical fiction book written in the perspectives of three different characters living in the 1960’s about how blacks and whites were treated and about the consequences of what happens after two black woman and a white woman write a book about they place they live in. 2. Hoping to become a writer, twenty-three-year-old Skeeter Phelan decides to write a book about what it is like to be a black maid in Jackson, Mississippi, a cruel place to live if you are black, and after asking many times, she finally receives the help of Minny and Aibileen, who are black maids, along with almost a dozen other maids. 3. Jackson is a place where black people are often killed or harmed by white people, meaning the black women

    Read More

  • The Movie The Help

    672 Words  | 2 Pages

    The movie The Help covers the stories of several house maids in the 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement. The story is set in Jackson, Mississippi and the story is chronological. This movie is about a writer named Skeeter, who is trying to advance her career by writing an excellent story. After returning home from college, she discovers that her maid Constantine, an extremely close friend who helped raise her, has left while she was away, which greatly upsets Skeeter.

    Read More

  • Cinematography In The Help

    916 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Help’, directed by Tate Taylor was released in 2011. This film conveys a powerful story about the racial struggles of African-American maids working in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960’s. The story is based around Minnie and Aibilene, two maids whose primary role is to raise white children in white households. A young writer ‘Skeeter’, writes a book written from the maid’s perspective, focusing on the prejudice that these women face. Different techniques such as mise-en-scene, cinematography and post production have been strategically selected to convey themes of racial prejudice, reinforcing the invited reading of how prejudice is a destructive force in society, which has been taught through social laws and expectations.

    Read More

  • The Help By Kathryn Stockett

    1269 Words  | 3 Pages

    I have recently readed the book called The Help by Kathryn Stockett. A few years ago it was made into a movie that was really famous and capture the attention of many. The main story is about a group of African American maids, that with the help of a unique fresh out of college journalist write a book about their experiences as maids for the upper middle class of Jackson Mississippi society in the 1960’s. The book deals with a lot of racism towards the maids portrayed by their employees. But above all this what I wanted to focus on is a theme that I found in the book that is complete opposites from the main themes that the book wants us to look at.

    Read More

More about The Maids Now Have They Say Persuasive Essay

Open Document