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Identify And Describe The Setting Of The Novel 'The Help'

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Identify and describe the setting of your novel: The Help is set in Jackson, Mississippi from August, 1962 to late 1964. At this time African Americans were not treated equally as whites or given the same opportunities. Identify and describe the main characters: Minny and Aibileen are the main women representing ‘the help’- the black women who make life more comfortable for their white female employers. Minny is a strong woman. She’s known throughout Jackson as an excellent cook. She’s married to Leroy, an abusive husband, and has five kids. Minny has a big mouth though and it makes her easy prey for the white women she offends. She says many unpopular things that get her into trouble. Minny asserts herself as a person with views and a strong …show more content…

The “bitter seed grows” as her anger increases with unequal treatment of African Americans. 2. “Truth. It feels cool, like water washing over my sticky-hot body. Cooling a heat that’s been burning me up all my life.” (p. 129) The simile of truth feeling “cool, like water washing over my sticky-hot body,” allows me to understand the relief felt by someone finally not covering up the unequal treatment of African Americans in Jackson. The metaphor of “cooling a heat” allows me to realize that this has always been a problem close to her heart. With the use of truth it calms some of these angers and frustrations that have been bothering her much of her life. Explain the main conflict in your novel. One of the types of conflicts is man vs. self. The three main characters each experience this conflict. Skeeter goes through it because she has to decide; Do I go against everything that people have taught me or do I step up and write something that could change how people feel. Aibileen and Minny go through it when they have to decide if they should help with the book or not; If they help they could land in jail or they can finally speak how they have felt for so

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