ipl-logo

Achieving Gender Roles In Skeeter's Writing Career

294 Words2 Pages

Because men thought less of women in this time period, the fact that Skeeter has such enthusiasm about starting her writing career causes everyone to make her feel very discouraged. According to Stockett, people believe that because she is a woman, Skeeter isn’t capable of upholding a job that is so prestigious as to be a writer. Because of this, Skeeter has to fight back to everyone to prove that she is smart enough and able to pursue a career in this field. Because most women are known for holding the role of a stay at home mother who dedicates their lives to their families, Skeeter’s motivation to reach for her dreams is very dampened considering everyone doubts her abilities. This is quite significant because even though people are making it very clear that they don’t believe she can achieve her dreams, Skeeter is putting forth all her might to prove them wrong. …show more content…

This is demonstrating that even though Skeeter is a woman, her gender does not lessen her drive and motivation to succeed in life. Not only are men discouraging Skeeter, but so many women are brainwashed to believe the gender roles of society that they are tearing Skeeters ambitions down as well. At one point, Celia Foote states, "Oh, we're gonna have some kids. […] I mean, kids is the only thing worth living for." (Stockett 33) This proves that society is pressuring all women, including Skeeter, to leave any dreams they have of becoming anything more than what a man and society wants them to become. Skeeter completely disagrees with this statement and continues to fight for what she desires to develop

Show More
Related
843 Words | 4 Pages

Skeeter becomes alienated due to her choices of not being married, and because of how her perspective on the division between white Southern households and black maids has changed due to being in the city and going to college. She also crosses social boundaries in the movie to write a book about the lives of black maids in the South, which is a highly controversial and could have gotten the maids who helped fired and shunned. These characteristics are what help her further her transformation from the women she was raised to be to the independent, brave woman who chooses her own

Read More
995 Words | 4 Pages

In the Help, Skeeter has to sacrifice her relationship with all of her friends in order to stand up for what she actually believed in. She wanted to make a major change in the way things worked in Jackson because she kept a relationship with her maid, Constantine. Sacrifice is key with all of the maids and Skeeter because it is the obstacle of actually writing the book. Every writer has to make sacrifices when writing a novel. Skeeter is a great representation as she loses her friendships, her relationship with Stuart Whitworth, and spending time with her sick mother in order to make a bigger change.

Read More
691 Words | 3 Pages

To Aibileen, however, this is just another step down the path of disrespect and alienation by white women. Skeeter Phelan has a moment of understanding when she is talking to Aibileen about checking books out of a library and she realizes that there are so many more books at the white library than there are at the one Aibileen can go to. Even while shopping for Celia, Minny goes to a different store because the store she goes to for her own groceries has old food and spoiled

Read More
735 Words | 3 Pages

Skeeter could never express these feelings and thoughts even to those who are closest for her. She cannot share this with her closest friends, Elizabeth and Hilly, because they actively stand for and with these racist laws and ideals. She is not even able to express this with her own family because they too share these ideals. In needing a good story for a New York publishing firm, she looked towards something that was personal and happening at home. Hilly wanted to enact the “Home Help Sanitation Initiative”.

Read More
905 Words | 4 Pages

Although Atticus faces disapproval from members of the community for defending Tom, he was determined to do his job to the best of his ability, and worked with what he had. Conversely, Skeeter from The Help is a writer who works at the Jackson Journal, in the housekeeping column, and she uses this as a tunnel to give black maids a voice in her community. For example, Charlotte comes into the room and tells Skeeter she needs to focus on finding a husband instead of wasting her time on writing. In response, Skeeter says she wants to do something important with her life and

Read More
1574 Words | 7 Pages

By an anonymous writer later revealed as Skeeter also known as Eugenia Phelan. Skeeter, a white woman, returns to her hometown (Mississippi) to discover that her motherly nanny Constantine has left but no one tells what happened. Soon Skeeter realizes the injustice her society practices and decides to write a book where voices of black will be raised. She approaches Aibileen for sharing her narrative to which Aibileen responds positively and also let’s Minny in their secret. Minny, Aibileen’s friend, another black help, reveals a secret about Miss Hilly that ensures Miss Hilly’s silence after the publication of their writing project.

Read More
1856 Words | 8 Pages

Skeeter is seen to develop in two different ways: a young woman who doesn 't have marriage as a first priority anymore and a woman who later sees an injustice to the black help. Skeeter is a white socialite who just graduated from college with a degree in writing. She came back to Jackson Mississippi with the idea of starting to write for book publishing companies but arrives home only for her mother to question her about marriage. Upon the many

Read More
994 Words | 4 Pages

In the movie The Help directed by Tate Taylor, Skeeter is able to make her mother feel regret for firing her maid Constantine, and in fact, her mother is so changed, she later stands up to further racist attempts to silence Skeeter. This shows that Skeeter uses her feelings along with her mother’s to make her mother feel guilty about firing her childhood maid. Constantine raised Skeeter, and for Skeeter’s Mom to fire her other mother figure, is pretty hard to take in. Especially because she fires her for no good reason, which alone shows the injustice. Her mother realizes what she did was wrong, and changes her views on African-Americans.

Read More
696 Words | 3 Pages

Although the black maids endure such indignity, none will share their experiences with Skeeter in fear of being discovered by the town’s whites.  Aibileen is among those who refuse, but one day at church the preacher exhorts the congregation to have courage and speak the truth. He states that, "Courage isn't just about being brave. Courage is daring to do what is right in spite of the weakness of our flesh. And God tells us, commands us, compels us, to love."

Read More
950 Words | 4 Pages

Raisin in the Sun: Gender Roles Defied Following the event of World War Two, America during the 1950s was an era of economic prosperity. Male soldiers had just returned home from war to see America “at the summit of the world”(Churchill). Many Americans were confident that the future held nothing other than peace and prosperity, so they decided to start families. However, the 1950s was also a time of radical changes. Because most of the men in the family had departed to fight in the war, women were left at home to do the housework.

Read More
848 Words | 4 Pages

Gender roles play an important role in A Raisin in the Sun. During the time A Raisin in the Sun was written the idea of set in stone positions in a household and society were common. Women were supposed to do house jobs, keep their mouths shut, and support their husbands’ decisions and men were seen as the headman or boss. A Raisin in the Sun shows readers a window into the world where those gender roles have a twist on them. Women in the time of A Raisin in the Sun were supposed to be subservient to men.

Read More
727 Words | 3 Pages

Growing up as a woman has been quite difficult in this generation, however, growing up around thirty years ago must have been more difficult. Back in the 1900’s, women had different social norms to deal with in society. Women had to stay at home, be housewives, do the laundry, and cook while men went out and worked to obtain money for their family. In Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin, she tells the struggles that women went through back in the 1990 's and the social norms that women had to go through. Chopin addresses many instances of symbolism to portray the feeling Mrs. Mallard has about her own thoughts and experiences with or without a man in her life.

Read More
3436 Words | 14 Pages

A young college graduate, Skeeter, returns home to be with her ailing mother, and in her ambition to succeed as a writer, turns to the black maids she knows. Skeeter is determined to collect their oral histories and write about a culture that values social facade and ignores the human dignity of many members of the community. Two maids, Aibileen and Minny, agree to share their stories, stories of struggle and daily humiliation, of hard work and low pay, of fear for themselves. It is a time of change, when

Read More
1082 Words | 5 Pages

Transcript of Women in Early American Literature The continuing shift on the representation of women embodies the changes that occur in American literature. Each period in the American history seemed parallel to showcase the degree of which acknowledgement and acceptance were given to portray the roles of women. Dating back in the16th century, Svoboda (2013) argues that writings in American literature contained little reference to women at all thus illustrates the harsh reality of society's treatment of women. Women in American literature before the 18th century were inexplicit and almost non-existent. The chief literary work that portrayed woman character was Cabeza de Vaca’s The Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition that was written during

Read More
1221 Words | 5 Pages

Do you know that Shakespeare is not the only gifted writer in his family? This mysterious member exists in the English writer Virginia Woolf’s imagination. In her famous essay “Shakespeare’s Sister,” Woolf uses the hypothetical anecdote of Judith Shakespeare as her main evidence to argue against a dinner guest, who believes that women are incapable of writing great literature. During the time when Judith is created, women are considered to be naturally inferior to men and are expected to be passive and domestic. Regarding her potential audience, educated men, as “conservative,” Woolf attempts to persuade them that social discouragement is the real cause of the lack of great female writers without irritating them by proposing “radical” arguments.

Read More

More about Achieving Gender Roles In Skeeter's Writing Career

Related Topics

Open Document