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Aibleen House As A Symbol For Equality In The Help

735 Words3 Pages

In Kathryn Stokett’s novel The Help, Aibleen’s house is used as a symbol for free self-expression and equality. In the novel, Aibleen’s home is the only place her and Skeeter can meet to do interviews and to just have conversations with one another. This is the only place that Skeeter can talk to any of the maids freely. In the rest of Jackson, Mississippi, if Skeeter, Aibleen, and the other maids were caught having these discussions, their reputations and maybe even their lives would be put in jeopardy. When the maids are outside of the comfort of their own homes, and in the presence of white people, they have to refrain from speaking their true thoughts and acting how they would truly like to in order to avoid any harm. Skeeter does not really …show more content…

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”. Skeeter knows this act is wrong in her heart, but she cannot talk about it with any white person she knows. The only black people that she does know are the maid in Jackson. The bathroom act has her thinking about other challenges the maids must face, and she takes a risk in asking Aibleen to start doing interviews with …show more content…

During the 1960’s, the time at which the novel takes place, black people in the United States had to be extra careful with the things they said around white people. This was because, at the time, white people were still assumed to be the superior race. They maintained the greatest amount of power in every situation. For the maid specifically, expressing themselves in front of their white employers could get them in a lot of trouble. These expressions range from showing their happiness or showing their anger. However, in Aibileen’s house, the maids and Skeeter, a white woman, met up so the maids could purposefully express their feelings and experiences. This created a space that the maids and Skeeter were never used to before. It was a space where they could say what they were really thinking around the opposite race without facing repercussions.

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Summary: Aibileen traches Mae Mobley to use the bathroom by herself and the Leefolts build Aibileen a separate colored bathroom outside. Skeeter gets approval from Mrs. Stein to start writing a rough draft about what life is like as a colored maid. She approaches Aibileen to interview her and though at first she is reluctant but eventually decides to do it as long as they’re careful. Meanwhile Skeeter goes on a long awaited date with the senator’s son, Stuart, who is drunk and incredibly rude the entire time.

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