ipl-logo

Alienation In The Help

615 Words3 Pages

The life of a typical slave and/or servant of a white home owner could be described as living with little to no pay, receiving disrespect from the home owners, and lack of freedom. Aibileen Clark from the book “The Help” is a maid that has experienced first hand the everyday life of being a servant to Elizabeth Leefolt. Mrs. Leefolt was documented as a racist who seemed not to care about any servant’s issues being dealt with during the 60’s such as segregation, insolence, humiliation, and alienation.
Alienation can be defined as a withdrawing or separation of a group due to a trait that they seem to possess. The author Kathryn Stocket provided many events where alienation was shown throughout that book, for example: when Mrs. Hilly (one of Mrs. Leefolt’s friends) wanted to pass a law enforcing African Americans to have their own restrooms built outside due to the fact that she believed that “Negras” (as they called the maids in the book) carry certain diseases that could be caught by Caucasians. This event to me displays intent toward alienation due to how Kathryn Stocket portrayed Hilly’s actions to seem prejudice. Not only was this event …show more content…

After reading I infer that the Caucasian characters in the book valued separation of class which caused the “Blacks” to be treated poorly, because they have been classified to be lower than the “Whites” as a result of the “Whites” believing they were superior compared to African Americans. “Whites” in the book have begun to slowly stop making laws appointed to individuals due to their race or class. Because of Aibileen doing what she did for her race she has proven that the values of the Caucasian race in the novel could be altered to ultimately improve race relations and help with equality for the advancement of human treatment civil rights for African

Show More
Related
1659 Words | 7 Pages

Many colored individuals were forced into slavery and each and everyone of the slaves had a different experience with their master. The slaves were treated as if they were nothing, a piece of property that the white people owned. They were not allowed to learn how to read or write; only needed to know how to do their chores and understand what their master was saying. They were just an extra hand in the house that had no say or existed in the white people world. The slaves’ job was to obey their master or mistress at all times, do their chores and take the beating if given one.

Read More
1195 Words | 5 Pages

The chapter covers various cases in which there were lies that were being told by the white women regarding them being raped by the Afro-Americans. The chapter covers the how the white women who had black children were treated in the society, and this is regarding being considered as outcasts, and they were divorced, disgraced, and in other cases, they were cashed from their homes. The third chapter of the book is “the new cry.” This chapter covers the plea of sympathy that was done by the southerners towards the northerners and this is because the whites who had sympathy for the lunching were deemed to have no sympathy for the white women who were victims of rape from the Afro-Americans.

Read More
909 Words | 4 Pages

Alienation occurs in the story, not because of racial differences, but because of the way the human race socializes and the amount of time they spend watching television. The average person would rather be sucked into a virtual world with virtual people, than into our real world with real people. Video games, apps, and texts are sucking up the time humans have in life. The main character, Guy Montag, yearns for connection with his wife, but she doesn’t talk to him because of her electronic obsessions. Later on, Guy meets Clarisse, a young girl who is very talkative and observant.

Read More
822 Words | 4 Pages

Alienation is an experience of being isolated from a group or a society. It is something that affects people everyday at school, work or any social events. The theme of alienation is showed in The Lego Movie when the character tries very hard to meet society’s standards. In the novel Fahrenheit 451 alienation is showed when no one listens or pays attention to the protagonist. The Lego Movie and Fahrenheit 451 does a good job demonstrating the theme of alienation with the usage of character emotions, feelings and society’s standards and labels throughout the movie and the novel.

Read More
571 Words | 3 Pages

A man’s estrangement from the product of his labor is that it is not for himself. 5. Alienated labor appears in real life as forced labor or as labor done not for oneself but rather for the service of someone else. 6. Private property is not the cause of labors alienation but instead it is the consequence of .

Read More
116 Words | 1 Pages

Alienation is the process of feeling lonely due to someone 's lack of experience that separates them from society. As a result, characters in The Dubliners collection by James Joyce, such as “Araby” and “The Dead”, suffer from alienation. Joyce explores the feeling of being the “other” through its main character Araby from “Araby” and Gabriel Conroy from “The Dead”. Araby and Conroy are both very different from being young or old,uneducated or educated, and poor or wealthy. These characters show us in their story’s how doesn 't matter which lifestyle choice one makes because no matter what no one can escape from that one moment in your life where one feels as if they do not

Read More
1746 Words | 7 Pages

One major theme authors universally write their stories around concern the power of human relationships. Though writers may take different paths to communicate this, the strength that comes from these unique connections that exist between individuals resonates with everyone. Authors clearly articulate through a myriad of rhetorical devices that maintaining relationships is a fundamental part in personal growth and allows for a stronger sense of self. In finding companionship and comradery. people become capable of evolving and arriving at better understandings of who they are.

Read More
455 Words | 2 Pages

As a result of Aibileen’s changes, Aibileen’s voice is brittle, tremulous and quavering while expressing her perspective because she is angry at the inequality. Now she cannot accept this unfair and irrational discrimination from the world. She changes amazingly. She showed her courage and opinions to white racists. The other blacks starts to pluck up courage to confront the whites’ wrong view about racism, for example Minny who is a black maid participates to help Skeeter publishing the book and then all of maids start to decide telling their stories for a book.

Read More
562 Words | 3 Pages

For example, open Black support of harsh punishment and law enforcement may seem hypocritical because in reality these policies and practices contribute to mass incarceration of Blacks. Alexander clarifies that Black support is more complex than it appears and can be attributed to a combination of complicity and wanting better safety for their communities and families (Alexander, 2012, p.210). Alexander also offers a unique perspective throughout the entire book by explaining how the systems of slavery and oppression have affected White individuals and not merely in the form of privilege or the dismissal of White people as simply as racist individuals. I resonated with one particular section discussing the "White victims of racial caste" (Alexander, 2012, p.204); the author 's anecdote of a white woman falling in love with a Black man and due to miscegenation laws could not have children. I could relate to this story on a deeply personal level in that my own parents experienced extreme and countless hurdles due to their interracial relationship and having biracial

Read More
1440 Words | 6 Pages

Based on this novel, the enforcement of racism will result in a lifetime of suffering. Rosaleen, the protagonist’s closest black friend, is negatively impacted by the experiences she encounters with three white nigger haters. As Rosaleen and Lily (main character of the novel) are entering the town of Sylvan, the three nigger haters begin judging Rosaleen due to her black appearances. Gradually, Rosaleen becomes more and more irritated with their insults.

Read More
759 Words | 4 Pages

The social groups focused on in this novel are white housewives, whose group consists of Skeeter, the privileged daughter of a farmer, who just returned from college, and “the help” or a group of maids who are of course of African American decent. The help is forced to obey their irrationally needy bosses, cooking for them, cleaning for them, and even raising their children, only to be treated inhumanely and unfairly by petty housewives. For example, one of the housewives, Hilly Holbrook, a seemingly conflicting character alone, was very suggestive of a bathroom act being enforced, which made it mandatory that every home have a separate bathroom for its help as a “safety precaution” because they could transmit diseases through their bodily functions. In situations like these, African Americans were very alienated, and it really displayed the gap in reality for the two groups. This in turn caused conflict between them, as African Americans were looked down at by whites and the whites were seen as threatening and wicked minded by African Americans.

Read More
1084 Words | 5 Pages

Racism/Discrimination: From Facts to Fiction Racism has been a big epidemic since the early 1600’s and is still a problem throughout society today. According to Dictionary.com, racism is a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human racial groups determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to dominate others or that a particular racial group is inferior to the others. The Tortilla Curtain, by T.C. Boyle exemplifies racism and discrimination by the dividing of communities from the impoverished minorities and the superior majority. Boyle reveals how more fortunate people stereotype the way minorities and poverty live rather than acknowledging

Read More
610 Words | 3 Pages

Black women are treated less than because of their ascribed traits, their gender and race, and are often dehumanized and belittled throughout the movie. They are treated like slaves and are seen as easily disposable. There are several moments throughout the film that show the racial, gender, and class inequalities. These moments also show exploitation and opportunity hoarding. The Help also explains historical context of the inequality that occurred during that time period.

Read More
1334 Words | 6 Pages

However, although born and raised in the American bourgeois, Nick Carraway experiences alienation from the rest of the American society. Alienation is defined as the separation of a person from an object or position of former attachment. This is present in The Great Gatsby, particularly in the character of the narrator Nick Carraway. Alienation experienced by Nick Carraway can be seen as social isolation which is also known as segregation from one’s community and social alienation as a returning war veteran since Nick served during the Great War.

Read More
2515 Words | 11 Pages

In addition to that, the black community isolated Sethe because she did something that the community considered wrong. Black feminism will be the approach utilized here to see the oppression of woman of color because it includes sexism, classism and racism. Since the female characters are very dominant in the novel, a black feminist approach should be very effective and it enables one to see how the female characters deal with the past and live with it in the present, what motherhood mean to the female characters, and how much the past influences the female characters who lives in the present. The end of the novel reveals the forgiveness and the acceptance not only of the black community toward Sethe’s choice (killing her daughter) but also of the white people (the Bodwins) who accepted Denver to work for them. This reconciliation shows that the courage and the will to get rid off from the past to live side by side peacefully and to move toward the future together.

Read More

More about Alienation In The Help

Related Topics

Open Document