Introduction
The 1960’s were most definitely a dark era, but a dark era were light was finally beginning to shine, racism, sexism and homophobia were very evident beforehand and during the 60’s, issues like sexism and racism were beginning to slowly left up, but maybe not so much for homophobia and prejudice. After the Civil Rights Movement broke out in the United States, people began focusing more and more on the injustice carried out daily towards black citizens. Yet despite the fact that the Civil Rights Movement was raging all over, for the earlier years of it, the southern states weren’t very affected, especially Mississippi.
The novel “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett takes places in the town of Jackson,Mississippi where a young unmarried woman, Eugenia, is fighting day to day sexism aimed at her through her boss, male colleagues, friends, and even her mother who is pressuring her to get married ever since
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1960’s Feminism
Like I mentioned earlier, “The Help” seems to be an imperfect depiction of the 1960’s so far. And again, feminism was shown in the most stereotypical ways. Yes, it was very empowering to see how women can be liberated, but it was very cliché, feminism could have been shown in much more meaningful interesting ways.
A hint of feminism in The Help may be most evident in post-college Skeeter, the young woman who questions restrictions placed on her by society 's traditions. Her Southern socialite best friends have conformed to expectations by marrying, having children (or trying to) and even questioning why Skeeter stayed four years at Ole Miss to finish her degree, while they were dropping out of school.
Despite her independent streak, Skeeter feels the pressure to marry, and nearly does so even when both emotional and logical signs point toward no. The pressure