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Overcoming Racial Tension In Skeer's The Help

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The Help has a plot that tells about American history and how times have changed over the decades. It shows what the lives were like of many different people in the 1960’s. During that time, there were many racial boundaries that stopped African Americans from being free as well as separated them from the same rights that the whites had. The theme is represented by the main conflict in this story, whereby a white lady named Skeeter writes a book to show the lives of African American maids in the 1960’s. In addition, she writes about the struggles of keeping it a secret without everyone in Jackson, Mississippi finding out. If anyone found out, she and the other maids would be accused of breaking the Jim Crow Laws. The conflict created in The Help supports the theme of overcoming racial tension. For starters, Aibileen tries to overcome the death of her son because …show more content…

It describes how the rights for African Americans were clearly different from Whites. As stated above, the theme is represented by the main conflict in this story. Skeeter felt inspired to write a book about African American maids in her hometown while struggling to keep it a secret from everyone. Risk of anyone finding out would be breaking the Jim Crow Laws. The conflict created in The Help supports the theme of overcoming racial segregation. Aibileen struggles with the death of her son because white people did not offer to help save him. Aibileen adores Mae Mobley despite Elizabeth’s negligent actions. Minny desperately tries to uphold a job to help support her family. All of these topics describe how African American maids were not treated fairly. Finally, it describes the different types of relationships between African Americans and white people as well as how lives were different for some people in Jackson, Mississippi in the

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