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Relationships Between Mothers And Daughters In The Help By Kathryn Stockett

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Recommended: What impacts our identity formation

Nicole Reimer
Ms. Robbins
ENG 4U1-03
13 Jan. 2023
The Touch of Mothers The relationships formed between mothers and daughters in The Help by Kathryn Stockett influenced the daughters for their entire lives. Starting in 1962, Aibileen Clark worked for Elizabeth Leefolt, mostly taking care of her daughter, Mae Mobley Leefolt, who was constantly ignored by her mother as a toddler. Eugenia Phelan, or Skeeter, struggles with the recent loss of her childhood maid, Constantine, and with her mother, Mrs. Charlotte Phelan, who disapproves of Skeeter’s appearance and her desire to become an author instead of a housewife. Disturbed by the racism occurring in Jacksonville, Mississippi, Skeeter decides to write a book telling the struggles black maids …show more content…

Phelan’s expectations placed on her daughter affects Skeeter’s image of herself. Charlotte Phelan wanted Skeeter to get married and have children while she was still young, but Skeeter’s appearance was not acceptable enough to her in order for her to believe that Skeeter could actually engage with a man. Mrs. Phelan made Skeeter feel extremely self-conscious about her height, her hair, and her clothes by constantly commenting on her appearance and height, booking her hair appointments, trying out new hairstyles on her to make her appear shorter, or by sending her shopping. On top of her disapproval of Skeeter’s appearance, Charlotte Phelan made sure that Skeeter knew she disapproved of her idea to get a job as a writer, and not as a housewife and mother which was society’s norm in the 1960s. She criticized Skeeter’s choice of education by saying, “ ‘Four years my daughter goes off to college and what does she come home with? … A pretty piece of paper’ ”(Stockett 64). Because of this constant disapproval, Skeeter felt insecure and as if no one would ever be truly proud of her. This caused her to continually lie to her mother about the places she went to or the people she was hanging out with. It only ruined their relationship even more because Skeeter was treating her mother with the same disrespect she was being treated with. Skeeter’s insecurities made her feel left behind in her family (Stockett 66) since she no longer fit into her mother’s expectations of being a housewife. Her priorities changed from getting married to following her own desires of becoming a writer. This feeling of being left behind was not uncommon as Rachel Hubbard points out in an article about women in the 1900s, “Some women who wanted to live differently would begin to think that they were failures and become depressed. Most of these women were wealthy and well-educated” (Hubbard). This was similar to Skeeter’s situation as she wanted to be different from society, had

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