How does one achieve hero status? To me, there are two definitions of “hero,” (1) a person who is regarded as a model that is respected for qualities or achievements, and (2) anyone that in the face of danger and adversity or from a position of weakness displays courage and the will for self-sacrifice. The heroines or protagonists in The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, are the latter. It is a book about a young white woman, Skeeter Phelan, who decides to write a tell-all book about black maids who work in white homes in the segregated, deep south. The setting is Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962. The main theme is racial prejudice and bigotry—hatred towards people in respect to their color and race. The chapters are narrated through the eyes …show more content…
Abilene has had the joy of raising 17 white children, but her own son was senselessly murdered because he wanted to write a book on the treatment of blacks. “It weren’t too loo long before I seen something in me, had changed. A bitter seed was planted inside of me. And I just didn’t feel so, accepting, anymore (p. 3).” Minny is renown in the white community for being a great cook, but has a temper and intolerance for being treated badly by white employers. “Tuck it in, Minny. Look like a maid who does what she’s told (p. …show more content…
They raised white children, ran households, and were paid poorly. They often had to use separate toilets from the family and watch the white children they raised commit bigotry. The time of the book is an era in American history that the author portrays both internally, in the maids, and externally, in the homes and on the streets. In the end, these three heroines’ efforts go far to protect, defend, and guard civil liberties for blacks. Throughout the book, there are descriptions of the civil rights movement, as are the racial relations between the maids and their white employers. The novel is brimming with details about early-1960s black culture in the United States, like Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous march on Washington D.C. for jobs and