How Racial Segregation Affects Characters in The Help by...

Racial segregation is the practice of isolating a group of people based on their race, class or ethnic group. This practice provides the means of maintaining the economic advantages and superior social status of the politically dominant group, and was primarily employed by white populations to maintain their dominance over African- Americans (Britannica). Racial segregation was implemented or at least encouraged, and as a result has negatively affected the lives of African-Americans as a whole. The Help written by Kathryn Stockett takes place in the early 1960’s in Jackson, Mississippi, a place where racial discrimination occurs on a large scale, and is actively practiced and enforced by the government and the people within the city. The protagonists, Skeeter, Aibeleen and Minny all fall victims to this segregated as they attempt to reduce the racial tension in the city (Shmoop). Much of the novel depicts the typical life of African-American maids and the inequality they ex perience in comparison to southern white women (Literature Nerd). Because of this segregated setting, characters are treated differently based on their ethnicity and status. There is a large contrast between how society treats the two African American maids, Aibeleen and Minny, compared to the â€Å"socially acceptable† yet different white woman, Skeeter and Hilly. The setting of Jackson, Mississippi has a significant effect on how the two African-American maids, Aibeleen and Minny are treated inShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Kathryn Stockett s The Sea Of The Eyes 1363 Words   |  6 Pages The Help is an incredibly powerful book, filled to the brim with touching portions, but one that stands out to me is, â€Å"We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I’d thought,† on page 492. Among the sea of significant quotations, Kathryn Stockett manages to separate these particular sentences by using them to highlight a deeper meaning: regardless of his or her skin color, a person is just a person. The sentence, â€Å"We are just two people,† shows the unity between racesRead MoreDivided Races : The Help And Its Controversy3530 Words   |  15 PagesDivided Races: The Help and its Controversy â€Å"What I am sure about is this: I don’t presume to think that I know what it really felt like to be a black woman in Mississippi, especially in the 1960s. I don’t think it is something any white woman on the other end of a black woman’s paycheck could ever truly understand. But trying to understand is vital to our humanity.† (Stockett Help 528-29) The above statement emphasizes Kathryn Stockett’s acknowledgment that The Help is a work of historical fictionRead MorePhysical And Emotional Abuse Explored The Color Purple3677 Words   |  15 PagesPurple and The Help helps to create awareness of the central issues. Both are novels that carry a lot of similarities, where the female characters are portrayed as ‘invisible’, ‘servants’ and ‘child carers’. However, after reading carefully into the biographical work of both authors the critical difference I observed was that The Colour Purple is written by an African-American woman who may have truly experienced the harshness of what she was writing about; on the other hand The Help by a white woman