Symbolism In The Help

Improved Essays
Hilly thought it was a peace offering, being delivered from a maid who sassed her. She eagerly ate the chocolate custard pie, without knowing it was a pie full of the maid’s feces. The maid, Minny Jackson, did this in revenge for being fired by Hilly. This action of hate between a white and a colored can definitely relate to the question the book gives, can the barrier that society has made to separate the races be broken down, and can Whites and Coloreds finally get along? Throughout the entire book, we slowly are introduced to this question. The question is that can the barrier that society has made to separate the races be broken down, and can White and Colored finally get along. It’s very prevalent throughout The Help. The book first …show more content…
We are introduced to Aibileen, who works for Miss Leefolt as a maid. We are introduced to Miss Skeeter at a ladies bridge club being hosted at Miss Leefolt’s house. When the bridge club is over, Aibileen is working in the kitchen, cleaning up, when Miss Skeeter comes up to her and says, “Do you ever wish you could... change things?”. What she meant is do you wish you could do something about the current situation of the South which segregates coloreds. Miss Skeeter eventually decides to do something incredibly daring. Infact, it was illegal in the South. She decided to …show more content…
Earlier on in the book, after Minny was fired by Hilly, Minny found herself stranded without a job. It was almost impossible to find one then because Hilly was spreading constant lies about Minny all around Jackson, Mississippi. Eventually, Minny became desperate. She had to resort to a woman named Miss Celia who lived in a massive mansion out in the country. Miss Celia was a recluse. She didn’t have many friends, and she sat around the house a lot. Miss Celia was seeking help. Since Miss Celia wasn’t really close to anybody, and she lived further away, the lies of Minny Jackson hadn’t yet reached her yet. So when Minny came in asking for a job, she got one. However, one major detail Minny didn’t know until after she got it, is the her employment would have to be kept confidential from Mister Johnny, who was Celia’s husband. The reason for this is because Miss Celia wanted to impress her husband, by making him think she was the one making the fantastic meals, and doing a superb job at keeping house, when in reality, she was dreadful at both of those. So after a few months of employment, Mister Johnny eventually found out, but Miss Celia didn’t know. Now Minny needed to act like she was hiding from Mister Johnny, but not letting Miss Celia know Miss Johnny knew about Minny. One day however, Minny came into work, and found Miss Celia not feeling too well. Miss Celia played it off as nothing, when

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The quote previously is from the end of the novel where Luke asks Celia to be a spy. This takes bravery on both sides. Celia would be risking her life. If she would be caught the British would put her to death for treason with the potential to make the execution public as a lesson to show what happens when someone goes against the King.…

    • 1088 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The hallucination shows that Celia has always had her husband…

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Skeeter In The Help

    • 666 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The film, The Help directed by Tate Taylor is about a determined story to make a change in black civil rights in Jackson, Mississippi. Skeeter, is a main character who was influenced by others to stand up for the purpose of black civil rights. Skeeter is a young, self-motivated and successful woman, who has the aspirations to be an excellent writer. She is quite different from her friends, as she has a different view on the racism and civil rights of the black maids. She is strongly influenced by the black maids, Aibileen and Minnie to write a book to create awareness of their mistreatment.…

    • 666 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    McLaurin reveals the moral dilemma of antebellum Southern Missourian society through Celia’s trial. Celia was 14 years old when she was brought to Callaway County, Missouri by her master Newsom who exploited her sexually, abused her dignity and bore him two children. He repeatedly raped her inhumanly but Celia had no powers over her master, since she was just a slave to him, as quoted by McLaurin: “To have empowered slave women in the domestic arena, to have recognized their right to control their sexuality, would have undercut the power of the master” (138). One night she defended herself from rape and hit Newson with a club murdering him unintentionally. Moreover, her life worsened as she was accused of murder and had to go for trials.…

    • 751 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the 1850s slaves in the south endured extreme hardships, not only from working all day in the fields but also because of the abuse they received from their master. In particular, female slaves were treated more harshly than the male slaves because some of these women were abused and raped by their masters. Celia, A Slave is a book written about a fourteen-year-old slave who was abused by her master, Robert Newsom. Once Celia decided she had had enough she fought back by killing Newsom. While this book is only about Celia, it reveals what many slaves, particularly female slaves, endured and how difficult it was to face their masters without rights.…

    • 777 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Skeeter wants to become a writer. As a result missing her beloved childhood family maid, Constantine and confronted by the over racism of her friend Hilly Holbrook's campaign to require a separate bathroom for the black maids. Skeeter decides to write about the lives of the black maids in Jackson. She asks Aibleen if she does ever wish could change ”Miss Skeeter asking don’t I want to change things, like changing Jackson, Mississippi, gone be like changing a lightbulb” (25).…

    • 2154 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    McLaurin speculates that the master brought her in not just as a slave, but a substitute for his wife who had died. “A healthy sixty years of age, Newsom needed more than a hostess…he required a sexual partner” (21). However, he did not want to portray Celia as a sex slave since such a move could be potentially scandalous. To cover up his intentions, Newsom made Celia his household cook and granted her some privileges, including having her own cabin close to the family house. Traditionally, slaves were confined in small quarters with little privacy; therefore, the treatments that Celia received demonstrated the unique position she occupied at the farm.…

    • 1712 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Celia was a fourteen-year-old girl when she was purchased by Robert Newson during the summer of 1850. Robert was a 60-year-old man who bought Celia to employ her as a cook, but then on the day she arrived, she was raped by Robert Newson, It is assumed by the author that Cecilia is perhaps purchased as a substitute wife, his wife had died years prior. " on his return to Calloway County, Newson raped Celia and by that act at once established and defined the nature of the relationship between the master and his newly acquired slave" (McLaurin 24) while slaves had no rights, woman slaves had even fewer rights because were not able to make money like the men, were control as female slaves by the owners and controlled by the male slaves. Celia lived her strange existence as a slave for five years in her private cabin; while other slaves lived with no privacy sharing a cabin amongst many. This arrangement was done so Newson could have her by herself in the evenings.…

    • 1255 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    After going through so much Celia reached that point where enough is enough. Newsom’s behavior of sexual abuse to Celia did not change. From Celia describing and telling the daughters of Newsom all about the relationship between her and their father made them aware of the fact that Celia could possibly hurt him. “Their dilemma was made the more acute by Celia’s threat to hurt the old man if he did not quit forcing her while she was sick.” (McLaurin 33).…

    • 1531 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In this passage I noticed Miss Skeeter is different from everyone else. She is her own person and is strong and independent. Miss Skeeter does what she wants. She doesn’t care about fitting in or doing what everyone else is doing, she flies solo and she’s good with it. Her parents want her to get married and have a family, but all she wants is to write and be free by herself.…

    • 141 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    Student: Teresa Nguyen Class: English Communications Date: Grade: 12 Teacher: Mrs De Blasio What film techniques does Tate Taylor use to engage the viewer and present the ideas of injustice? Director Tate Taylor, in The Help, explores, through the lives of black maids, the injustice and imprudent judgments made towards the African American community in the 1960s. Camera work, dialogue, mise-en-scenè, and colours reveal the juxtaposing lifestyles of the racial classes, and the lack of development in society’s treatment of coloured people. Sounds expose the inferiority and challenges that African Americans experienced in attempting to display basic human behaviours, whilst historical context refers to the Jim Crow laws that…

    • 1064 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    He fulfilled the typical role of “husband”, providing her with a decent lifestyle, caring and watching over her because of her illness (although Louise probably would have described it as smothering her). From the outside, her marriage seems perfect: her husband never beat or cheated on her, he most likely never even rose his voice to her. He did every thing a “good husband” was expected to do and was a good, loving…

    • 1644 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Things start to get a little bit clearer as to why Celia seems to have feelings towards Rosalind, more than that of sisters love. During scene III, Duke Frederick decides to banish Rosalind because people are starting to pity her. Celia's response to her father's decision is to request banishment upon her as well and tells him "if she be a traitor, why, so am I. We still have slept together, rose at an instant, learned, played, eat together, and wheresoe'er we went, like Juno's swans, still we went coupled and inseparable" (1.3.70-74). Rosalind considers Celia a sister, but she does not seem to confuse sister love to what Celia calls "true" love. When Rosalind tells that requesting banishment upon her was absurd because Duke Frederick didn't…

    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    “Racism is still with us. But it is up to us to prepare our children for what they have to meet, and, hopefully, we shall overcome.” ~Rosa Parks. The roots of racism have passed down through generations because parents force their children to follow racial traditions in order for them to continue those norms for future generations.…

    • 1529 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The story is told in the perspective of three different characters: Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter. Aibileen and Minny are working black maids from one side of the town and Skeeter is a white college graduate and aspiring writer from the opposite side of town. Throughout the story, Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter collaborate on writing a book telling the stories of how black maids were…

    • 1642 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays

Related Topics