The Help

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  • Created by: edog420
  • Created on: 12-06-19 18:21

Key Events

  • Minny discovers Hilly has been telling people she stole
  • Mrs Leefolt builds a bathroom for Aibileen
  • Minny gets a job
  • Skeeter gets a job at the local paper
  • Aibileen agrees to help Skeeter with her book
  • Minny also decides to help Skeeter as well
  • Celias secret baby miscarriages- the secret is out
  • more maids decide to help with the book
  • toilets in Hillys garden
  • BENEFIT CHAPTER
  • 'the terrible awful' story is told to celia
  • book is published
  • Skeeter gets a job in New York
  • Minny leaves Leroy
  • Aibileen is fired from the Lefolts
1 of 10

AO2

  • metaphor - 'bitter seed'
  • reader has empathy/pathos
  • climax - is there more than one?
  • flashbacks give more information on the past
  • historical fiction novel
  • development of incidents - celia
  • first person multiple narrative
  • tension rising
  • postmodern
  • episodic - set over two years
  • vehicle for the authors views
  • domestic setting
  • skeeter and celia = new america
  • contrast in life and views of characters
  • analeptic (flashbacks) - adds development
2 of 10

AO3

  • domestic violence was normal and accepted in the 1960s, until 1970s **** was only considered a crime if it was outside of wedlock
  • black people were very much second class citizens
  • old vs new america
  • jim crow laws enforced segregation in the south between end of reconstruction in 1877
  • Jackson, Mississippi 1962-1964
  • beginning of the civil rights movement in the 1950s
  • civil rights movement, MLK, march on washington
  • Medgar Evers- a civil rights activist was shot, sparking outrage in the black community
  • civil rights movement of the 1960s saw a surge of KKK activity
  • freedom summer attempts to register as many african americal voters as possible
  • women arent ment to be educated they should adhere to the stereotype of a 1960s housewife
  • clash of cultures
  • Mississippi was racially stagnated with a rigid social class system, lacked fluidity which is present today 
3 of 10

AO4

  • typically of a postmodern novel the ending is ambiguous- open to reader interpretation
  • hope vs hopeless
  • vehicle of authors views
  • post modern
  • abusive men
  • passion is a driving force
  • positive dreams 
  • typically of a historical fiction novel it references real life events and is set in a specific historical time period
  • female protagonist
  • clash of cultures
  • new vs old america
  • domestic setting - brings them all together
  • boiling pot vs melting pot
  • isolation brings them together
4 of 10

Critics

  • 'she spins a story of social awakening as seen from both sides of the american racial divide' - sybil steinberg
  • 'why are stocketts white characters free of the linguistic quirks that white southerners certainly have?' - erin aubry
  • 'both personal and social' - clurman
  • 'the book blithely adresses the complex racial climate of mississippi' - roxanne gay
5 of 10

Skeeter

  • goes against expectations like blanche
  • catalyst of book
  • goes against societal expectations
  • passionate
  • independant
  • new america
  • wants to please loved ones similar to mitch
6 of 10

Aibileen

  • similar to mitch- loss of loved one + kind nature
  • bitter seed
  • rebellious
  • mae mobley
  • driven
  • wants to conform to expectations similar to stella
  • wants change like blanche
  • goes against societal expectations  to publish the book but otherwise fits
7 of 10

Minny

  • typical of a maid
  • rebellious
  • abusive husband similar to stella
  • the terrible awful
  • celia
  • scared similarly to blanche
  • hilly ruins her life
8 of 10

Hilly

  • villian in the eyes of the reader
  • similar to stanley she ruinsb others lives for self pleasure
  • respectable in the 60s
  • we never hear her view point
  • old america
  • complex character
  • divides readers like blanche
9 of 10

Celia

  • wants to please her husband like stella
  • new america
  • not a stereotype even if we believed so at first just like blanche
  • cant meet social expectations
  • cant conform to stereotypes
  • doesnt care about social divides - race
10 of 10

Comments

abby61754

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absolute life saver!!!!

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