Racism In To Kill A Mockingbird And The Help

The theme that I have selected is racism. The texts that I have selected are the film Blood Diamond by Edward Zwick, the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, and the novel, The Secret Life of Bees. To focus on the connections about racism I used two questions: Which character is being mistreated in the text and why? And what is the end result of all the racism?

Which character is being mistreated in the text and why?

The novel To Kill a Mockingbird and the film The Help, both show people from different racial and religious groups being discriminated against. In To Kill a Mockingbird this person is Tom Robinson, he is a black man, who had been accused of rape, even though it was the victim’s father
who was the one that abused her.
Tom Robinson’s lawyer Atticus Finch fights for Tom’s freedom, but knows just like anyone else in the town that he will never win in court because of the racism that exists in Maycomb County. Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson are two maids who are both from the same ethnicity but a different story. A black woman, who taught her that everyone was equal, raised a woman called Skeeter Phelan. After Skeeter sees what the other white women are doing to their maids. “I want to yell so loud that Baby Girl can hear me that dirty ain't a colour, disease ain't the Negro side of town. I want to stop that moment from coming – and it come in every white child's life – when they start to think that colored folks are not as good as whites” This passage points out that kids are born with racial prejudices, it's something they're taught from the older generation. Aibileen works hard to keep Mae Mobley's mind from being polluted. She has this idea to write a book about the maids and how they were being treated during the time that they were maids for the white people. At first Minny and Abileen don’t like the idea of this because if any one where to find out about the stories they gave to Skeeter they would no have a job and would maybe be killed. As both Abileen
and Minny know what the consequences are they still share their stories to Skeeter so that she can send them to the person who she is meant to be working for, the woman says that it is really good but she needs more maids’ stories to write more for the book. Abileen and Minny ask around their friends but no one is willing to take the risk of loosing everything. After a black man was shot these people changed their minds and were willing to help write this book. As after this book where published anonymously there where some stories in that book that the person who Abileen was working for knew this story because it happened to one of her friends. After this Abileen was fired but for Minny she got a new job before anything was published at the people that she was working for weren’t racist in fact they where the complete opposite. They didn’t treat her like “shit.” In both cases Tom Robinson, Abileen Clark and Minny Jackson have been racially discriminated against for on reason but because they are coloured, they all hadn’t done anything wrong they just helped people they never hurt anyone. The end result of Tom Robinson was that her was sentenced to jail for the rape of Mayella Ewell. Tom doesn’t know how to over came the fear of prison so he runs but then is shot and dies. This was the chance of freedom for Tom; by dying he was able to break all the bonds tied with discrimination which was forced against him during his short life. As for Minny and Abileen they had not so serious end result in fact it’s the best one they could have hoped for. When Skeeter’s book called The Help got published she got a lot of money but didn’t keep any of this for herself she split they money between the maids so they could keep on living their lives without having to work for any white woman again.

What is the end result of all the racism?

The films ‘Blood Diamond and The Secret Life of Bees both show groups of people who have been hit by racism but in different ways.
In The novel The Secret Life of Bees is a novel that has a positive end result of all the racism. We see the negative racism at the beginning of the novel and then the positive result of all the racism towards the end. As the novel comes to an end, the final chapter concludes numerous storylines. In the beginning chapters, Rosaleen wants to register her vote but is prevented doing so, by white men that approach and abuse her. In the final chapter, she finally completes this task that she has been meaning to do so. Rosaleen’s gets arrested for disobeying the white men she faces arrest, her arrest leads Lily to leave T. Ray, which after that leads Lily and Rosaleen to the Boatwrights. In the final chapter, as Rosaleen is able to register this signals to the readers that the action of the novel has finished. As Though all of the action has finished there will still be very difficult times for Lily she will stop running. As the readers we see that Lily has found a home and for the moment staying put. Blood Diamond has a different ending of all the racism but is still positive. A man will die for one of these diamonds. While a powerful man is in prison called Sierra Leone. Danny Archer is a diamond smuggler, who meets a black man called Soloman Vandy, whom is a farmer who had been captured by soldiers who are fighting for Sierra Leone. As the rebels
invaded his village he was forced against his own will to work for these rebels to collect diamonds that will finance a coup d’état. Archer is sent to jail over night as this is were he finds out that Soloman has found a big and rare diamond somewhere long before he was arrested. After Soloman and Danny both had been released from the prison, Danny Archer drags Soloman Vandy into a quest which hopes will lead them both to the diamond.

At the beginning of the film Archer is just using Soloman to get the diamond, because at this point Vandy can’t find his family who were scared out of their village when the rebels came and torched their homes. So Archer promises that if he were to find the diamond he would bring back his family to him. At the end of the film everything goes Vandy’s way he finds the diamond with Danny as they try to escape from the rebels who have seen them Danny get shot but keeps on moving. As Danny can’t go on any longer he makes Soloman leave him where he is and take him and his son that he found; with the rebels to safety where a plane is waiting for them. As they get back to safety Vandy has the diamond and the only thing he wants from it is his family, who were taken away from them and money so the family can be stable for the rest of their lives. In both cases Blood Diamond and The Secret Life of Bees had positive outcomes about racism. Although they may not have been the same racism for both

To conclude the film Blood Diamond by Edward Zwick, the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, and the novel, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, all have one thing in common and that is racism. All these different texts may not be the same story line but by making these connections they do have some similar aspects. Weather the end result of all the racism is good or weather why the character in the text was being mistreated and why was this all conclude that no matter what the story line is.