The Help by Kathrynn Stockett: Themes

Madison Avalos
Mrs. Bramley
Honors American Literature
9 Sept. 2011

The Unbalanced Scale of Justice For thousands of years, even before Africans were introduced into North America as slaves, there has been a perpetual belief that one race stands superior to another inferior race, also known as racism. This problem was said to be solved through reformations like the emancipation proclamation and through the equality laws placed within the constitution, but even during the 1960’s, racism remained an undefeatable issue. In fact, the justice system, thought to promote equality in "the land of the free," was useless towards the idea of racial harmony and African Americans were treated bitterly and relentlessly during this time. The author Kathryn Stockett wrote a novel in the perspective of mistreated black maids and one helping white woman during the time of the civil rights movement. Through the historical events, characters, and setting compiled into Kathryn Stockett’s novel, The Help, the theme of injustice and racial inferiority is portrayed.
During the novel, the bus Aibileen is riding stops at a roadblock and all the black people are told to get off the bus. The civil rights leader and NAACP field secretary, Medgar Evers, had been shot and killed by the Ku Klux Klan. Aibileen states, “White peoples with guns, pointed at colored peoples. Cause who gone protect our peoples? Ain’t no colored policemans” (230). The blacks are trapped and have no jurisdiction to control what happens in the community, or to themselves. Even a person with authority, Mayor Thompson, denoted the idea of a biracial committee and said that he “believes in the separation of races” (231). Instead of protecting the blacks, the government was useless in aiding them. The Jim Crow laws, found by Skeeter in the library, also resembled how government only contributed to the destruction of racism. The events that are embedded throughout the novel reveal how the characters feel helpless to what occurs around them.
In addition to resembling the theme of injustice, Hilly Holbrook is the symbol for whites who used power and influence to have blacks fired, evicted, imprisoned, fined, and even subjected to physical violence. She used her social status to influence the courts and businesses in the community to punish black women, like Yule May, whom she targeted. After Yule May went to trial for stealing one of Hilly’s rings, Aibileen states that “A regular sentence be six months for petty stealing, but Miss Holbrook, she get it pushed up to four years” (295). For many of the black characters in the novel, and the black maids during that time, there was little justice. Acts of violence and injustice were committed against them and there was nothing they could do to fight it. The scale was of justice was imbalanced, heavily sloping downwards for the blacks who had no power compared to the whites.
The setting also reinforces the theme of injustice and racial inferiority. The novel is set in Jackson, Mississippi, one of the most segregated towns in the United States, during the time of the civil rights movement. This was a period consisting of organized boycotts, student protests, and mass marches towards the struggle against racial segregation. The Jim Crow laws were enforced and there were strict rules and norms concerning the actions of blacks. Jackson, Mississippi was teeming with racial tensions and this affected the characters and events of the novel.
Kathryn Stockett wrote the novel, The Help, and captured the image of life as a black maid during the 1960’s. In her novel, she compiled historical events, characters, and the setting to portray the emotions and hardships of blacks during this time in history. By using these devices, Stockett formed the theme of injustice that readers can either relate to or comprehend. Through her writing, she accurately demonstrated how racial inequality, injustice, and inferiority played a role in the lives of many blacks. The Help represents how the blacks, the inferior, began to stand up to the whites, the superior, through words and stories.