2.5 and 3.0 novel THE HELP

2.5

     I believe that the theme of The Help is Man vs. Society. The help is a story that takes place during the time of the Civil Rights era, in the 1960’s, in Jackson Mississippi. Skeeter (main character) is very different from her friends. Unlike many women of that era, Skeeter is single, has a degree and wants to begin a career and be independent. Over time, you can tell that Skeeter becomes uncomfortable with the way her friends treat “The Help”. Aibileen and Minny are two maids that work for her friends. She starts to realize that people treat black employers very differently than white employers. Skeeter tries to make people see things from another perspective. She wants here society (privileged whites) to see the other side of the ball (less-privileged African-Americans). She wants the truth to come out about what really happens behind close doors. All of this was supper controversial in the United States at this time in history. Especially in Jackson Mississippi. People in the south use to and still believe that people with darker skin color or less than. At this point in time nobody wanted to talk about the abuse done to the help. People where totally against African-Americans having a voice or a say in society.   This is why I believe the theme of this book is Man vs. Society.

Examples:

- Did they only have black maids in the southern part of the United States or also in different places apart from Mississippi?

- Why wouldn’t Minny talk to Skeeter about the book if Minny wanted the truth so badly?

- Was the scratch done by Francine with her ring accidental, or did she want to do it?

3.0

Sophie’s theme: Man vs. Society

Cristina’s theme: Humans have the same needs: love and care

We have come to the conclusion that the better theme is Man vs. Society. We believe this is because the theme of: all human need love and care, is a sub-theme; it goes into the theme of Man vs. Society. In other words all humans need is love and care, which means everybody deserves to be treated equal. At that point in history, society didn’t believe that. People thought that because of your skin color you where different. This is why the over all theme is Man vs. society.