The Help

I chose to write my text review assignment on The Help by Kathryn Stockett. This historical novel is based on the main character Miss Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan writing narratives from the viewpoint of 12 black maids in the early 1960’s. Skeeter is a young graduate from Ole Miss University who writes a column for the Jackson Journal giving advice about housekeeping. This novel depicts major ideals of power and injustice throughout its duration. The most prominent of these ideals is injustice. The 1960s are known to be some of the racially unjust times in America. The main antagonist in the novel, Hilly, uses her social status to influence the people around her, including both the court system and local businesses, to target and prevent the success of black people, namely women. In addition to this, we are constantly reminded of how black people are viewed at this time throughout the novel with the language and actions used against them. The concept of othering can be applied to this novel because of this injustice. Many of the white people in this novel are basing themselves and their success in life on, what they view as the opposing group, the black community. The next ideal displayed, power, can be seen by both sides. Hilly shows power by influencing the people around her while Skeeter shows power while writing about the 12 black maids. When Skeeter’s book comes out, it shocks the people around her. I believe that the author intends on displaying the injustices occurring during this time period. She also displays how the power of just one person can influence the minds and bring justice to the people around them. I think that the novel does an excellent job of showing how change needed to occur during this time period by writing this historical novel.

I chose to write about President Trump at the first presidential debate for the upcoming election in November. The moderator for the debate, Chris Wallace, asked president Trump if he was ready to denounce white supremacists in this nation. Trump replied by asking who Wallace would like him to condemn and Biden slid in “the Proud Boys”. The proud boys are a racist group of individuals who promote violence against non-white people and organizations. At a Trump rally in March of 2017, one of their members was recorded striking a counter-protest with a wooden dowel over the head. They very clearly back Trump and are extremely hateful. Trump not only dismissed this condemning white supremacist’s but attacked Antifa, who is a peaceful left wing group.

This is clearly an example of systematic injustice given directly from the person who is supposed to be our commander in chief. Trump defends and ignores the racist, violent, and hateful actions taken by groups such as the Proud Boys and the Ku Klux Klan but attacks peaceful groups such as Antifa and the Black Lives Matter movement. This is systemic injustice because the head of our government actively protects the rights of the racist groups who support him but makes comments and tweets about violence against peaceful protestors. I can’t help but make extremely clear similarities between what is occurring now and what occurred in the 50s and 60s with MLK and the civil rights movements. Trump has even tweeted about using the military as a means of violence against protestors fighting for their voice to be heard.

To make a change I think that either 1) Trump needs to be elected out of office so that someone can denounce these hateful groups on a national scale or 2) Trump needs to start treating all of these groups equally and hold everyone to equal standards. If all groups are held to equal standards then all there is to protest are the standards themselves, not the clear favoritism the president has for groups that back him, regardless if they are hateful, racist, and/or violent. Without this, we run the risk of white supremacists running rampant in our country as well as influencing how the country is run. Personally, I believe that the first option would be better for the country as a whole. Discluding my political views when weighing the outcomes, I do not believe that there is room for hatred or bigotry in the democratic system that the United States has.

Link to NPR article containing video of Trump at the debate: https://www.npr.org/2020/09/30/918483794/from-debate-stage-trump-declines-to-denounce-white-supremacy

Link to Washington Post article regarding Trump’s “once the looting starts, the shooting starts” Tweet: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/05/29/trump-minneapolis-twitter-protest/

Interesting video regarding ending white supremacy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VD53NBeh8U&ab_channel=TheRoot