2019 Year 12 IB Extended Essays

York City regarding her idea to write on the true stories of these domestic servants she is excited to begin. Skeeter turns to one of her friend’s maids Aibileen, who introduces the reader to another maid, Minny. Minny herself infringes the boundary of race as she has no trouble speaking her mind, hence she is constantly being fired. Although regarded by the reader as having a feisty personality of Minny, there are moments of vulnerability in the novel signifying the damaging effect that the discrimination from Jackson has on her. This positions the reader to admire her strength and courage to stand up for her rights. Aibileen and Minny, along with the ten others Skeeter chooses to interview, also find themselves disturbing the racial boundaries placed before them, as they are potentially risking their lives to tell their personal stories that could be seen to contradict the prejudice views as one maid states: “I do this with you, I might as well burn my own house down” (pg.103). Skeeter begins to see the prejudices that she grew up accustomed to and grows to care for the two maids as friends despite the colour of their skin. As Skeeter begins to grow closer to the two maids she grows to not understand the bias her town has towards those of different coloured skin “these women raise white children, we love them and they love us, but they can’t even use the toilets in our houses” (pg.163). As Skeeter continues to write her novel and delves deeper into the segregation of the white versus the African Americans, she begins to find herself alienated from her community as she finds her beliefs evolving. Skeeter’s boyfriend discovers that she was the author of the book and as a result breaks up with her due to their differing opinion on the racial status-quo. Gender Inequality Throughout The Help Stockett chooses to discuss gender inequalities and the way women were expected to act during this period of time. Stockett not only focuses on

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