characters & Plot
This book is a frictional book written by Kathryn Stockett,Although multiple people claim the book is a reflection of their life.The book is Narrated by Aibileen who at this time is working for a caucacian family. This story is developed in Jackson, Mississippi. Aibileen. Works hard to keep food cooked,house clean,and spend time with the baby Mae,her "special child". Mae is abused and ignited by her mother and Aibileen is the only one who shows the baby any attention. Aibileen treats Mae just like her own chil which I think Mae helps Aibileen still cope with her son treaores death. Treaores was killed in a work accident which took Aibileen awhile to get over. One of Aibeleens closest friends is Minny. Minny is known for having a very open opinion and her mouth gets her in trouble sometimes. The story mainly focuses on Minny and Aibeleen maid life while still touching on little stories and facts in everyone's life. Although the white ladies normally treat the African American maids bad Skeeter builds a closer bond with all the maids as they help her to write a book about all there lives. Skeeter goes on to move to New York as a writer and helps Aibileen to become a writer at Miss Myra column. Now she doesn't have to do the grueling unfair maid work she had grown ammume to.(schmoop.com)
themes & Symobols
There are multiple themes I beleive that the authors wants us to take away when reading this book. One being race. During this time African Americans were mistreated,judged,and looked down upon. The people that cooked their food, washed their clothed, cleaned their house, and taught their children are the same people that they had no respect for and would fire at the snap of a finger knowing that there was nothing that African Americans could do to stand up for themselves to their employers. Also when on the job they were were talked about in their face, ridiculed and force to use different plates and house items and also made to use a different bathroom,commonly outside,. African Americans were inferior to whites and often not even looked at as people but as property or low life's and not he respective hard working, self prosperious people they were. The next theme I think is revealed in this book is society and class. The three society classes we see today are rich,middle class, and poor while back then it was basically just rich white,middle class white,poor white,then black. However all tree white social classes still received respect from one another while the African American society classe wasn't respected at all. Next home life. This story I think also shows how important home was. Home is where everyone lived and where everyone worked. For whites it was nice to come home to a clean house,cooked food,and a clean baby. It took a lot off of the mother and father because they could rely on the maid for everything instead of having to do it themselves. For African Americans the home showed a place where they made money. They probably didn't wake up eager to go to a place where they worked all day and didn't Get any respect but knowing that they would be getting enough money to take care of themselves of possibly family probably gave them a different look at the work they were going in to do everyday. Because it wasn't like they got vacation day of raises they went to the same place everyday to get the Same pay everyday and to get treated the same way everyday. Then besides the themes I think the author wanted you to take a general understanding of what happen everyday with African Americans maids and white families so I could get a since of what the maids actually went through in there everyday life inside and outside of work. (schmoop.com)