From the beginning it is clear that Racism is a prominent feature of the novel. In Mississippi in the year 1962, there was no such things as necessarily slaves, but the "help" was prominent and used to exempt the word slaves in that day and age. The white people in the book treated the African Americans as lower class and less important than them. People treated them as if they weren't even humans and were physically and verbally abusive to them. It was becoming such a big part of society that they created "colored bathrooms", "colored diners", "colored water fountains", etc. Racism was not anything out of the ordinary back in this time period but reading back on this major theme of racism, it becomes clear how distinctive it is to the 60's. Aibileen states how her house of the Holbrooks doesn't even want them to eat food from the same super market. This major theme makes the reader understand fully from the point of view from a African American how it feels to be discriminated against. None of us can truly understand how much pain and sorrow the "help" went through being tortured and mistreated by the upper class. | "I want to yell so loud that Baby Girl can hear me that dirty ain't a color, disease ain't the negro side of town. I want to stop that moment from coming – and it come in every white child's life – when they start to think that colored folks are not as good as whites." states Aibileen, (page number). Aibileen and her friends are very passionate about their rights in their community and they don't hold themselves back from stating their opinion. They are strong, independent women and it inspires readers and allows them to understand the troubles of "blacks" in the 60's. However, even though much of slavery and discrimination have been eliminated nowadays, it is still prominent in our world in the year 2014. |