The Help
By: Kathryn Stockett
... Human dignity is definitely told through this novel. Aibileen is a black maid in the 1960's who is raising a seventeen year old white girl. The white girl is not her biological daughter, but decides to look past the colour of Aiblieen's colour and takes time to spend with her. Back in the 1960's, women were just getting their rights, but blacks were discriminated against; simply used for labour work. The two ladies, plus a friend named Minny, risk the chance of getting caught to write a tell-all book about how black women are treated in a white community. This shows human dignity because the blacks had no say, but only wanted a word of their own. They had been mocked, but their dignity was not surrendered, just as Michael J. Fox had stated.
Aibileen is now quitting because she is tired of being mistreated and shows her dignity.
"Miss Leefolt, are you... sure this is what you..." Miss Hilly walk in behind her and glare at me. Miss Leefolt nods, looking real guilty.
"Im sorry Aibileen. Hilly, if you want to press charges, that's up to you.
Miss Hilly sniff at me and say, "It's not worth my time."
I go to the laundry room, get my coat and my pocketbook. I'm free.
I head down the hot sidewalk at eight thirty in the morning wondering what I am going to do with the rest of my day. The rest of my life. I am shaking and crying and a white lady walk by frowning at me.
The sun is bright but my eyes is wide open. I stand at the bus stop like I been doing for the last forty-odd years. In thirty minutes, my whole's life...done. Maybe I ain't too old to start over, I think, and I laugh and cry at the same time at this.
Dignity is the nobility or elevation of a character. Aibileen and Minny, just like June from my short story, fought for what they thought was right and for their own sake. Both did nothing wrong, but their dignity was stereotyped; The maids having no power as a human of colour and June a bad mother for striking her daughter at no purpose. The respect and esteem that was taken away from Aibleen and Minny showed how little human dignity the whites had back in the 1960's. They would put others down to feel more powerful, but in return the blacks won their rights as humans. This was at a turning point in society...
