In the 1960’s, racial tension was extremely intense in the United States. Examples of these racial tensions can be seen all throughout the United States. The Church bombing of Birmingham and Bloody Tuesday are just a couple of the many hundred events during the 1960’s that were the consequences of racial tensions. The novel, “The Help”, by Kathryn Stockett, focuses on the social issue of segregation in the United States, specifically in the south. Stockett demonstrates the issue of racial segregation between blacks and whites in the 1960’s by applying allusions, imagery, and point of view. In “The Help”, Stockett utilizes allusions to focus on the social issue of racial segregation in the United States. Firstly, the setting of the book is an allusion, as it takes place in Mississippi, a place which in the sixties was notorious for being a state full of racism and pro segregation. Furthermore, the book alludes to a significant amount of civil rights movements and figures such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., The March on Washington, sit ins, and Medgar Evers. These allusions bring substantial meaning to the book’s purpose as the book is mainly about maids who are black, such as Aibileen and Minny, who help out ladies which are white, such as Hilly and …show more content…
“But then I realize, like a shell cracking open in my head, there's no difference between those government laws and Hilly building Aibileen a bathroom in the garage, except ten minutes' worth of signatures in the state capitol.” The imagery Stockett uses in this quote of chapter 13 is exceptional. For one, it gives the audience a considerable glimpse into the thought processes of the whites towards their maids. Secondly, it shows how segregated Jackson Mississippi was, for they (the whites) even desired separate bathrooms for their “help” (maids). Through the use of imagery, the issues of segregation was thoroughly in