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Essay / Similarities and differences between the characters of To Kill a Mockingbird and The Help
Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird and Skeeter from The Help both learn about the lives of people outside of their own racial group, but they both have different motivations for learning. In the film The Help, Skeeter learns about the black community while interviewing black maids in Jackson for a book she is writing. Skeeter is drawn to seek out black maids to interview with the goal of hearing about different perspectives and publishing their experiences for the world to read. Skeeter gave black maids an opportunity to share their experiences because the households they work for take them for granted and do not consider their feelings and perspectives. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout learns about black life in her hometown of Maycomb by interacting with them at their church. After learning that Calpurnia, her family's black cook, had taught her son to read, Scout says, "The fact that Calpurnia led a modest double life never occurred to me. The idea that she had a separate existence outside our home was new, not to mention the fact that she was fluent in two languages” (Lee 167). Scout is encouraged to come to the black church with her brother by Calpurnia, but she does not go with any intention other than to spend time with Calpurnia. The questions she asks Calpurnia about the lives of those in the black community are asked out of her naturally childish curiosity, not out of a sense of injustice like Skeeter does. Both Scout and Skeeter are initially unaware of the prejudice black people in their towns suffer due to the way society treats them, until they take the time to listen to the perspective of someone who is not white. While Skeeter has more influence on how black people are perceived in Jackson by publishing their stories, Scout educating herself on another group's point of view sets her apart from the ignorant ones in Maycomb. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"?Get the original essay Aunt Alexandra from To Kill a Mockingbird and Hilly from The Help are both prejudiced, but while Hilly keeps her prejudices until the end, Aunt Alexandria finally lets go of her prejudices. When Aunt Alexandra learns that Tom Robinson has been shot, she tells Miss Maudie, referring to Atticus and the trial: "I can't say I approve of everything he does, Maudie, but he's my brother , and I just want to do it. I know when this will one day end. It tears him to pieces” (Lee 316). Aunt Alexandra acts like the other members of the Finch family at first, as she does not support Atticus in defending Tom Robinson, claiming that he has shamed the Finches. While she initially appears to be an unsupportive, cold, and racist woman, her exterior shatters the moment she learns that the man her brother failed to defend is now dead, and her hidden inner loyalty to Atticus comes out. . Hilly, on the other hand, is presented as aggressively racist throughout the film, from start to finish. An example of Hilly still being prejudiced at the end is when she rushes towards Skeeter, threatening to tell her mother that she wrote The Help. Hilly is furious that a white woman like Skeeter would try to sympathize with the black community in Jackson, because she thinks black people are inferior to white people. She shows her prejudice by never showing any compassion towards the blacks in Jackson, and she goes out of her way to make life harder for her own handmaids as much as possible. Ironically, Hilly doesn't mind handling.