Stories have an ability to transport readers into worlds of imagination and speculation, and its craftsmanship of the author that we have to thank for this. Kathryn Stockett’s fiction novel, The Help takes place in Jackson, Mississippi, during the 60’s. The 60’s was a timeframe that saw the segregation of the blacks and the whites. The power of storytelling exists within the ever most complex and interconnected nature of events that teach morals through detailed settings, characters, and themes.
Stories are incredibly powerful in communicating ideas, specifically through structure and form. The narrative structure of novel is based around the first person point of view of three women who are the major protagonists in the story. The Help informs and empowers each moment of a story, and on several levels. Stockett has used hooks to improve her narrative structure. In The Help, the hook happens at the end of the first chapter, which is a great place for a hook in any story. ‘After a while, Miss Leefolt huff and go out to the carport. I figure she looking at where she gone build me my new colored bathroom.’ The hook is when the reader is clear that the key issue of this story involves a prejudiced young white woman in 1962 Jackson Mississippi who wants more to social pressure to announce that she means to build a “colored bathroom” for her maid. Because it just is no longer acceptable that the maid use the “white bathroom,” which is the only bathroom in the house.
Stories educate and communicate by forging emotional connections with the reader and teaching them valuable lessons. Stockett’s novel presented an image of segregation in service of a feel-good story. The heroines—a privileged, liberal, white Mississippi woman named Skeeter Phelan and two black domestic workers, Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson. In the novel, we’re reminded not to judge others based on the colour of their skin. It's always good to be reminded that making judgments about others can lead...