Domestic abuse in The Help | The Help

For those who don’t know, The Help was my book choice for my first piece of A-level coursework where I wrote about whether feminists would applaud the text or not.

Within the essay I wrote about domestic abuse within Minny’s and Leroy’s household.

Kathryn Stockett uses Johnny to show that not all men fell into the stereotypes shown by Leroy and makes the point of men not being the main gender by doing the book in the perspective of three women.

"Look, […] don't say anything about meeting me. I'm going to let her tell me when she's ready."

Johnny feels that his main priority is to look after Celia and he feels that by keeping this secret with Minny he is doing this.

Whereas the other man in Minny’s life, her husband Leroy isn’t supportive of his wife and shows what many men in the 60’s thought.

“If I didn’t hit you Minny, who knows what you become.”

Instead of letting Minny be herself he feels the need to punish everything he does incase it may affect him. This is used to show how scared men were of change and how the idea of women being strong and independent and not needing a man will make them look weak.  Instead of giving Minny the chance to change anything that she may have done wrong he instantly goes to punishing her, which made her, turn paranoid and unable to think for herself. Due to this effect she got worse and worse meaning the beatings got worse and more frequent leading up the peak moment when he tries to kill her by burning the house down with her trapped inside. 

Talk to you later x