A TEACHER’S GUIDE TO THE HELP BY KATHRYN STOCKETT BY C JEANNE M. M GLINN TEACHER’S GUIDE TEACHER’S DR Stockett Help TG 100912b.indd 1 10/24/12 5:14 PM 2 A Teacher’s Guide to The Help by Kathryn Stockett TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................3 ABOUT THE AUTHOR ..............................................................................................................3 OVERVIEW OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT .............................................................4 BEFORE READING .....................................................................................................................5 THEMES ........................................................................................................................................6 DURING READING ...................................................................................................................6 AFTER READING ACTIVITIES ...............................................................................................9 USING OTHER RESOURCES ................................................................................................12 ABOUT THE AUTHOR OF THIS GUIDE ...........................................................................13 FREE TEACHER’S GUIDES ....................................................................................................15 Copyright © 2012 by Penguin Group (USA) For additional teacher’s manuals, catalogs, or descriptive brochures, please email [email protected] or write to: PENGUIN GROUP (USA) INC. In Canada, write to: Academic Marketing Department PENGUIN BOOKS CANADA LTD. 375 Hudson Street Academic Sales New York, NY 10014-3657 90 Eglinton Ave. East, Ste. 700 http://www.penguin.com/academic Toronto, Ontario Canada M4P 2Y3 Printed in the United States of America DR Stockett Help TG 100912b.indd 2 10/24/12 5:14 PM A Teacher’s Guide to The Help by Kathryn Stockett 3 INTRODUCTION Told through the point of view of three dif- ence in their everyday lives, a close relation- ferent women living in Jackson, Mississippi, ship develops between Skeeter, Aibileen, and e Help chronicles events from late summer Minny. e three women come to confront of 1962 through 1964. Skeeter Phelan, who and resist the intimidation experienced daily has just graduated from Ole Miss, returns by the black maids. Woven throughout the home to the family plantation, ambitious to stories are the key events of these seminal become a writer. Taking the advice of a New years of the civil rights movement. York editor to hone her skills, Skeeter begins Dealing as it does with the social issues of the to write a column for the local newspaper time, e Help may be controversial for stu- while searching for a topic that she truly cares dents. It is through the agency of Skeeter about. Missing her beloved childhood family Phelan, a white woman, that the black maids maid and confronted by the overt racism of get to tell their stories and as such it continues her friend Hilly Holbrook’s campaign to the tradition of novels like To Kill a Mocking- require a separate bathroom for the black bird. ere is the issue of language; all the help, Skeeter proposes to write about the lives maids use a version of black dialect created by of the black maids in Jackson. Knowing she the author, although their southern white will need to interview black maids to tell their employers mainly use Standard English. Also, stories but without realizing the danger of the focus on domestic injustices faced by the what she is asking, Skeeter approaches Aibi- maids in the novel may come across as avoiding leen, the maid of one of her close friends. the real brutality faced by blacks during this With an increasing sense of bitterness at the time period in Mississippi. Teachers can help injustice of her situation, Aibileen agrees to students confront these issues by posing some help, and later recruits Minny and eventually of the questions provided in this guide. After other maids. As they work on this project to they have read the novel, students will have tell their true stories, including stories of the opportunities to evaluate the impact of the prejudice and injustice that the maids experi- novel through suggested follow-up activities. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kathryn Stockett was born and raised in Have students share their reactions to the Jackson, Mississippi, the setting of this, her essay or interview in a dialogue journal, first novel. In a brief essay at the end of the addressing these questions: What experiences novel, “Too Little, Too Late,” Stockett led the author to write this novel? What does describes her own relationship with a black the author state is the reason that she has maid, Demetrie, who at 28 came to work for written this book? Based on this statement of Stockett’s family and helped to raise her. purpose what do you think this novel will Stockett also describes her conflict about reveal about being a black maid in Missis- trying to write the stories of black women. sippi? After students have written their Ask students to read a section of Stockett’s responses, ask them to exchange journals to essay on pp. 529-530. Also, Time Entertain- read and react to the comments of another ment offers an interview with Stockett about student. When journals are returned, ask writing the novel at http://www.time.com/ students to write a response to their peers’ time/arts/article/0,8599,1937562,00.html. comments. Follow up with a class discussion to see if students have common expectations and how they react to these ideas. DR Stockett Help TG 100912b.indd 3 10/24/12 5:14 PM 4 A Teacher’s Guide to The Help by Kathryn Stockett OVERVIEW OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT 1. For an overview of the Civil Rights Contemporary References: Movement, ask students to check out the John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy brief histories provided at the following Onassis (p. 7, p. 231, p. 403), Rosa Parks web sites: (p. 15, 79), James Meredith and Ole Miss http://www.infoplease.com/spot/ (p. 97), Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man civilrightstimeline1.html#events-1960 (p. 99), Martin Luther King and the offers a timeline of events. Students can March on Washington (p. 185, p. 245, focus on the early sixties, the time covered p. 347), Medgar Evers (p. 191, p. 228), in the novel. Jim Crow Laws (p. 202), Governor Ross http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhis- Barnett (p. 212, p.218), KKK (p. 228), tory/civilrights-55-65/index.html gives NAACP (p. 228), the Space Age (p. 230), an overview of events from the Mont- Birmingham bombing (p. 347) gomery Bus Boycott to the march on Music: Stevie Wonder (p. 25) and Motown Selma. ere is also a section specifically Music, Blues (p. 25-26), Patsy Cline (p. 63), on the events occurring in Mississippi Bessie Smith (p. 78), the Beatles (“Love during the Freedom Summer, including Me Do,” p. 208), Bob Dylan (p. 415). the death of Medgar Evers. 4. e teacher should carefully assess the Following their review of events, ask stu- maturity and critical thinking skills of stu- dents to write a letter to another student, dents before engaging in this activity which describing some of the key events of the graphically displays the violence under civil rights era and their reactions. en which blacks lived during the Jim Crow era have students deliver the letter and have in the United States. Before viewing the the recipient write a brief response after photo of a lynching available at the following reading the letter. site, http://hunniebrown.wordpress.com/ 2. Show students sections of episode 5 from lynching-in-america/ ask students to brain- Eyes on the Prize: “Mississippi: Is is storm what they know about conditions America 1962-1964: http://www.youtube. for blacks in the period following WWII. com/watch?v=zr6QDGpihaE&feature= Teachers may wish to address the follow- related ing topics to help students add to their Ask students to make a concept map about background knowledge: Where did most the conditions for blacks living in Missis- blacks live? What was the Second Great sippi in the sixties after viewing the film. Migration that occurred between 1940- 1970? Why did blacks move to the North 3. In addition to the background of the civil in such numbers? What kinds of work rights movement, the novel is filled with were typical for blacks in the South? Why? references to contemporary events. What were the Jim Crow laws? How did Assign students in pairs to research on the this affect the daily lives of blacks, espe- web one of the topics listed below, col- cially in the South? What violence or lecting a series of images that best reflect threat of violence affected blacks? What the subject. en two pairs can join was the black response? How did blacks together to combine their images to make resist the violence of racism? a 30-second video slide show with music and text. Have students go to http:// After looking at the photo, ask students to animoto.com/, click on the Get Started respond in journal format to what they have link and then follow the prompts. viewed. If some students find it too difficult Encourage students to select music from to respond, you may instead ask them to the time period to go with their slides. add details to their earlier brainstorm. DR Stockett Help TG 100912b.indd 4 10/24/12 5:14 PM A Teacher’s Guide to The Help by Kathryn Stockett 5 5. Provide students with copies of Bob Dylan’s Dylan wrote this song about the assassi- song “Only a Pawn in eir Game” avail- nation of Medgar Evers. It was released in able at http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/ 1964 on Dylan’s e Times ey Are bobdylan/onlyapawnintheirgame.html a-Changin’ album and he sang the song at or have students watch Dylan’s perfor- the 1963 March on Washington. Discuss mance on YouTube http://www.youtube. with students: What is Dylan’s point of com/watch?v=McbSrw4GnRI view about Evers’ killer? What ways of thinking reinforce racism? BEFORE READING 1. Characters in the novel are well aware of trouble because you desperately need the “rules” governing black/white interac- job to pay your bills, and work opportu- tions and the “lines” that divide the races nities are very scarce in your community.