COMPARE AND CONTRAST ESSAY

The books To Kill a MockingBird and The Help are wonderful books that capture both sides of segregation in the 1900’s. When we see the character’s mistakes and victories we can also see the moral struggles inside everyone. We learn from the characters that doing the right thing is not always easy and that doing what is wrong is a whole lot easier.

These two books have more in common then you might first think. It’s obvious that both books deal with issue of segregation in small towns in the south, but the character’s similarities go much deeper than that. Scout and Skeeter are the two main characters in To Kill a Mockingbird and The Help. Both characters are tomboys that aren’t socially accepted due to their unladylike appearance, outspokenness, and their modern way of thinking. Scout and Skeeter both struggle with morally accepting that blacks should not be equal to whites. Unfortunately, when they speak out against unequal rights they are persecuted for their objections. When Scout stands up for her dad, who was defending an African American, she ends up fighting with a boy at her school and gets reprimanded at home. When Skeeter stands up for the black maids her boyfriend breaks up with her and her friends turn their backs on her. Another similarity between these two characters is that in a sense they both don’t have mothers and the black maids end up assuming that motherly role. Calpurnia being Scout’s mother figure and Constantine being Skeeter’s mother figure due to the fact her biological mom didn’t act like a mother at all to Skeeter. We see another set of characters that have some of the same traits as well. HIlly Holbrook and Bob Ewell  are the antagonists in the books. They constantly blame their mistakes on blacks, who are not allowed the right to defend themselves, in hopes to protect their reputation. Whether it's Bob blaming Tom Robinson for raping his daughter when really he was trying to cover up the fact his daughter tried to seduce a black man. Or Hilly claiming that the book The Help was not about their town and was probably just written by a black all because Hilly didn’t want people to know that she ate Minny’s pie. They struggle between doing what’s morally correct and protecting their reputation.

Although these books were similar they both have differences that make them one-of-a-kind. The Help takes place in the 1960’s where To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in the 1930’s. Another big difference between the two novels is that although they both give characters that speak out against segregation the way they do it is different. In The Help the characters stand up against segregation through the writing of the book, but in To Kill A Mockingbird Atticus stands up through defending a black man in a court case. Also, in The Help many people like the dozen housekeepers are involved in speaking up for African Americans, but in To Kill A Mockingbird  Atticus is in a way by himself. There may have been people who secretly supported Atticus, but they didn't publicly speak up like he did. The tone of the books were very different. In The Help you find yourself laughing about the "terrible awful" and the funny jokes the house keepers make, whereas to Kill A Mockingbird the tone is very serious just like a court case should be. The Help  definitely has serious topics, but it lacks the more solemn manner To Kill a Mockingbird has.

These two books To Kill a Mockingbird and The Help are written in a way that inspires us and truly show us how far we have come on the issue of segregation. They have their differences and their similarities, but they both give us the clear message that the color of your skin shouldn't matter, but rather what you're morals are and who you are as a person.