How The Help Reflects the American Dream

After being about halfway done with the book, I've realized that this book really feeds into this time periods' idea of the American Dream. It seems that during this time in the south, there were two very different groups of people, and nobody in between. There were the white people and the black people. Though not all white people were rich, like plantation rich, but in comparison to the black people in their communities they were a lot wealthier. The white people not only controlled all aspects of their own lives, but also dictated the lives of the black people in their town, the help. They owned the houses that the black people rented, they controlled the food sources, how they found work, how much they were paid, and the list could go on forever. This book represents that many white people lived comfortably not having many worries in a large house; in contrast to the black people who had up to 6 people families living in a one bedroom house.

With the two different groups of people comes the two different ideas of the American Dream. To many white families during this time period, I think their American Dream was fulfilled. They owned a house, had one or two kids, mom participated with volunteer work, and dad worked a 9-5 job. No worries in the world. Whereas many black families didn't have any of these luxuries or ideals. In their families both parents worked a full time job if not two, got paid a dollar or so for every hour they worked, lived cramp in a small house, had a constant security threat, and had food security problems. The black families were unable to meet our vision of the American Dream. However, their own version of the American Dream, that would make them happy in what they felt was possible was making sure that their family was safe and healthy. These two values I think a lot of white families took for granted. However, when thinking about the American Dream, I don't think that the time period fully filled the definition. The American Dream also means rags to riches. And there was an entire class, who were considered the rags, who couldn't become rich because of their race. This shows that though the American Dream was very relevant for this time period, the definition doesn't completely fit. This book really identifies this as a major theme of the book.