Prabhu 1

Rohan Prabhu
Mrs. Price-ONeal
C&C H. Eng.1
January 10, 2013
The Help/To Kill A Mockingbird Compare & Contrast Essay
Together, these two influential works about racism, written almost 50 years apart, address
the single worst societal disease and show the absurdity behind it all. To Kill A Mockingbird
was written by Harper Lee and published in 1960, whereas The Help was written by Kathryn
Stockett and published in 2009. Despite the many differences between these inspiring novels,
some similarities are present; such as, in the narrative voice and theme.
One of the similarities between The Help and To Kill A Mockingbird is the narrative
voice present in each and the interesting perspective it brings. Both books are written in the first
person; however, The Help has three narrators, Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny. Skeeter is the
daughter of a prominent white family that employs many African-Americans, while Aibileen and
Minny are black maids in other white households. Each person provides their own opinion and
perspective about how the racial situation was during that time period. In To Kill A Mockingbird,
the sole narrator is Scout, a six-year-old girl, who provides a childish view and through her
confusion of racism, shows that there is no justification for such a horrible thing. Throughout
both books, the narrators and the events that they go through refute any kind of reason for
racism.

Prabhu 2
Along with narrative voice, theme is similar in both books. The central theme in both
books deals with how racism is unfounded, but both texts approach the concept in completely
different ways. In The Help, the theme is shown in one of Aibileens stories to the child she takes
care of, Mae Mobley. In the story, a white girl and a black girl compare features; such as, they
both have noses and toes, and realize that they are the same, just a different color. Likewise, in
To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus says the theme in one of the best closing court speeches of all
time, fictional or real. After talking about how some African-Americans have lied, some are
immoral, and how some are not supposed to be trusted around women, Atticus goes on to say,
But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men. There is not a
person in this courtroom who has never told a lie, who has never done an immoral thing, and
there is no man living who has never looked upon a woman without desire.
The narrative voice and theme were very similar in The Help and To Kill A Mockingbird,
in spite of all the differences. After reading these two novels, a person should be able to realize
that racism is just plain ignorance. It is just the inability to see that someone who talks and acts
like you, but has a different skin color, is still a human being; furthermore, even if they talk and
act different than you, does that really matter? Maybe the reason that they talk and act differently
is because you have limited their options to be educated and even function in the first place. At
any rate, after reading books such as The Help and To Kill A Mockingbird, and seeing through
the characters eyes with narrative voice and understanding the theme that people may look and
act different and still be a human, our society can, hopefully, turn for the better in stopping
racism and discrimination.