The Help vs. Tkam

The saying “never judge a book by its cover” is actually true. In reality books can have completely different titles, yet they can both share the same theme, or even multiple themes. To Kill a Mockingbird and The Help are two books which demonstrate this idea that books which may sound or seem completely different, may actually share the same theme. These two novels have many similarities, in not only the topics they discuss, but also the messages they send out to the reader. To Kill a Mockingbird and The Help both take place during the nineteen hundreds when segregation played a huge role in society. Although there are a plethora of themes discussed in both books, racism, perspective, and lifestyle are the most prominent themes which are expressed, because these three themes influence all the characters in both books and furthermore go on to affect almost every decision made by the people in these books. Racism on its own affects the characters in the book more than anything else. In To Kill a Mockingbird and The Help, racism is obviously a major theme. In both of these novels, colored people hold a subservient role in society. The ways in which racism is expressed in To Kill a Mockingbird are comparably harsher than in The Help. In To Kill a Mockingbird, the colored people are treated as if they are worth nothing and have no purpose of living, because the whole town of Maycomb is so biased toward the white people. For example even when Tom Robinson is in court, due to accusation made by Mayella Ewell, the jury is composed of all white people. Furthermore, the jury goes on to vote against him and give him the death penalty, even after Atticus has proven to them that it was impossible for Tom to have been the one who beat Mayella. Atticus specifically proves that it could not have been Tom because the injuries show that someone must have used two hands, but Tom says “I can't use my left hand at all. I got it caught in a cotton gin when I was twelve years old.