There can be many archetypes that can help to illuminate the literary qualities of Stockett's work. The archetype of "the task" is seen in both Skeeter and Aibileen. For Skeeter, assembling the narratives that will form her writing is a mammoth task given the social conditions of Jackson and the reticence of many to either support it or speak on its behalf. At the same time Aibileen faces a similar archetype when she has to undertake a new voyage in her life which will include writing as being a member of the help has been closed to her forever. This embodies "the task" because of the fear and uncertainty that it carries, meant only for the strong of heart which is what Aibileen has become as a result of her narrative.
The archetype between good and evil forms a major component of the work. Essentially, Hilly and the members of...
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her bridge club represent the forces of evil. Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minnie are the triumvirate who must face this adversary down. The collision between both realms defines the conflict of the novel. It becomes clear that evil in the form of Hilly will not surrender power without an intense fight. The resolve it takes to defeat evil is one of the defining elements of the work.
Stockett shows the power of writing as a way to weapon that good can use to defeat evil. Skeeter embraces this on a public level and Aibileen does on a private one. Both women use their skills at writing in challenging the forces of evil that surround and envelop them. As they employ more people in their struggle, writing becomes the archetypal weapon that the hero uses to fight off evil and make right that which is wrong.
What literary archetypes help review the characters in The Help?
There is a traditional character called the “wily slave” in literature; Moliere’s Servant of Two Masters is the dramatic height of a tradition, which starts with Plautus. In prose, the Spanish rogue Lazarillo de Tormes falls under this category. Henry James’ The Master is also an American slave narrative with the kind of role reversal common to all Saturnalia festivals. Sancho Panza in Don Quixote (Cervantes) has many of the characteristics of Lazarillo de Tormes (the picaresque tradition), intelligent, disobedient when confronted with his master’s stupidity, etc. Of course, The Help gives these personality traits to the women servants. But the warmer, more humanitarian tone and characterization of the novel can be compared to any of a number of “sentimental” traditions, in which the basic goodness of human nature prevails over humanity’s weaknesses—greed, pride, etc., especially the damage done by false feelings of superiority based on social “rank” rather than intelligence or humanity. And there is also a tradition of Southern literature, of which this book is a counter-example, a breaker of the mold. The character of Skeeter harkens back to the rebellious (or some would say liberated) daughter who has bigger plans for herself that a ring on her finger and a marriage that would give her husband hegemony over her.