Abuse In The Help

In the novel The Color Purple by Alice Walker, the main character, Celie, is abused a multitude of times by Mr. ______, her husband. This abuse, paired with earlier abuse at the hands of her stepfather, shapes Celie’s opinions on abuse. The abuse Celie suffers begins to change her into an abuser herself, showcased by her suggesting to Harpo to hit Sofia to control her, but Shug helps to change the impact the abuse has had on Celie into empowerment, along with helping Celie get out of her situation by moving to Memphis.

The movie “The Help” shows the lifestyle of black women in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960’s. A young adult named Skeeter who wished to become a journalist gathers maids to write about their testimonies as black maids, which at first refused because of the fear of getting caught yet later agree. The setting of the movie is historically inaccurate because it didn't go into detail about the civil rights movement and all the things that occurred during this time, which was an important time in history. As well as the Jim Crow Laws, the movie also never spoke about what white people would do to those who were colored for example beating them to death.

The movie, The Help, is full of social issues, the largest of which is obviously racism, followed by that of sexism of both men and women, classism of both genders and races and even mentions of ageism with certain characters.

Abuse is regrettably a more common part of our society and is described by Margaret O. Hyde in her work, Know About Abuse, as an, “harmful, injurious, or offensive treatment”(Hyde 4). Abuse is usually only limited to the physical signs, such as; the red ribbons left from the lash of a belt or the blooming bruises from the drop of a fist. Rarely do those take the time to see the trauma and chaos caused by hateful, derogatory, or misused words. Forms of abuse, such as verbal abuse, are so common they have managed to integrate into social norms that include catcalling, slurs, shaming, and other such forms. This affect of chronic name calling can be seen in Stacy A. Teicher’s, Boys vs. Girls:

In addition, another one of the three main characters in this book, Minny Jackson, also a black maid living in Jackson, had a rough married life because of her abusive husband. Stockett writes, “They [people] think big strong Minny, she sure can stand up for herself. But they don’t know what a pathetic mess I turn into when Leroy’s beating on me. I’m afraid to hit back...How can I love a man who beats me raw?” (485). Towards the end of the book here, Minny explains how weak and controlled she feels when she’s being abused by her husband, Leroy. This is another dramatic story that portrays the intense emotion in this book. Both Aibileen and Minny experienced extremely difficult times and this fact further worsened the presence of segregation in their town. For example, the book described many examples of discrimination including Hilly’s bathroom initiative (every white family with a black maid should have a separate bathroom for the help), a police officer killing an innocent black man in front of his children, and not allowing colored people to use the neat and clean public library among several other facilities. These examples of segregation are already better depicting what it was like during that time, and the emotionally charged stories allow the readers to more easily connect with the characters, which leads them to better understand the movement and topic than so with Hidden Figures. Not only was The Help more relatable through

There are several different Psychological themes throughout the movie “The Help”. In this paper I will be discussing 3 of which I feel are very important. My intentions throughout this paper is to make everyone aware of not only the Discrimination shown in the movie but also the way that Peer Pressure, and perspective ties into making this a powerful movie. Hopefully I can use this paper to make others aware of the hardship and oppression that not only African Americans went through but all African American Women especially. This movie shows how racism is not inherited but simply passed down from generation to generation.

The movie, The Help, is based on the book written by Kathryn Stockett. It was released in 2011 and directed by Tate Taylor (Taylor, 2017). The Help is set in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960’s, and it is about the experiences black women had as maids for white families. These women decided to risk it all and tell their stories in an effort to show what is was really like for them (Taylor, 2011). The Help illustrates how these women fought racism and prejudice by becoming unified with one another. This paper will address how prejudice, discrimination, stereotyping, and inequality affect the characters and their relationships in the story.

Abuse can have a large psychological effect on an individual. Both Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson and The Death of Jayson Porter by Jaime Adoff demonstrate that abuse leads to mental instability within the characters. This is evident through the literary criticism of the psychological lens shown in the behaviour of the characters in relation to many of Freud’s theories. Some of these theories included the Oedipus complex, the interpretation of dreams and the unconscious mind (Britannica Encyclopedia, 2014). Both authors demonstrate this through three types of abuse; substance abuse, verbal abuse and neglect.

In the book Black Boy by Richard Wright, Wright details his life as a black child in segregated America. He also writes about the abuse he faced as a child from the hands of his family. They would often beat him without telling him why, leaving the young boy terrified of doing wrong. At one point, his mother almost beat him to death at four years old (Wright 7). All in all, this abuse had a huge affect on Richard’s personality and actions as he matured. As he ages, Richard begins to develop the tendency to isolate himself from the rest of the world. It worsens as he ages, but from a very young age he begins this habit. One can argue that this habit may have just been a natural part of his personality, but one can not ignore the role his abuse

In the Film “The Help” characters also encounter situations that want to be forgotten. During the 1960’s (The time frame which the film was set) people with light skin colour where seen to be in power. Black people were forced to follow under their rules, working for them and catering their every need. Human beings are seen to be equal now but the sets props and costumes created a feeling of historical authenticity. During the movie footage of newscasts from the television were shown from the era creating visual context for the viewer reflection on the time of the era.

A social and cultural problem affecting everyone whether as a victim of abuse, perpetrator, a friend or confidant of an abused person looking for ways to help. For instance, a violent person may be more likely than the nonviolent person to choose or

Throughout the book there is a constant theme of mental and physical abuse, both by

In The Help, Kathryn Stockett presents the view that racism is often used in societies as a way to profit off an oppressed culture, mostly when associated with social classes. Throughout the novel, there are many events where prejudice is present, as the colored maids are always being treated with disrespect and are never thanked for their assistance in households. One of the main, and most obvious, issues in the book is the treatment of people based on their skin tone, and this being prevalent in the story allows for the reader to understand the culture of African Americans during the 1960’s in the southern United States. First, the theme’s presence in the novel is represented when Hilly introduces her bathroom initiative to Miss Leefolt,

A Tate Taylor film, The Help (2009) emphasizes the extreme, racially-charged stereotypes thus endorses racial thinking. Blacks in this film are represented broadly as common house maids, or domestic slaves, but specifically as oppressed, unhappy, impoverished, and products of hardship through the utilization of racist stereotypes and juxtaposition with the lives of affluent whites in the southern United States, a juxtaposition which immortalizes the racial gap between whites and blacks.

“The Help” is a movie about African-American maids working in white households in Jackson, Mississippi. The two black maids, Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson, tells their side of the story to a young white woman, Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, who is a journalist who decides to write a book from the maids point of views. Skeeters intention for writing this book is exposing the racism they receive while working for white families in Jackson. Aibileen Clark takes care of white children and helps raise them and cleans around the house, while her best friend, Minny Jackson, is an outspoken black maid but has a quick short temper which gets her into trouble later on. Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan is a white single independent woman, she earned a double-major