The film “The Help” (2011), is a story based on the daily lives of prominent white women and the relationships with their African-American housemaids in Jackson, Mississippi, during the 1960s Civil Rights movement in America. A well-to-do white woman and central character in this film, Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, aspires to be a journalist and decides to write and publish an exposé of the stories of the housemaids in Jackson to achieve this goal, however, only two maids, Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson are willing to discuss their experiences with her. The other maid’s in Jackson resist telling Skeeter their stories, fearing the punishments they would endure if the authorities were to find out. In spite of this, after the malicious arrest of one of their befriended maids, all of the maids begin to share their experiences, which consist of racial hostility and being treated as intrinsically subservient to white people. The story Skeeter publishes entitled The Help, creates a disturbance among the white families in Jackson, by exposing the racism the maids are faced with, forcing the white families to reflect upon how they have treated their maids. The storyline represented in The Help exhibits examples of the primordial approach to race and ethnicity, as well as numerous sociological concepts including segregation, internalized oppression, and white privilege, which will be exemplified in this paper in order to uncover the race relations evident within this film. The term
African American’s role in this country has been long and has never been easy. During the early years of the United States, African Americans endure the hardship of slavery and had to deal with beatings, harsh working conditions and constant yelling from their racist white owners. Even after the abolishment of slavery, African Americans still endure another one hundred years of discrimination. A perfect way to examine a pivotal time in American History of African Americans and the racism they went through is seen in the movie “The Help”. The movie is set to take place “in Mississippi during the 1950s-1960s, Skeeter is a southern society girl who returns from college determined to become a writer, but turns her friends ' lives -- and a Mississippi town -- upside down when she decides to interview the black women who have spent their lives taking care of prominent southern families.” (The Help) The movie was originally based on a book written by
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.
This paper explains how the movie “The Help” goes into great depth to explore the sociological concepts of self and interaction, deviance, and the reality of segregation that still exist today. This paper provides details in the comparison of benefits for children’s, a friend for the mothers, and a maid to help and serve the community. A dark story that elevated into a powerful transformation. A suspense thriller that obtain emotions core with some political twists. A movie that is incredibly uplifting, and a book that would take your breath leaving your mind in awe. It’s a warm, and funny dialog that is quite believable (Goodreads,2016). But, a shocking police stigma that is brutal both physical and verbal. (Ferris, K., & Stein, J. (2010). A silent retribution that only allowed no action other than for blacks to dedicate their lives to the memory of how a white community in Mississippi town used other forms of violence toward black people. So, taboo and the thought of violating evokes strong feelings of disgust for all the maids. While the other white people stop and stare without any remorse. Public scenes that causes deterrence leaving a fear on blacks to turn the other cheek as if nothing was out of the norm. To place more emphasis on why this movie is one to watch; simply because this movie had won multiple rewards such as the Oscar, and the Golden globe award a year after it was released in 2011(Goodreads, 2016).
They live on different sides of town, have different jobs, and different opportunities. White housewives have their black maids raise their own children, while they gossip with their friends. It is a twisted yet heart-warming novel shown through the different voices of Aibileen Clark, Minny Jackson, and Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, with a constant sway of mixed emotions. Stockett’s use of three narrators in The Help reinforces how difficult it is for blacks at this time to overcome the stereotypes and injustices they
The help is a movie about race, gender and class inequalities in Jackson Mississippi during the 1960’s. It is told from the point of view of a young writer named Skeeter. She was born into a middle-class family who’s servants and maids are called “The help” and are exclusively African American and treated as if they were diseased and below any white American. The maids did the cooking, cleaning and even raising white children as if they were their own. Skeeter recognized this as a problem and decided she wanted to write a book about the struggles of a black woman’s experience being in service to white women.
Kathryn Scott’s The Help takes place in Jackson, Mississippi during the 1960s. This movie emphasizes tense racial conflicts that dominated the South during this post-World War era. Segregation of whites verse blacks was a prevailing and dominating theme of the decade. The Help attempts to depict this time period by focusing on a white woman, Skeeter Phelan, who aspires to become a journalist. Society considered Skeeter as an oddity for wanting to leave her family and pursue an education. She goes against all social norms and secretly asks her maid, Aibileen, to help her write a book about the lives of maids. Despite the overwhelming danger associated with their relationship Aibileen agrees and even encourages other maids to take part. The intention behind Skeeter Phelan’s book was to spark a movement and change the way white people view their help. The Help suggests that education is the only route to social change.
The movie “The Help” was based In the early 1960’s in Jackson, Mississippi. During this period of time it was very segregated, very much so that whites did not want African Americans to have contact with them, but were expected to fully take care of their children from birth to adulthood. Most of the African American maids later developed a strong bond with the children that they looked after. They tried teaching the kids to see no color, just to later witness them grow up to be brainwashed by the world to think of African Americans as less than. Except for one southern girl named Skeeter Phelan, who saw the equality in everyone. And one day she decided to interview the maids to get their perspectives on life and to get their story out to the world. At first the maids were hesitant because it would be serious consequences if anyone knew who exactly spoke up, but Skeeter did whatever she could to make sure all the maids were anonymous and no one knew. She risked many hardships like losing her relationship with her boyfriend and also building tension with the women of the Junior League. Successfully the maids stories got out and it opened eyes little by little.
Within the movie “The Help” there are a variety of major issues represented, most directly the discrimination that existed in the 1960s. The movie itself follows the journey of a white, budding journalist and her relationship with two black maids, Aibileen and Minny, during the Civil Rights Movement in 1963 Jackson, Mississippi. To start off her career as a journalist she decides to write a book, titled “The Help,” recounting the experiences of the black maids in her town to help expose racism. The movie itself is very critical of the racial discrimination that existed in its time frame but some say that it silently communicates racist tones throughout the entire movie. This argument is justified as the movie often found itself highlighting
Feminist theory is a term that embraces a wide variety of approaches to the questions of a women’s place and power in culture and society. Two of the important practices in feminist critique are raising awareness of the ways in which women are oppressed, demonized, or marginalized, and discovering motifs of female awakenings. The Help is a story about how black females “helped” white women become “progressive” in the 1960’s. In my opinion, “The Help” I must admit that it exposes some of our deepest racial, gender, and class wounds as individuals and social groups, and that the story behind the story is a call to respect our wounds and mutual wounding so that healing may have a chance to begin and bring social
Based off of Kathryn Stockett’s 2009 novel, The Help is a movie told from an African American’s point of view during the early 1960’s in Jackson, Mississippi. The three main characters include, Aibileen Clark, Minny Jackson, and Eugenia (Skeeter) Phelan. Skeeter is a young writer who has recently returned from the University of Mississippi. She has been advised by the Elaine Stein, who is the head editor at Harper & Row, to write about a topic she is passionate about, that way she can continue her dream of becoming a serious writer. In addition, Skeeter accepts a writing job down at the Jackson Journal where she writes a housekeeping column. Ironically, she has no housekeeping experience as she grew up with in house help. In order to keep her job she goes to Aibileen, her friend Elizabeth Leefolt’s housekeeper. At this point in her life, Aibileen is just trying to get by. She writes out her prayers on a daily basis as a way to clear her mind since she is fairly reserved on the outside. On the contrary, Aibileen’s friend Minny is also a housekeeper, but she has a rather sharp tongue which doesn’t usually work in her favor. Consequently, she is trying to find a new employer, but is having trouble since there is a bit of discord between her and the most influential socialite in Jackson, Mississippi.
For my project, I chose to analyze the movie, The Help. Set in 1962, this story follows the lives of and relationship between the upper class white and working class African American citizens of Jackson, Mississippi during the Civil Rights Era. It was based on a novel of the same name. This film was released in the fall of 2011 with a general release in North America and a broad release worldwide. At this time, Barrack Obama was serving his first term as President of the United States, the first African American to ever hold the position. Obama’s presidency revealed the thinly veiled racism still present in the U.S. It was this in year that he was basically forced to release his birth certificate, the first president to ever have
Although the maids were struggling and going through a difficult time in 1960’s, The Help portrays that their family members were too. Segregated society against the backdrop of the growing US civil rights movement in the 1960’s has an impacted. “Race also determines who has access to educational, occupational, and economic opportunity. Racial tensions are high as white community members employ violence and coercion to try to keep the Civil Rights Movement from sweeping into their Mississippi town” (Shmoop Editorial Team). The white community in the movie continue to keep the black women as their servants throughout their lives. As Skeeter the white lady, who writes a book about The Help and portrays through the book that the African American women go through. As the white women of Jackson, Mississippi read the book they began to act more violent to the black women. The book is away as the black women to make a statement about the civil rights they have.
Walt Disney Studio’s 2011 film, “The Help” is an adaption of Kathryn Stockett’s 2009 novel of the same name. The Help is an American drama film, and stars a powerhouse cast, with the leading roles played by Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain, and Allison Janney. The film was both written and directed by Kathryn Stockett’s friend Tate Taylor, who was given the rights to the film before her book was even published.
An emotionally stirring movie taking place in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s, “The Help” stars Emma Stone, Viola Davis, and Octavia Spencer as three women who share a common motive. This racially tense setting creates the perfect foundation for a drama film such as this. The characters’ personalities in combination with the emotion of the plot develop a socially accurate depiction of the struggles faced by the people of the time. While the racial aspect of the movie is dominant, viewers may also find compassion and friendship within the conversations and encounters of its characters.
First of all, in the novel the Help, the author, Kathryn Stockett, uses the theme of prejudice and race to develop the plot. This historical fiction is based upon racism in the early 1960’s in Jackson, Mississippi, so a lot of the white characters, mainly a character named Hilly, refers the blacks and black maids more animal than human. These accusations are based on how whites built their social barriers based on fears. As a result, this veers the Chronicle's enactment, by using racial prejudice and bigotry, which affected the black maids and other black characters, and how they, with the help of a white woman called Skeeter, overcame hardships by sticking with their belief of social equality. “I want to yell so loud that Baby Girl can hear me that dirty ain't a color, disease ain't the negro side of town. I want to stop that moment from coming – and it comes in every white child's life – when they start to think that colored folks are not as good as