Social Issues In The Movie The Help

“‘Don’t you ever wish you could change things?”’ (10). In Jackson, Mississippi during the 1960’s, woman ahead of her time, Miss Skeeter, proposes an idea to write a book about the lives of colored maids in Jackson. Aibileen and Minny, two maids, are among the first ones to agree to help Skeeter, despite the potential danger to themselves. In The Help, Kathryn Stockett creates an engaging and immersive world that explores racism and social injustice by using well-developed writing, the ideal amount of imagery, and strong characters.

The book “The Help”, written by Kathryn Stockett, is a book that takes place in Jackson, Mississippi, around the 1960's, when the blacks were segregated from the whites. The story is mainly about a black woman Aibileen whose main job is to take care of children as well as to handle household duties. Along the way they meet a woman Skeeter's whose lifelong dream is to become a writer however the only job she can find, is with the Jackson Journal writing a housekeeping advice column which she knows very little about. To succeed in the job, Skeeter turns to her friend's maid, Aibileen, for answers and help to write the column.

The Help occurs during the segregation period during the year of 1962 in Jackson, Mississippi. The main character is Aibileen Clark, a 50-year-old African American maid spending most of her life raising white children ever since her teenage years. She works for Elizabeth Leefolt, a wealthy housewife, who is the best friend of the antagonist, Hilly Holbrook. Elizabeth has a child named Mae Mobley whom Aibileen is very close to. Aibileen’s best friend is Minny Jackson; she is a maid who works for Hilly Holbrook and her mother Missy Walters for nearly a decade. Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan is a young, white American woman, seeks a successful writing career after graduating from the University of Mississippi and returns to home, soon to find out her long-time maid, Constantine, supposedly quit working for her family; this was a great mystery for Skeeter because Constantine did not write to Skeeter explaining why she left. Skeeter found out Hilly Holbrook, Elizabeth Leefolt and their friends believe blacks “carry various diseases to the white people”. Hilly drafted a disease

The Help chronicles a recent college graduate named Skeeter, who secretly writes a book exposing the treatment of black maids by white affluent women. The story takes place in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi, during the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. The death of Medgar Evers triggers racial tension and gives the maids of Jackson the courage to retell their personal stories of injustice endured over the years. The movie depicts the frustration of the maids with their female employers and what their lives were like cleaning, cooking, and raising their bosses’ children. The Help shines a light on the racial and social injustice of maids during the era of Jim Crow Laws, illustrating how white women of a privileged

I chose the movie The Help. I watched the movies back in 2011, but after watching it recently; I can better understand the injustices throughout the movie. The movie takes place in the early 60s, in Jackson, Mississippi. Segregation is very much alive and thriving. The focus of the movie was on Aibileen Clark, a colored maid, and her story. With the help of Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, a determined writer, her story and others were able to be heard. The key point was the mistreatment of the maids.

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.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett is one of the most marvelous novels capturing the zeitgeist of the 1960’s written in recent times: being published February 10, 2009. This novel not only described the situation between African-American maids and their employers, but encapsulated the thoughts and sentiments of the people that characterized the decade of the 60’s. These thoughts were depicted well because the author, Kathryn Stockett, grew up in Jackson, Mississippi; the very town that The Help is set in. She is comparable to the character of Skeeter, because Stockett was a young writer living in the South with aspirations of becoming an eminent journalist. They also witnessed firsthand the oppression and

The author did not spare the reader on how harsh the racial tensions were back then. So, I could really feel what the men and women of that time period went through. A character that represents this historic aspect in the book is Miss Hilly. She uses the fact that she is a white woman who has authority over the help, to terrorize them and make their lives miserable. Hilly continuously dehumanizes the help, for instance in the text Miss Hilly says, “‘a disease-preventative measure...I don’t think you ought to be joking about the colored situation’” (Stockett 20). Miss Hilly disregards the fact that the help and all other black people are actually human. She speaks of them as if they are a different species and that they are below her. This was the mentality of many people during this time period, and I like the fact that the author showcased this in the book in such an upfront way, because it is a very important part to the

Set in the early 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi, The Help, written by Kathryn Stockett and produced as a movie by Tate Taylor, provides viewers insight into the world of an African-American housemaid, or the help, during the controversial time of the Civil Rights Movement. In Jackson, Mississippi, African-Americans face racial prejudice and unjust treatment compared to the white people, and many women of color spend their whole lives caring for white families despite very little pay. Skeeter, a twenty-three year old white woman, holds a desire to help the maids gain a voice as she is unbelieving of the myths about them. Wanting a change in the way black people are perceived, she finds herself with the idea to write a controversial book, “Help,” in which she interviews African-American maids, among those maids being Aibileen and Minny, concerning their time working for white families. Overall, in both the novel and movie rendition of The Help, Skeeter unites together with the black help despite racial prejudice to give them a voice, showing viewers that collaborating together towards a common goal can lead to social awareness.

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.

The film, “The Help ”, is set in Jackson, Mississippi during the Civil Rights movement. It follows the activities of the African American maids, The Help, working for white people. Meanwhile, a white socialite and recent graduate of Ole Miss, Skeeter, is aspiring to write a book to illustrate their lives as The Help behind her friend’s backs. She interviews Aibileen and Minny who later joins the project. The film starts during an interview with Skeeter and Aibileen. Skeeter just got a job at a newspaper company to write responses for a weekly column and asks for Aibileen’s help. Aibileen is the maid of Elizabeth and cares for her daughter. Later, Skeeter finds out that her mother fired her childhood maid, Constantine, who raised her. This causes her to want to write a book and she calls a publishing company to approve her idea. Meanwhile, Minny gets fired by Hilly for using the guest bathroom instead of her outhouse during a rain storm. Minny then works for the wife of Hilly’s ex-boyfriend, Celia. The two become friends. After, Minny joins Skeeter’s book project. Hilly’s new maid gets arrested for pawning a ring and Medgar gets assassinated. Because of these events, more maids come out with their stories. In a strange but funny turn of events, Minny serves Hilly with a chocolate cake made out of her poop. Later,

They was at the table playing cards when one girl told the other to to use to bathroom and she felt uncomfortable because Aibileen used the guest bathroom but since Aibileen is black and the other girl was white she felt influence behavior and self-image that she was better than Aibileen and held it. The next thing that caught my attition was how Cult - A religious group that is outside standard cultural norms came to play. 1960s wansn't a time for black women to stand for what they believe in. Aibileen, and the other maids stood up for themselves with Skeeter in "The

The Help is a movie from a famous book published by Kathryn Stockett about a girl name Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan and her relationship with to African-American maids in the 1960’s during the Civil Rights era in Jackson, Mississippi. This film was written by Tate Tayor, who written and directed other movies such as; Pretty Ugly People (2008), and Winter Bones (2010). The fans general response to the movie The Help budget in the Box office according to imdb.com.com was at the estimate of 25 million dollars. This film was produced by DreamWorks Pictures.

Hi. I’m Rose and I just recently finished watching the film entitled The Help directed by Tate Taylor, as well as reading the literary equivalent by Kathryn Stockett from which it was adapted. This movie is set during the civil rights movement of the 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi. This movie stars Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone), a white women fresh out of college who is an aspiring writer. She teams up with Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) and Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer) to collect stories from the point of view of African-American maids, in an attempt to expose the hardships of being black and inflict change on their little town. Those who have read the book may judge the movie too quickly, but after analysing and comparing the two objectively I have come to the conclusion that Tate Taylor has done an impeccable job at creating an accurate adaptation of the original novel and tries his best to recreate the cast, plot, themes, and setting whilst condensing it into 2 hours of entertainment.

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.