The 2011 movie, The Help, based on the Kathryn Stockett novel by the same name, is centered around the inequalities that the black maids, and race in general, faced throughout the 1960s. From a sociological standpoint, the movie contains many concepts pertaining to race and ethnicity and helps others to better understand the differences between majority and minority groups.
The Help is focused upon race, a socially defined category of people who share inherited physical characteristics and whom others see as being a distinct group, and the racism that the black maids faced throughout the 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi. Although the black maids are good people, they still face racism, an ideology or set of beliefs about the superiority of one
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Minority groups are less likely to receive an adequate education that majority groups are. In general, minority groups are more likely to lack health insurance, have a lower life expectancy, hold the low skilled labor jobs jobs, and live in poverty. When the black maids return home every evening, we can see how they live in rundown, poverty stricken towns and how they are paid very low amounts for their work. We can see social reproduction, the tendency of social classes to remain relatively stable as social class status is passed down from one generation to the next, as Minny forces her daughter to drop out of school and become a maid. Minny’s family lives in a closed caste system, with no opportunity to move from one class to another. Along with this, the blacks also receive very little criminal justice. When Hilly’s maid is caught stealing her ring, the police officer treats her very poorly and tries to harm her during her arrest. After watching The Help, a sociologist would view the story through the theoretical perspective of the conflict theory. The conflict theory states that inequalities are present in our definitions of deviance and that rules and punishments are applied unequally; those at the bottom are more likely to be criminalized than those at the top (those with money and/or power). We can see how Minny is seen as a deviant and fired …show more content…
Feminism is the belief in the social, political, economic equality of the sexes, but we can see the lack of it in the 1960s. When Skeeter receives a job working for the newspaper, she is assigned the cleaning advice column because it is assumed that because she is a woman, she will know how to clean. Skeeter breaks the norms, a social behavior that is typical or expected, by getting a job in the first place. Along with this, she portrays deviance, behavior, trait or belief that separates from societal group norms, when she pranks Hilly by putting the wrong initiative in the newspaper and also when she writes the book in order to help the black women. Skeeter is also pressured to find a husband because it is believed that women are incapable of providing for themselves and need a man. Along with feminism, we can see gender work, viewing types of jobs as “men’s work” and “women’s work.” Every maid in the movie is a woman because men are expected to do laborious jobs while women are expected to cook, clean and take care of
The Help by Kathryn Stockett gave everyone insight to the life of an African American woman in the early 1960s. The Help criticized racial inequality, and gives society an insider's view of segregation and fear of the status quo in their own race. Throughout the 1960s many African American woman worked in housekeeping. The novel follows the lives of three maids who are have a book wrote from their point of view. The story follows them as they go through the struggles of life and how stressful writing the book is on them because of time period and how dangerous it was to be seen with a person of the different race if you weren't working for them. Being seen with a person of the different race could get you labeled or worse thrown in jail for an integration violation.
The Help puts most of its attention on the white heroine that possess limited rebellion to the racism that surrounds her (History and The Help). It focuses on the inner self wanting to improve through raising awareness and creating friendships rather than conquering the actual issue. In the process of this, the Civil Rights resistance and complexity of racial relations is downplayed to hit the target audience. This target audience is white women that view themselves as superior. Therefore, the author cannot speak too deeply about the realities of the issue. The film becomes unrealistic in its portrayal of the events and struggles of this time period (Travis).
The Help, in light of the top of the selling novel by Kathryn Stockett, is a movie about segregation in Jackson, Mississippi in the mid-1960s. the work clarifies, African-American ladies had couple of alternatives yet to work as abused domestics for affluent white families. While socialites endowed the bringing up of their youngsters to the house keepers, the last were scarcely ready to tend to their own particular families. And this happen after the united states Civil War.
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.
“‘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.
Within the movie “The Help” 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,” that recounts the experiences of the black maids in her town to help expose racism. As critical as the movie is of the racial discrimination that existed in its time frame, some continue to say that it silently communicates racist tones throughout the entire movie. This argument is justified as the movie often found itself highlighting the
The Help, A novel written by American author, Kathryn Stockett in 2009 tells the story of black maids working in white home. Setting in Jackson, Mississippi during 1960s, the society is obviously segregated into two groups, whites and blacks. Although there is some variety in economic and social class, race is the first determinant of a person's place and whether or not having right to access to educational, occupational, and economic opportunity. Racial tensions are high because white community members employ violence and coercion to possess the Civil Rights Movement from sweeping into their Mississippi town. The unfair practices of post-colonization make the lives of the town's black members so difficult.
The novel, “The Help”, written by Katherine Stockett, is a story written about black maids in the 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi. In this novel woman were the queens of the domestic world whilst men climbed the corporate ladder, earning money to provide for their families. The more money the man earned, the more powerful and successful the his family was perceived. There were huge gaps in society based on race - black people were believed to be the serving class, and not as the white people’s equals. Through the character main Skeeter we are able see a change in this opinion this over time. Through the influence of Aibileen, Hilly Hillbrook and Charlotte Phelan we are able to see the different characters in the novel and how they are used
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.
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,
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.
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
Society has changed and evolved throughout time. Perhaps one of the most significant changed in contemporary American society is the treatment towards African Americans. “The Help” a feature film directed by Tate Taylor is based on the non-fictional novel “The Help” written by author Kathryn Sockett. The feature film explores the life of African American maids of Jackson Mississippi, in the early 1960’s. The 1960’s displayed all African Americans to being left out of the “American dream” through neglect and racism. African Americans faced prejudice and discrimination in almost every aspect of their life, from jobs to housing and even their education. They were denied the right to sit at the same lunch counter or use the same public rest
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.