In the film The Help directed by Tate Taylor we follow the growth of Aibileen’s character and how she changes from an unsure and unhappy woman to a strong woman who is ready and willing to stand up for herself against the racist white society she lives in. This film uses many film techniques to show this character development from weak to strong. This helped the viewer to understand how hard it was to be brave in the 1960’s and helps us as the viewers to like her and respect her more as a character. The beginning of the movie is a time when we see Aibileen as a member of the help, running the household but still being looked down upon by her employers. The director, Tate Taylor, makes use of a low angle shot of Aibileen sitting on the floor …show more content…
She realises that she doesn't want to be treated as she is anymore. By knowing this she then realises that thanks to Skeeter she can make a change. She comes out of her skin more and invites Skeeter around to do the interviews, being honest about her experiences. This is shown to us through the use of a mid shot of her in a church looking sad but determined, everyone else around her is happily singing “victory is mine” but she stays sitting and does not look victorious. This scene shows how Aibileen is realising that she has the opportunity to change and now she knows it. We also see it by Taylor's use of a low angle shot of Skeeter looking up to Aibileen, Skeeter has been invited around to Aibileen’s house to interview her and Aibileen is in charge. This demonstrates that even though Skeeter is a white woman and Aibileen is a black woman one doesn’t have to be above the other. A third technique demonstrating Aibileen’s change during the film is dialogue. Aibileen tells Skeeter “Miss Leefolt should not be having babies. Write that down.” By saying “Write that down.” Aibileen is giving Skeeter an order, becoming more bold and saying what she wants to say. It shows just how angry Aibileen is at Elizabeth’s treatment of Mae Mobley and how she doesn’t think Elizabeth deserves to have a child if she never looks after them. Aibileen’s realisation of her ability to change and become stronger is a key moment in …show more content…
We see this as Aibileen is walking away from Elizabeth Leefolt’s house after being fired. There is a mid shot of Aibileen feeling happiness and relief as she is walking away because she can now be herself. When Aibileen is walking away we see her heading down the road away from the camera we understand that she is leaving to go towards a new future. This is a wide shot and at the end of the road the light is golden and bright as if signaling that the future will be bright. Aibileen’s bravery is also seen when she stands up to Hilly, the symbol of white racist society in this movie. Hilly reinforces the Jim Crow laws and nasty subtle racism throughout the film. Aibileen is now confident enough to get close to Hilly which demonstrates her newfound bravery we see this in an over the shoulder shot. By standing up to Hilly, Aibileen is standing up to white society as a whole, showing that she now has the confidence to do so. She is standing up for what she believes in, something she would never have done in the beginning of the movie. This change throughout the movie helps the viewer to understand how much Aibileen has changed, if we had not watched Aibileen change into a bold woman then we wouldn’t understand that her standing up to Hilly was a landslide moment. The change meant that the confrontation between Aibileen and Hilly was drastically
In the speech Aleeza said “I don’t understand how can color belong to people?”Also she portrayed “I was able to stand up for myself.” Aleeza illustrated her point of view and her character trait really well by giving a wonderful brief speech. Her main point was that she stood up for herself and did not get scared of anyone. Also, she wanted to explain everyone that do not judge anybody from his or her color.
Aibileen’s new separate bathroom was finally finished and Miss Leefolt announced the news. Aibileen's has her own bathroom so there isn’t any spreading of disease. The white family’s at that time always had maids, or also referred to as the “the help.” The women of the white homes did not have to put much effort due to their black maids, who performed all their daily tasks. This quote shows how “the help,” for instance, Aibileen have to obey, with their little to no privileges. They couldn’t express how they feel or what they want. Extreme racial segregation was common during this time. These black maids weren’t treated humanely and fairly, but like something lower just because of their color. For Miss Leefolt to spend her money to build Aibileen
Kathryn Stockett’s, The Help, introduces two main characters in the novel who reveal their drastic experiences of the day-to-day life of an African American during the early 1960’s. These hard working ladies, Aibileen Clark and Minny, dedicate and spend their lives taking care of white families and raising their innocent children. Discrimination played a big role in the society during this era, and was considered normal; however, these tough and independent women took every day as a new challenge to look for the the best outcome. In the novel, Kathryn Stockett interprets nature imagery to symbolize the traumatic experiences and struggles each black minority undergoes.
With a University Master's Degree in Literary Studies at The University of Alicante, Nina Louise Greve demonstrates thorough analysis and depth into the main issues of The Help; enlightening characters stereotypical attributes. One of the main characters, Aibileen, exhibits these traits through her simplistic, faith-ridden approach to societies ordeals. In addition, consumed by fear of the bourgeoisie, she conforms to the rules set by civilization. Nina reveals that through the duration of the text, The African American Females are continuously portrayed to be dependent upon Skeeter to seek access to freedom. This accredits the archetypal character of the ‘Hero’ upon the sole Caucasian character, and further victimizes the African American
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 is an inspiring movie, centralized on themes of showing courage in the midst of adversity and racial desegregation. The selection of actors with specific attributes, lighting/camera angles, and music, allows the movie to entertain in detail, and highlight the prime issues of the 1960s. With the movie being directed with these specifities in mind, the author, Kathryn Stockett, is able to successfully relay her message in the screenplay.
The Help is written from the view of the three main characters Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter from a small town named Jackson, Mississippi. First Aibileen, she is one of the primary African-American maids in the novel that works for the Leefolt family. Secondly, Minny is the feisty, smart-mouthing African American maid that works for Mrs. Holbrook till she is fired and later begins working for Mrs. Foote. Lastly, Skeeter is a young Caucasian woman who has returned from graduating college and dreams to be a writer. Skeeter hopes to change the typical southern views Jackson has of blacks that is apparent on every page of this novel. This sparks an ambition to write a book about the “helps” point of view on working for white families that is so
The Help is a New York Times bestselling books written by Kathyrn Stockett and has been recognized all over Canada as well as America. I find that the main character in the help, that is a wise black made named Aibileen, is the one who changed the most throughout the book. She changed and garter stronger emotionally and mentally, for the better and was determined to make a change in the world.
Aibileen behaviour has definitely changed because she never cried, even while she was talking about Treelore who meant a lot to her. But she heard about the deadline she fell apart because that meant a lot to her as well but finishing before the deadline wasn’t an easy task when they had many more chapters to write. Aibileen’s reacted were badly to that news because almost cried which Aibileen never does and she keeps her thought to herself.
As the story progresses, Aibileen comes even more out of her shell by risking her life for the chance that others in her community will someday be seen as equal. Aibileen’s current baby she is taking care of, Mae Mobley, grows up in a racial family. With this said, Aibileen most definitely does not want “baby girl” to turn out like the rest of the women in Jackson. So as a result, Aibileen’s belief for what is right increases as she starts telling baby girl how everyone is equal, and how she is smart, kind and important. The sad fact is, if Aibileen hadn’t built of the courage to do what was right, her people would not have seen change at
Aibileen stares injustice in the face when she confronts Hilly and dares her to call the police, knowing that she has been falsely accused. The movie ends with Aibileen walking down a long road with tall trees on both sides with her head held high and her heart filled with pride. She may have lost her job, but not her dignity. She confronted the injustice and mistreatment that sparked the Civil Rights Movement, and in the process was able to free her mind and forgive her enemies.
This ultimately makes her a more resilient character, who is not afraid to stand up and speak her mind, as she is not following the social conforms of a traditional and conservative society. Skeeter does not want to follow the traditional path of marriage and motherhood, but instead to work in the writing industry, a workforce dominated by men in Mississippi. Although Skeeter and her best friends, Hilly Holbrook and Elizabeth Leefolt, all attended Ole Miss University, Skeeter was the only one to graduate, as the other woman attended university solely to find a husband. When Skeeter gets a job at the Jackson Journal, she tells her friends at her bridge club. Although they congratulate her, they are initially shocked, and it can be clearly seen from their gestures and facial expressions that they do not approve of Skeeter’s career choice.
In the very last shot of the film the camera angle is high showing Abilene walking with a long road ahead of her, this tells us that Aibileen’s possibilities are endless now that she is free to walk her own path in life. This camera work paired with lighting which is natural and dappled showing us how Aibileen is no longer trapped, the shadowed areas suggests that it won’t always be easy for Aibileen but the light we see at the end of the road will be worth it. This made me think about what it means to be free and how telling your story can do that, it was very courageous of Aibileen to do what she did and while it was dangerous it was worth it for her freedom. This film made me think about how sometimes you have to do what ever you have to do to be free no matter how difficult it may be or how much
She is the only white person is Jackson who is trying to shed a light on the injustices these women face, she eventually has to turn against her racist friends (Holly Holbrook and Miss Leefolt). Eugenia was very close to her maid Constantine, she was closer to her then her own mother, but Eugenia stopped hearing from her while she was at college. When she came home from school, Constantine mysteriously disappeared and no one would tell her what happened to her. Later on, she finds out that Constantine left Jackson to give up her child for adoption because Constantine’s father was white and her mother was black, so when she had a baby with a black man, her baby was white. if she kept her baby, the community would not accept them because she was black and her baby was white. After Constantine got in contact with her daughter and came back to Jackson, Skeeter's mom gave Constantine a choice; either cut ties with her daughter or she was fired, she choice to quit and later died, Eugenia had no knowledge about this because she was away in college, this motivated her to write a book about the lives of black maids, She understands that nothing is progressing in Jackson for civil rights, so she must do something, she states “But then I realize, like a shell cracking open in my head, there's no difference between those government laws and Hilly building Aibileen a bathroom in the garage, except ten minutes' worth of signatures in the state capitol” (13.92). by this she means that racism is becoming worse. Eugenia risked her reputation and her personal life to write the
Again shown in chapter 12, Hilly and Elizabeth come to show their opinions on black people. “Hilly raises her voice about three octaves when talking to black people. Elizabeth smiles like she's talking to a child, although certainly not her own. I’m starting to notice things.” In this quote Skeeter notices that because of the racial prejudice in within the community, black people are also thought to be less intelligent than the white people. Skeeter only realized this by the way Hilly and Elizabeth talked to black people the same way they were as if they were talking to a little kid. While Skeeter kept writing the book and eventually published it, She was hoping that people would realize