Tate Taylor The Help Analysis
Critical perspectives are a technique to understand the various ways people view texts, regardless of the author’s purposes. Hello, I am Brooke McGregor and today, the film the help will be looked at through a gender and psychoanalytical critical lens. The Help, directed and written by Tate Taylor is a 2011 American period drama film. Based in the civil rights era, Jackson, Mississippi, a young white woman and aspiring author Skeeter, writes a book in the perspective of the maids known as “the help” in an attempt to become a legitimate writer.
Gender criticism examines the influence of sexual identity on the creation and reception of literary works. Psychoanalytical criticism examines the point of view of the author and studies the reasons …show more content…
Charlotte falls into the category of spoiled, southern, white women and wants her daughter to follow in her footsteps. She wants her to dress better, straighten her hair and find a man, while Skeeter wants to focus on her career. We later discover that her mother’s motive comes from a loving place. Charlotte has cancer, and desires her daughter to have a good life after she is gone. We see this love through the scene when she stands up for Skeeter during her fight with hilly. (Video of the fight)
A reader looking through a psychoanalytical lens, would see why Hilly Holbrook acts the way she does, to the maids and her friends. In the home and her friendship group, it is a private space where she has control and authority, whereas outside the home and in the community she has no power. Displayed through the tone of her voice and words are Hilly’s emotions. When she speaks to the maids, she is very harsh and unsympathetic. While with her southern socialite friends she is very sweet but authoritative. Hilly is a woman who enjoys controlling others and striking fear into those opposing …show more content…
They don’t challenge the social beliefs of their parents because they have not separated enough to gain any perspective on their treatment of the maids may be wrong. Skeeter, who has left home and returned, is the only character able to examine the social interactions between the maids and the white to see how it is
Gender criticism examines the influence of sexual identity on the creation and reception of literary works. Psychoanalytical criticism examines the point of view of the author and studies the reasons …show more content…
Charlotte falls into the category of spoiled, southern, white women and wants her daughter to follow in her footsteps. She wants her to dress better, straighten her hair and find a man, while Skeeter wants to focus on her career. We later discover that her mother’s motive comes from a loving place. Charlotte has cancer, and desires her daughter to have a good life after she is gone. We see this love through the scene when she stands up for Skeeter during her fight with hilly. (Video of the fight)
A reader looking through a psychoanalytical lens, would see why Hilly Holbrook acts the way she does, to the maids and her friends. In the home and her friendship group, it is a private space where she has control and authority, whereas outside the home and in the community she has no power. Displayed through the tone of her voice and words are Hilly’s emotions. When she speaks to the maids, she is very harsh and unsympathetic. While with her southern socialite friends she is very sweet but authoritative. Hilly is a woman who enjoys controlling others and striking fear into those opposing …show more content…
They don’t challenge the social beliefs of their parents because they have not separated enough to gain any perspective on their treatment of the maids may be wrong. Skeeter, who has left home and returned, is the only character able to examine the social interactions between the maids and the white to see how it is