The Help Movie Analysis
“The Help,” is an award-winning movie about a white woman, Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, who is an aspiring writer. To show her talents and professionalism as a writer and also expose the unkind treatment toward the black people of her time, Eugenia decided to write a book from the viewpoint of some of the maids in the community. This movie is set in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Era. In the 1960s, Mississippi continued to be very segregated and the African Americans were kept under control by the “Jim Crow” Laws (Segregation In Mississippi in the 1960s). These laws enforced racial segregation in the Southern states. “The Help,” is historically inaccurate due to the downplaying of the violence toward the African Americans, the stereotyping
…show more content…
These women are portrayed as loyal servants who take care of the white families and their children (Harvard University Press). By the 1960s, the image of black women as Mammies had diminished, but the movie characterized all of the maids in this somewhat antiquated fashion. Elizabeth’s daughter, Mae Mobley, was almost completely raised by Aibileen and was far more emotionally attached to Aibileen than her mother. There was an extremely loving connection between Aibileen and Mae Mobley, as well as with other children that Aibileen cared for during her lifetime. These relationships were more typical in earlier decades rather than in the 1960s. Citing another example, Aibileen shared with Eugenia her perception that ever since she was a child she was destined to become a maid because that is what the women in her family had always done. Despite her longing for greater opportunities, she ultimately settled for something less than she …show more content…
The elite women forced separation between themselves and their maids, not only because they thought that whites were more superior and intelligent, but also because they were convinced that blacks had different diseases that could infect them. In Hilly’s home she did not allow her maid to use the family’s bathroom and forced her to use an outside facility. She then convinced Elizabeth to build a separate bathroom in the garage of her own
These women are portrayed as loyal servants who take care of the white families and their children (Harvard University Press). By the 1960s, the image of black women as Mammies had diminished, but the movie characterized all of the maids in this somewhat antiquated fashion. Elizabeth’s daughter, Mae Mobley, was almost completely raised by Aibileen and was far more emotionally attached to Aibileen than her mother. There was an extremely loving connection between Aibileen and Mae Mobley, as well as with other children that Aibileen cared for during her lifetime. These relationships were more typical in earlier decades rather than in the 1960s. Citing another example, Aibileen shared with Eugenia her perception that ever since she was a child she was destined to become a maid because that is what the women in her family had always done. Despite her longing for greater opportunities, she ultimately settled for something less than she …show more content…
The elite women forced separation between themselves and their maids, not only because they thought that whites were more superior and intelligent, but also because they were convinced that blacks had different diseases that could infect them. In Hilly’s home she did not allow her maid to use the family’s bathroom and forced her to use an outside facility. She then convinced Elizabeth to build a separate bathroom in the garage of her own