“18 people were killed in Jackson that night. 10 white and 8 black. I don't think God has color in mind when he sets a tornado loose.” (The Help, 2011). The Help was released on August 10th 2011, and was directed by Tate Taylor. At the time of the release Mr. Taylor was a fairly new director, but has since gone on to direct such movies as Get on Up and The Girl on the Train. The Help was nominated for 4 Oscars including Best Picture. Octavia Spencer would take home an Oscar win for best supporting actress for her role of Minny Jackson. On a budget of $25,000,000 The Help passed that total in its opening weekend alone. It would go on to gross $169,705,587 domestic. With the current hot topic of job wages, and racism this movie strikes a familiar …show more content…
Skeeter returns home from school to start work at the local newspaper writing a column. When she arrives home she notices that the family’s maid, and her nanny Constantine Jefferson is not there. In her search to find out what happened she sees an opportunity to create a book about the African American maids or “Help”, and their relationships with the prominent white southern families the work for. The first maid to start to open up is Aibileen Clark who works for one of Skeeter’s friends Elizabeth Leefolt. Fellow maid Minny Jackson is fired unfairly by Hilly Holbrook for using the indoor restroom, and struggles to find a job, because Hilly spread rumors that Minny was a thief. It wasn’t until Minny finds work for social outcast Celia Foote that she begins to open up and share her stories to Skeeter. After the arrest of Yule May for stealing from Hilly Holbrook to help pay for her son’s school more maids begin to come forward and share their stories. The book becomes a success, and inspires many. Minny gains the courage to leave her abusive husband, and Aibileen sets out to become a …show more content…
I liked that they touched on race issues in the South during the 1960’s, but also kept in the humor. By having the viewer rooting for these characters from the beginning the film makers could tell the character’s story, and show what they had to live through. For me Octavia Spencer was the shining star of the movie and rightfully deserved her Oscar. The humor she brought to her scenes, and how no matter what life threw at her she stayed positive, and continued to do what she had to. Even with the trouble home life she lived in, and being wrongfully fired and called a thief she did what she had to do to provide for her family. The cast all worked well together overall, and while Ms. Spencer was the stand out, the other actors held their own and really got into their roles. Bryce Dallas Howard played Hilly Holbrook so well you begin the dislike her almost immediately. It is because of how well the cast played their characters that you start to feel like you’re there with them, and to see what everyone went through it disgusts you. To see these amazing women treated differently, and humiliated simply because of their race is terrible. The way the film makers and the cast make you feel this way about the movie is why it is so good. You have a such an emotional connection to these characters that it causes you to laugh, cry, cringe, and feel disgust at the actions taking place on screen. In my opinion that sounds like a great movie that
The characters in this story are some very interesting people. They each lead their own way of life, and have their own interests at heart. Some of the main characters in this novel are: Sarny, Lucy, Miss Laura, Bartlett, Stanley, and Sarny's two children Little Delie, and Tyler. Sarny is the central character in this book. She is clever and knows exactly what to even in the worst of times. She is very emotional though, and can break down and cry when the slightest of things happens. This is perhaps from what she has experienced as a slave earlier on in her life. Sarny is fond of teaching people, as a friend named Nightjohn once taught her. Lucy is Sarny's close friend. She is also quite wise, but is a bit too optimistic at times. She never stops smiling and is very friendly. However, she does help Sarny find her lost children. Miss Laura is a middle-aged woman who lives a very luxurious life. She gives Sarny and Lucy a place to live and offers them employment. She also finds Sarny's children for her. Bartlett works for Miss Laura as well. He is a quiet and patient man who is helpful and quite kind. He was however castrated as a young slave boy, and cannot have children. Stanley is Sarny's second husband, for her first died from being worked to death on the plantation. Stanley is a gentle, big, fun-loving man, but is not intimidated by anything. This leads him to his death when he gets mad at a white man, and is confronted by the Ku Klux Klan. Little Delie and Tyler are Sarny's lost children. After she recovers them, and they grow up, Little Delie starts to like business, while Tyler wants to become a doctor.
For the most part, reviews are positive and praise this film. I completely agree with them, this film informed me of an issue I wasn’t even aware had occurred. Before watching this film and taking this class, I was naive, I believed that after we had gained our supposedly “equal rights” everything was okay. Now, I have realized the struggles Chicanos have had to face, my eyes have been opened to these injustices and made me aware that many are still occurring today. This film and class has inspired me to take action against these injustices and stand up for what I believe in.
...they deserved something positive in return. These people in Rosewood suffered because of the color of their skin and not anything else. I have realized that I am lucky to have the choices I have in my education, and athletics, and I am grateful to be able to play basketball for my school—as back in the times that they lived, they were simply lucky to be alive and did not have any choice in sports to play or fun to have. They simply worked for white people, and tried to stay away from death. They were not given the chances that I have today. This movie gave me a new, grateful and thankful view on the society I live in today.
Kathryn Stockett's book The Help has sold over five million copies and has spent more than 100 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list. Stockett's book has also been made in to a major motion picture. The Help is a story about African American house maids based in 1960's Jackson, Mississippi. The story is told by three main women, Minny, Aibileen and Skeeter. Aibileen and Minny are both African-American maids, while Skeeter is the daughter of a privileged family. Aibileen is raising another white child by the name of Mae Mobley whose mother does not participate in her care. Minny is working for an outcast, newlywed, white woman who is keeping her employment a secret from her husband. Skeeter is working on becoming a journalist and takes the risk of interviewing Minny and Aibileen for her book that she publishes. All meetings are done in secret. All of the maids Skeeter interviews talk of a woman named Hilly, who holds the ideal that whites are superior to African-Americans and intends to get everyone in her “ladies group” ( in which Skeeter is a member) to join in the ideal and embrace it. Hilly is one of the specific antagonists in this story, which ends in her demise. This story describes everyone in Hilly’s circle to a T, but it is published with an anonymous author and the names get changed so that no one can figure out who wrote it. Most people will “rant and rave” that Stockett's book is an amazing story of the struggle for African American's in
In conclusion, the ideas of prejudice and racial discrimination are the binding of the story, providing readers with an interest and a longing to finish the book. The novel also incorporates a various amount of details and important events that shaped the book to complete supremacy. Including hostile actions and fallouts of friends, the rebellion of the overbearing minority, and the complete destruction of a an everyday town. Also, the ending of the work involves the type of ending the general public expects, with a twist of heartache for the characters that did not quite come out on top. To conclude, The Help is a very popular book due to it’s tear jerking plot twists and down to earth characters almost anybody can relate to.
The book , The Help by Kathryn Stockett, is about a women named Aibileen who is a black maid. She is taking care of her 17th white baby now. She works for a woman named Miss Leefolt. Aibileen has never disobeyed an order in her life and never intends to do so. Her friend Minny is the exact opposite. When she is around her boss, she has to hold herself back from sassing them all the time. Skeeter Phelan is different than the rest of the white ladies. She thinks that blacks aren’t all that bad. She decides to write a book about the lives of maids for white ladies. Otherwise known as the Help. She with the help of Aibileen and Minny hope to create a book that starts a revolution about what white people think about blacks.
These kids grow up in the ghetto without a choice of moving somewhere else because of their parents low income, they live in a tough neighborhood and environment & reading this really touches you in many ways. Nobody will ever want to go through something like they did, Parts of the book tell you so much detail that it really puts an image through your head. The book entries mostly talk about the lives of the characters outside of school, The characters also describe the action of their diaries well and they present that action well in the movie.
In the novel the Help by Kathryn Stockett the character Skeeter develops progressively throughout. Her relationships with Hilly and Aibileen, and her motivation are the three key elements to her development as a character.
The Help, written by Kathryn Stockett, is a story set in the early 1960 's about three women in Jacksonville, Mississippi, Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter. The story shows how these characters progress and face their inner demons as they struggle to make a statement in a world of hate and segregation and give voice to the black maids of Mississippi. Aibileen, a sweet kind hearted women, works for the Leefolt 's as a maid and has been for many years. She creates a strong mother like bond with their baby girl Mae Mobley whom she considers to be her "special baby" (Stockett. 6). Her inner demon is dealing with the death of her young son and although it is not the focus of her
When Martha Ballard died, she was definitely missed and even though her diary sat in the back stacks of a library for a very long time because authors thought it was useless, her story was told and it was a good one at that. It wouldn?t be a surprise to me if her story has inspired women and I know it has definitely educated people about women?s lives at this time. It?s just a shame that more women?s stories from this time will never be told. I?ve learned from Martha Ballard?s story that she must have been a very good, decent, and smart woman and I would have loved to have met her. She is a good example of what some women were like back then and it?s good to see that not all of them were powerless housewives as some people think and how I, myself, thought before I saw this movie. I saw her struggle and her get through the hard times. The things she had to live through throughout her life were astonishing and I?m really glad I got to see this woman?s work. I realized how easy we have it now and how women like Martha paved the way for us and we have to appreciate them for what they?ve done.
One of the major projects of Hilly Holbrook’s is to get a law passed requiring white families to build bathrooms for their black children to use. At one point in the story, Skeeter finally realizes that what is going on is wrong. She grew up with these women but realized she knew them. After she reads the Jim Crow laws in the library, she starts to understand. “But then I realize, like a shell cracking open in my head, there’s no difference between those government laws and Hilly building a bathroom in the garage, except ten mines worth of signatures in the state capital.”
This movie is a wonderful production starting from 1960 and ending in 1969 covering all the different things that occurred during this unbelievable decade. The movie takes place in many different areas starring two main families; a very suburban, white family who were excepting of blacks, and a very positive black family trying to push black rights in Mississippi. The movie portrayed many historical events while also including the families and how the two were intertwined. These families were very different, yet so much alike, they both portrayed what to me the whole ‘message’ of the movie was. Although everyone was so different they all faced such drastic decisions and issues that affected everyone in so many different ways. It wasn’t like one person’s pain was easier to handle than another is that’s like saying Vietnam was harder on those men than on the men that stood for black rights or vice versa, everyone faced these equally hard issues. So it seemed everyone was very emotionally involved. In fact our whole country was very involved in president elections and campaigns against the war, it seemed everyone really cared.
I have always believed that all races have their good and bad. Their is never going to be the perfect race. This movie definitely set a powerful message that life is not perfect for any race and that even though people are from different cultures, they are all interconnected somehow. The filmmakers did a great job at showing us that individuals should not be based on first impressions such as skin color or the social status.
Minny showed that her husband is violent, " 'Why? Why are you hitting me? ' .... I was trapped in the corner of the bedroom like a dog. He was beating me with his belt. It was the first time I’d ever really thought about it. Who knows what I could become," (485) and "I ain 't telling, I ain 't telling nobody about that pie. But I give her what she deserve! .... I ain 't never gone get no work again, Leroy gone kill me..." (24). Also, it shows that Minny is forced to work for her family to earn money in order to raise their family up. It 's different from Skeeter 's situation in that Skeeter is hoping to continue her career but Minny has no choice to change her situation. Minny is a strong character in the book and she even took revenge against Hilly after she spread rumors about Minny. However, Minny seems so weak, vulnerable and under the mercy of her husband Leroy. Even if Leroy abuses Minny, she endures it because she loves him. Sexism here is in the superiority of men over women that give them the right to abuse them. According to Skeeter, in early 1960s, Sexism appeared in jobs that were open only for men, "My eyes drift down to HELP WANTED: MALE. There are at least four columns filled with bank managers, accountants, loan officers, cotton collate operators. On this side of the page, Percy and Gray, LP, is offering Jr. Stenographers fifty cents more an hour," (68). Characters from
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 society discriminated not only against black women, but also against their own race. The movie examines a very basic principle: the ethical treatment of other human beings.