Essay On The Help Book And Movie

The Help, in both the movie and the book, portrayed a meaningful story of racial relations. I watched The Help alone for the first time; I enjoyed every minute of it. The setting, characters were wonderful, and the exploration of racism, prejudice and courage just touched my heart. In the movie, Skeeter Phelan, the main protagonist, told the story through her point of view which led me to easily focus on her story. Though, I read the book version by Kathryn Stockett; it got me more excited to hear the story from Aibileen and Minny’s point of views. Even though the book and the movie used different narrators to lead the story, both versions portrayed the helplessness of the protagonists toward racial relations through their perspectives.

Aibileen Clark was a black maid who saw her son died under two white men’s hands, thus,“[her] whole world went black” (2). Minny Jackson was also a black maid, who was called a thief by her owner, “She telling everybody in town I’m stealing that why I can’t get no work” (24). Different from the movie’s narrator who had a high-standard lifestyle, the book’s narrators had a tough, pity life. Stockett portrayed the racial relations in which two black maids got harmed by the white’s behavior. From Aibileen and Minny conversation, Stockett revealed a black man got beat up to blind by two white men for using the “ white bathroom at Pinchman Lawn and Garden” (117). The book’s narrators felt more helpless in the racist society compared to the movie’s narrator, which Aibileen is vexed that she “want to yell so loud that Baby Girl can hear me that dirty ain 't a color, disease ain 't the negro side of town. I want to stop that moment from coming – and it comes in every white child 's life – when they start to think that colored folks are not as good as whites” (112). Different from Aibileen, Minny understood the government laws. Minny accepted the racial relations happening around her: “ What law school say you got to be nice to your maid?” (54). While, the movie’s narrator was fearless fighting against racism, the book’s narrators were anxious that they

In the movie, Skeeter was helpless to find evidence for her book about racial relations because the maids were too scared to tell her the truth. Standing against racism in the society, Skeeter’s book was not well accepted but was rather buried in hate. In a racist society where the whites always had more advantages, Skeeter was threat to be “[kicked] out of the society for” trying to change that. In the book, through Aibileen and Minny perspectives, Stockett portrayed the racial relations in which the black citizens couldn’t help it, they just accepted it as a fact in life. Minny was helpless to fight for her right as an employee to use the bathroom in a white family house. Aibileen was powerless to fight for the justice of the death of her son under to white men’s hands. Both Aibileen and Minny were helpless to change the injustice and unfairness around them. Even though, the movie and the book, used different narrators to lead the story; they both describe the characters’ powerless to change the racist