Inequality in The Help

1000 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The civil rights movement in the USA

In an era of the Jim Crow laws, life as an African-American woman was difficult. The Help (2011), a film written and directed by Tate Taylor, brings back some of this history. This film takes place in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi in the time of the civil rights movement, and when racial tension was at a rise. During this time, prejudice was at occurrence. For women who lived in Mississippi during the 1960s, employment opportunities was limited due to permissible segregation and economic inequalities. This film displays some experiences of African-American domestic workers of this period. Interaction with a black person from a white person on a level other than work was frowned upon. Many laws of inequality was forced upon African-Americans. In the time of Jim Crow, life was challenging for an African-American. Jim Crow laws were strongly implemented in Mississippi, one of many southern states to enforce these laws. These laws made it difficult for African-Americans to live and work. They were not fond of this way of life and wanted to mend it, but they endured ruthless consequences when they tried. For example, civil rights activist and NAACP worker Medgar Evers was murdered for trying to improve the conditions of black people in Mississippi. His assassination showed differences of how it was perceived in the black and white communities of Jackson, Mississippi. This incident served as a major historical event for the black community. For African-American maids, it was nothing to be talked about while in your white employer’s home. This event is important and marks the increase of racial tension in the streets of Mississippi. This event brought blacks uncontrollably bustling into the streets in sheer chaos and confus... ... middle of paper ... ...ally the actuality of sexual assault was discredited. This film turns the actual worries of violence and assault to African-American women in the segregated South into moments of amusing deliverance. Works Cited Conrad, Celia. "Racial Trends in Labor Market Access and Wages: Women." America Becoming: Racial Trends and Their Consequences. Volume II. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2001. 127. Print. "The Help (2011)." IMDb. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2013. "Jim Crow law (United States [1877-1954])." Encyclopedia Britannica. n.d. Print. "Open Statement - The Help." Welcome to the Association of Black Women Historians Website. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2013. Tucker, Susan. "Gillian Kushner." Telling Memories Among Southern Women: Domestic Workers and Their Employers in the Segregated South. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2002. 44. Print.

Show More
Related

  • Vann Woodward's The Strange Career of Jim Crow

    2031 Words  | 5 Pages

    The book, the Strange Career of Jim Crow is a wonderful piece of history. C. Vann Woodard crafts a book that explains the history of Jim Crow and segregation in simple terms. It is a book that presents more than just the facts and figures, it presents a clear and a very accurate portrayal of the rise and fall of Jim Crow and segregation. The book has become one of the most influential of its time earning the praise of great figures in Twentieth Century American History. It is a book that holds up to its weighty praise of being “the historical Bible of the civil rights movement.” The book is present in a light that is free from petty bias and that is shaped by a clear point of view that considers all facts equally. It is a book that will remain one of the best explanations of this time period.

    Read More

  • The Damnation Of Women Analysis

    1282 Words  | 3 Pages

    Anna Julia Cooper’s, Womanhood a Vital Element in the Regeneration and Progress, an excerpt from A Voice from the South, discusses the state of race and gender in America with an emphasis on African American women of the south. She contributes a number of things to the destitute state African American woman became accustom to and believe education and elevation of the black woman would change not only the state of the African American community but the nation as well. Cooper’s analysis is based around three concepts, the merging of the Barbaric with Christianity, the Feudal system, and the regeneration of the black woman.

    Read More

  • The Strange Career of Jim Crow

    1332 Words  | 3 Pages

    C. Vann Woodward’s The Strange Career of Jim Crow looks into the emergence of the Jim Crow laws beginning with the Reconstruction era and following through the Civil Rights Movement. Woodward contends that Jim Crow laws were not a part of the Reconstruction or the following years, and that most Jim Crow laws were in place in the North at that particular time. In the South, immediately after the end of slavery, most white southerners, especially the upper classes, were used to the presence and proximity of African Americans. House slaves were often treated well, almost like part of the family, or a favored pet, and many upper-class southern children were raised with the help of a ‘mammy’ or black nursery- maid. The races often mixed in the demi- monde, and the cohabitation of white men and black women were far from uncommon, and some areas even had spe...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of In Ar 'N' T I A Woman By Deborah Gray White

    1125 Words  | 3 Pages

    Deborah Gray White was one of the first persons to vigorously attempt to examine the abounding trials and tribulations that the slave women in the south were faced with. Mrs. White used her background skills acquired from participating in the Board of Governors Professor of History and Professor of Women 's and Gender Studies at Rutgers University to research the abundance of stories that she could gather insight from. It was during her studies that she pulled her title from the famous Ain’t I A Woman speech given by Sojourner Truth. In order to accurately report the discriminations that these women endured, White had to research whether the “stories” she was writing about were true or not.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of To Joy My Freedom

    1504 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the beginning of the book Hunter proceeded to tell us about the history of African-American women in a broader narrative of political and economic life in Atlanta. Her first chapter highlights the agency of Civil War era urban slaves who actively resisted the terms of their labor and thus hastened

    Read More

  • Anna Julia Cooper

    2460 Words  | 5 Pages

    Washington, Mary Helen. Introduction. A Voice From the South. By Anna Julia Cooper. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. xxvii-liv.

    Read More

  • Coming of Age in Mississippi

    895 Words  | 2 Pages

    Working life of the black folks in mississippi is also demonstrated in a manner that is heartwrenching. Starting with Moody she starts work at such an early age and it is evident that she does not realize to the extent of an adult, the racial te...

    Read More

  • Kathryn Stockett's Racial Segregation Of The 1960s

    1395 Words  | 3 Pages

    The 1960s was the time when women and men were treated with cruelty, were paid barely enough money to spend on food, and were beaten senseless just because of their race. Though it sounds like an excruciating life to live, many of these African Americans lived life to the fullest despite what others thought of them. In Kathryn Stockett’s The Help, African Americans are treated hastily by whites, as analyzed by the book’s historical significance, personal analysis, and literary criticisms to fully comprehend life in the 1960s of the south.

    Read More

  • Anne Moody's Coming Of Age

    658 Words  | 2 Pages

    Anne Moody’s Coming of Age in Mississippi glimpse into the past is an exemplary look into Black life in Mississippi after the turn of the century. Mississippi, being one of the hardest slave states in the American south, and still just as arduous, if not more, after the reconstruction and clearly throughout the Civil Rights Movements. Moody, elegantly describes her life and those close around her. This essay will explore Moody’s account and how she carefully and meticulously expressed the details her life. Also, this opinion piece will prove how the behavior, culture and actions during Anne Moody’s time is still alive and well today.

    Read More

  • The Help: Aibileen Clark And Minny Jackson

    1613 Words  | 4 Pages

    when Skeeter goes to get a job at the Jackson journal, she is given the housecleaning column, this demonstration how the very few women who did have jobs were given jobs that society considered to be “feminine”, things like housekeeping, beauty, secretaries etc. the role of white woman In Jackson Mississippi in 1960s, society had a very simple and strong idea about the way women were to fit into the routines and challenges for everyday life and what was to be expected of them, their main role was to find a husband, get married and raise a family. A woman’s main job and occupation was to take care of her husband, children, and home, as careers were strongly inadvisable. To make use of their time, being part of the high socialites, they would host benefit balls to raise money for charities. Colored women particularly in the South were often required to work as well as their husbands, to be able to support their families. Revealing how their situation in life were very different from that of the white woman. A black woman was usually a cook, housekeeper, nursemaid, or all three in made into one for a white family. Since they had to work they would have to have someone else come and take care of and help raise their kids, while they had to take care of and help raise their employer’s children, this is an example of the social conflict

    Read More

  • How Does Tate Taylor Create Sympathy For The Maids In The Movie The Help

    507 Words  | 2 Pages

    The film, The Help directed by Tate Taylor set in 1960’s Jackson, Mississippi, tells the story of Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson, two black housemaids who are struggling with racial discrimination from the society they live in. Together they were able to object to the rules of society by anonymously writing a book with stories about the challenges that housemaids have to face, with the help of Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan. After watching the movie I felt sympathy for the maids and disgust towards the people that employed them. The challenges that these characters faced reminded me of the society that Vincent Anton faced from “Gattaca”. The Help made me realise that it is unfair and unjust to judge people by the colour of their skin and treat them as inferior. Every individual

    Read More

  • Coming of Age in Mississippi and Segregation

    1314 Words  | 3 Pages

    Moody’s position as an African American woman provides a unique insight into these themes through her story. As a little girl, Moody would sit on the porch of her house watch her parents go to work. Everyday she would see them walk down the hill at the break of dawn to go to work, and walk back up when the sun was going down to come back home. At this time in her life, Moody did not understand segregation, and that her parents were slaves and working for a white man. But, as growing up poor and black in the rural south with a single mother trying to provide for her family, Moody quickly realized the importance of working. Working as a woman in the forties and fifties was completely different from males. They were still fighting for gender equality, which restricted women to working low wage jobs like maids for white families. Moody has a unique insight to the world of working because she was a young lady that was working herself to help keep herself and her bother and sister in school. Through work, Moody started to realize what segregation was and how it impacted her and her life. While working for Mrs. Johnson and spending the nights with Miss Ola, she started to realize basic di...

    Read More

  • Analysis of The Help by Kathryn Stockett

    1282 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the story “The Help” written by Kathryn Stockett, we are taken back in time to Jackson, Mississippi in August of 1962, where we meet three women by the name of Aibileen, Minny and Skeeter. Aibileen and Minny are black women who work for white families as the help. Skeeter is a young white woman in her early twenties who befriends the other two and gets them to tell their stories of what it is like to be the help. They reluctantly hesitate, but eventually give in knowing that the stories they are telling are more important than the negative impact it could have on their lives. While reading “ The Help” you cannot help but notice the symbolism that drips from almost every page.

    Read More

  • Why Do Labor Unions Matter?

    1610 Words  | 4 Pages

    Zieger, R. (2007). For jobs and freedom: Race and Labor in America since 1865. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky.

    Read More

  • Unveiling Racial Dynamics: 'The Help' Analysis

    1315 Words  | 3 Pages

    “The Help” is a novel that takes place in the early 1960s in the town of Jackson, Mississippi, and tells about both the white and colored families that lived there and how they interact everyday. The book is told from three different points of view, Aibileen’s, Minny’s, and Skeeter’s. The book first starts off with Aibileen Clark. She is a colored maid that is now taking care of her seventeenth white child, Mae Mobley Leefolt. Aibileen loves Mae Mobley and struggles throughout the book to help raise her to be loving and not see race, despite what her uncaring mother might tell Mae Mobley. Minny is also a colored maid with many children and an abusive husband and Aibileen’s closet friend. Minny can be very sassy and opinionated, something that

    Read More

More about Inequality in The Help

Open Document