Sierra Mitobe

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Linnerth

December 15, 2015

Helping to Understand Violations

Released in 2011 and based on the novel of the same name, The Help focuses on budding journalist Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan,  (Emma Stone) and her endeavours to expose the racism experienced by the maids of Jackson, Mississippi by interviewing and writing a book from their point of view. Also starring Viola Davis, as Aibileen Clark and Octavia Spencer, who won an Oscar for her role as Minny Jackson, and it was directed by Tate Taylor. The film is rated PG-13 and runs 146 minutes in length and features many human rights violations faced in the heat of the American Civil Rights era.

We first meet Skeeter as she goes for a job interview at the Jackson Journal, where she faces discrimination trying to get the job, all because she was a woman. The editor’s reluctance to hire Skeeter, just because she is a woman, is evidence of Article 2 being violated.

The maids of Jackson, whose jobs are to clean the houses, cook for and take care of the children of white families, are treated as servants, a definite violation of Article 4. The maids form bonds with their families, whether they be good or bad, and often watch the children grow up, knowing they will eventually be their new employers, as is the case with Mae Mobley and Aibileen.

Hilly Holbrook’s (Bryce Dallas Howard), Home Help Sanitation Initiative, a plan to have all homes have a separate bathroom for their black maids is another clear violation of Article 2. This also eventually leads to Minny’s firing , as she dares to sit on Hilly’s toilet instead of going outside during a storm, and spread her “black germs” all over Hilly’s personal bathroom. The storm when Minny is being fired is a successful use of pathetic fallacy. The chaos going on in the storm reflects the chaos within the Holbrook house.

Skeeter’s decision to write a book from “the help’s” perspective alienates her from the rest of the white women of Jackson, but on the way she slowly develops a relationship with Aibileen and Minny. You can really feel the awkward tension when Hilly singles her out in a Junior League meeting to ask her about the addition of the Home Help Sanitation Initiative into the newsletter.  

Articles 22 and 23, while not shown on screen, are evidently violated when, after finding Aibileen and Skeeter writing the book, Minny mocks Skeeter’s attempts by saying that all maids love getting below minimum wage, no social security and working in intolerant houses. Because “the help” work for below minimum wage and get no social security, they live in poverty, and if they are injured on the job, like Aibileen’s son, Treelore, there is no compensation for the family.

By far, the most emotional scene of the movie is, of course, the very end. Aibileen walks into Hilly accusing her of stealing her silver, and telling Elizabeth to fire her, but as she is fired, Mae Mobley walks in and begs her not to go. Aibileen’s tearful goodbye in the face of Mae Mobley’s pleas for “Aibee” not to leave is a wonderful, if bittersweet moment, as it ends Aibileen’s career as a maid, but leaves her future full of opportunity.

Overall, The Help was a fantastic movie, showing the evolution of the relationships between black help and white woman, all while showing the realities of the abuse of human rights in a 1960s Jackson, Mississippi.

Works Cited

The Help. Dir. Tate Taylor. Perf. Octavia Spencer, Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Bryce Dallas Howard. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, 2011. Film.