SYG 1000 - Analyzing the Portrayal of Racism in 'The Help' Film

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of the film 'The Help,' focusing on the theme of racism as portrayed in Jackson, Mississippi, during the early 1960s. It examines how the film highlights social segregation, inequality, and the mistreatment of Black maids by their white employers. The analysis explores the challenging stereotypes and the dangerous attempts to perpetuate social dissolution based on skin color. It also discusses Skeeter's role in challenging these perceptions and the resistance she faces from white society. The essay further delves into the portrayal of black men and women, the segregation of facilities, and the feminist concepts developed through acts of defiance against gender and racial stereotypes. Ultimately, the essay argues that the film effectively develops racial stereotypes through in-depth mediations of social interactions, highlighting the need to address issues of social segregation and the paradox of powerful employers exploiting underpaid workers. Desklib provides access to this essay along with a wealth of study resources, including past papers and solved assignments, to support students in their academic endeavors.

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In the film The Help, the issue of racism has been developed in broadway. The movie
was develop by a great novelist called Kathryn Stockett. The storyline revolves along
Mississippi, Jackson society in the early 1960s1. There was a white young woman called Skeeter,
who had a passion for writing. The breakthrough of the woman immerged when she was given
the opportunity to transcribe experience of Black maids in the town. The film provides that all
Black maid was working for a white family. The beginning of the film is developed by a girl
called Clark who is willing to share her experience as a maid2. Minny joins her and other black
maids to share their experience as a maid with Skeeter. The novel is about her life experience
having been brought up by a black maid. Skeeter’s mother expected her to adhere to every
instruction given to her. The theme of racism is evident in the storyline of this novel. The author
equally addresses themes of equality, social segregation, and unity.
The role of Whites in the film is to bring the fundamental experience of black maids into
the limelight. Skeeter was able to develop her story as a white woman with the help of other
black maids1. The story developed by Skeeter shows that the Jackson society was very strict on
black people. There are many cases of racism in families where black workers were not highly
considered. Black maids were unappreciated and disrespected by their white employers based on
treatments they received. The racism factor is best portrayed in the film through mistreatments
that black maids were receiving from white employers3. Wages given is not comparable to the
work assigned. Also, white employers were considering black women as disease-ridden, dirty,
1 Bhave, Anand, Himanshu Kulkarni, Vinay Biramane, and Pranali Kosamkar. "Role of different factors in predicting movie
success." In Pervasive Computing (ICPC), 2015 International Conference on, pp. 1-4. IEEE, 2015.
2. Chiolo, Irene, Aki Minoda, Serafin U. Colmenares, Aris Polyzos, Sylvain V. Costes, and Gary H. Karpen. "Double-strand
breaks in heterochromatin move outside of a dynamic HP1a domain to complete recombinational repair." Cell 144, no. 5
(2011): 732-744.
3. Duan, Lian, W. Nick Street, and E. Xu. "Healthcare information systems: data mining methods in the creation of a clinical
recommender system." Enterprise Information Systems 5, no. 2 (2011): 169-181.

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lazy and having less intelligence compared to an average white person. This means that there
was social segregation as the author is trying to explain.
The challenging stereotype of racism is the dangerous attempts of pursuing dissolution.
The dissolution effort is developed based on skins color of people. Skeeter is trying to change the
perception of Jackson's society on Black people2. This effort was challenged by stiff resistance
from white people. Equally, it is considered violent actions in the social system. The film
compares Whites and Blacks people in the social system through social segregation. The author
argues that amenities given to Black people are more substandard compared to those received by
Whites. There is a character in the movie who seems to be more animalistic4. Hilly is preventing
black people from sharing the same washrooms with Whites especially those located inside to
their employer house. Skeeter is trying to talk on behalf of Black people, but it is
incomprehensible to Whites. Whites people would not understand why Skeeter could speak up to
defend Black people.
The stereotype of racism is portrayed in different occasions of the movie development.
The purpose of segregation is explained through proponent that prevents Whites and Blacks to
mingle due to color differences5. The initiative is supported by a general surgeon and governor of
Mississippi. For example, there is one maid who is fired because she had the gut to use toilet
located inside the White employer's house. Based on Hilly's actions, White employers continued
to make the life of Blacks miserable6. According to rule on high society, women developed a
2 Latifi, Mehdi, Ali Mobalegh, and Elham Mohammadi. "Movie subtitles and the improvement of listening comprehension
ability: Does it help?." The Journal of Language Learning and Teaching 1, no. 2 (2011): 18-29.
5. Lutterotti, Luca. "Total pattern fitting for the combined size–strain–stress–texture determination in thin film diffraction."
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms 268, no. 3-4
(2010): 334-340.
6. Ross, S. J. (2011). Hollywood left and right: How movie stars shaped American politics. OUP USA.

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section of understanding black community’s midsections through "white lady's tools." Black
maids equally reveal to Skeeter how White women employers behaved in their home7. Non-
whites individuals were positions through criticism positions on motherhood. Ironically,
Skeeter’s mother expected her to adhere to all things Black maid told her despite their little
intelligence.
Black men in the movie are equally stereotyped in film development. The film provides
that each character in the movie would agree with the instruction given by Aibeleen. This means
that white and black men play a comical role in racism3. The music that is composed by Charlie
Chaplin generate some a leading role where poorer generation is taken care. The guy is falling in
love with a blind girl who is befriended by a millionaire. Eventually, the man was able to win the
heart of a fair Black maiden. In this case, the movie is developing black men as sexual predators.
The minority groups in the film are addressed through common traits of a person8. The
segregation and discrimination sanctions are involved in the conversation between white and
blacks. This dialogue is ordinarily full of violence since society is well convinced that Whites
and Blacks are entirely different. The traditional feminist space of Black people create some
social changes for the female character in the story. The novel creates an excellent social
influence to ruin the social lives of black maids.
In summary, the racial stereotype is developed through in-depth mediations of social
interactions. The society of Jackson has social conventions and attitudes that discriminate fellow
members based on the skin color. The novel is mainly addressing underpaid workers through
3 Singh, Vivek Kumar, Rajesh Piryani, Ashraf Uddin, and Pranav Waila. "Sentiment analysis of movie reviews: A new feature-
based heuristic for aspect-level sentiment classification." In Automation, computing, communication, control and
compressed sensing (iMac4s), 2013 international multi-conference on, pp. 712-717. IEEE, 2013.
8. Zhang, Yonglai, Li Guo, Shu Wei, Yinyan He, Hong Xia, Qidai Chen, Hong-Bo Sun, and Feng-Shou Xiao. "Direct imprinting of
microcircuits on graphene oxides film by femtosecond laser reduction." Nano Today 5, no. 1 (2010): 15-20.

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different paradox on powerful employers. This illusion creates a volunteer wants to address
issues of social segregations through expected community orders. The feminist concepts are
developed through the different act of defiance against gender. Miss Skeeter is much determined
to address the issue of racism in society through writing. American maids are forced to use
separate facilities from their employers just because of color difference. Therefore, the film
develops some racialization roles based on different stereotypes challenges.

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Bibliography
1. Bhave, Anand, Himanshu Kulkarni, Vinay Biramane, and Pranali Kosamkar. "Role of
different factors in predicting movie success." In Pervasive Computing (ICPC), 2015
International Conference on, pp. 1-4. IEEE, 2015.
2. Chiolo, Irene, Aki Minoda, Serafin U. Colmenares, Aris Polyzos, Sylvain V. Costes, and
Gary H. Karpen. "Double-strand breaks in heterochromatin move outside of a dynamic
HP1a domain to complete recombinational repair." Cell 144, no. 5 (2011): 732-744.
3. Duan, Lian, W. Nick Street, and E. Xu. "Healthcare information systems: data mining
methods in the creation of a clinical recommender system." Enterprise Information
Systems 5, no. 2 (2011): 169-181.
4. Latifi, Mehdi, Ali Mobalegh, and Elham Mohammadi. "Movie subtitles and the
improvement of listening comprehension ability: Does it help?." The Journal of
Language Learning and Teaching 1, no. 2 (2011): 18-29.
5. Lutterotti, Luca. "Total pattern fitting for the combined size–strain–stress–texture
determination in thin film diffraction." Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics
Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms 268, no. 3-4 (2010):
334-340.
6. Ross, S. J. (2011). Hollywood left and right: How movie stars shaped American politics.
OUP USA.
7. Singh, Vivek Kumar, Rajesh Piryani, Ashraf Uddin, and Pranav Waila. "Sentiment
analysis of movie reviews: A new feature-based heuristic for aspect-level sentiment
classification." In Automation, computing, communication, control and compressed
sensing (iMac4s), 2013 international multi-conference on, pp. 712-717. IEEE, 2013.

Last Name 7
8. Zhang, Yonglai, Li Guo, Shu Wei, Yinyan He, Hong Xia, Qidai Chen, Hong-Bo Sun, and
Feng-Shou Xiao. "Direct imprinting of microcircuits on graphene oxides film by
femtosecond laser reduction." Nano Today 5, no. 1 (2010): 15-20.