The American History in Film Project, «The Help»
film help segregation discrimination
The movie represents the American history of the 1960-s and concerns two major problems of that period: racial segregation and gender discrimination.dominant issue the movie is based upon is racial discrimination and segregation of blacks. The 1960-s were characterized by the active Civil rights movement, when more and more people began to fight against racial inequality and segregation, legislated by the Jim Crow laws.movie depicts the life in Mississippi - one of the states where the level of racial discrimination and violence had always been extremely high. Black women had no choice of work, because they were meant to be maids, owned by white families. One of the main characters, Aibileen, had always known she would be a maid, because her mother had been a maid and her grandmother had been a house slave. She accepted it as a normal, because it had been a social standard for generations; and those black women didn t consider any possibility of a change, because it would mean a rebellion. At first they were scared to rise against the social order. Some people, who did it, lost their jobs, and both Aibileen and Minny faced it; some were shot: Medgar Evers, a prominent figure of the Civil Rights Movement, was assassinated by Ku Klux Klan; some lost their families. It required tremendous courage to risk your job, your family and your life. So for Aibileen and Minny it was a challenge to write the book with Skeeter, as it was against the law, as they said. On the other hand, it seemed even scarier to them to leave their life as it was, because such a life was horrible and someone had to change it. They finally braced themselves and agreed to help Skeeter, as they were inspired and given an example by such heroes as Medgar Evers and players of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, who are mentioned in the movie; and it was time when Aibileen and Minny were offered a real chance to improve the life of their fellows., at first Aibileen finds the idea of ??telling her story completely insane and tries to dissuade Eugenia from writing the book saying that «Nobody is gonna tell you ... It s the hell of a risk in a place like Jackson ». Minny s reaction is not much different. When they began to work with Skeeter, they still doubted if it was the right thing to do. But throughout the plot their decisiveness grows. First of all, they saw more and more horrible things happening around. The television and the press were announcing more and more information about harassment and abuse of blacks. Secondly, they realized they were tired of segregation themselves. Separate buses, separate dining tables, separate bathrooms outside of the house - maids tolerated all of it. However, when Minny was denied in using the «white» bathroom during a terrible storm and was fired for using it, it seemed too much for her. Besides, one of the most important reasons which prompted Aibileen to write the book was the Bible, and as we know, religion has always been important for Americans. When Skeeter asks Aibileen what changed her mind, her response was «God»; and we will return to the issue of Christianity in «The Help» later.with the black maids, t...
