For this assignment, the first movie I thought of was “The Help” which is based off a book written by Kathryn Stockett published in 2009. The movie is about an aspiring author writing a book from the point of view of African American maids working for white families and their everyday life during the civil rights movement. In Jackson, Mississippi, the setting of the movie, many white families hired African American help to perform everyday tasks, like cooking and cleaning, as well as to raise their children. Within the movie, the two main African American maids were Minny and Aibileen. With many laws and negative views regarding sharing details about their treatment and lives as maids, Minny and Aibileen, as well as others, spoke up to share their stories with Skeeter. Skeeter was a recent journalist graduate from Old Miss who moved back to Jackson to start her writing career. Being one of the white children raised by an African American woman and viewing the hardships they endured, she decided to take a risk and create a story where the maids told their stories. The movie brings to light the racism and sexism occurring during the 1960s.
This movie addressed and discussed many of the social injustices prevalent during that time. One of the main social injustices throughout the whole movie was racism. African American men and women were treated completely different than white men and women. Even though slavery was abolished, in the south there still remained laws like Jim Crow that allowed African Americans to be treated unequally. The movie showed places being separated based on race, African Americans not being payed minimum wage, and still being treated like slaves. Within the movie, a law was trying to be passed by Hilly, a white woman, where African American maids were not able to use the same bathroom as the family living in that home. Racism was the main social injustice within this movie, but many in the south didn’t see it that way. Like the comment in the movie made by Hilly, “Be careful, there are some real racist out there.” Another social injustice that was shown in the movie, but not as prevalent as racism, was sexism. For African American and white women, the men controlled the household. White women were not supposed to work, which is why many women told Skeeter to find a husband so she could quit her job and have children. Women were not supposed to state their opinions on social injustices like Skeeter and the African American maids did when telling and writing their stories. The movie displayed many of the social injustices like racism and sexism during the 1960s.
The completely different lifestyles of the white and African American characters within the movie relate to the ideas of subalterns. Within the movie and the south during the 1960s, African Americans were considered the subalterns. African Americans had the voice to speak, but white men and women held the power to not allow them to be heard. This results in the subalterns have not having a voice. By the end of the movie, the subalterns or African Americans started to become heard by those in power, white men and women, by publishing their book revealing the truths about their jobs and lives. The subalterns started added value and knowledge to a conversation which gained the ability to be heard.
