The text I am choosing to review for this assignment is the movie The Help, directed by Tate Taylor. This movie is based on the novel and takes place in the early 1960’s in Jackson, Mississippi. The film follows an eager young white writer, Skeeter as she exposes to the world to events based on true stories told by African American woman who identify as maids, or “the help”. During this time Skeeter also researches the systematic injustice within the state of Mississippi that African Americans had to deal with at the time. From the beginning the maids, like Aibileen and Minny, were hesitant to partner with Skeeter due to their distrust in whites, and their fear of experiencing repercussions. Overall the story is very dynamic since it takes place during the civil rights movement, as it analyzes topics like racism, social class, and gender roles.

Throughout the film the woman who tell their stories to Skeeter are shown doing their jobs in the households of wealthy white families. The maids are forced to do repetitive work, like cooking and cleaning, and they are even responsible for caring for the children. There are many instances that when their employers are disrespectful and or abusive towards them. The maids have limited career, so they are almost forced into this unhealthy work environment. They are limited because maids are denied  higher education to help them advance within their careers or other areas, just due to their color.

Gender roles are present within the households that are highlighted throughout the movie. Skeeter struggles to gain acceptance from her family when it comes to being a writer, and she feels forced to only be a wife and mother. Another woman, Celia, has multiple miscarriages but feels forced to hid her emotions because she wants to be a strong enough wife to her husband.

Lastly, social class is what shapes Jackson as a society. The wealthy are at the top, and they have at least one maid to cook, clean, and take care of the children. The maids that work for them are considered the working class. Whereas the upper class, who does not associate with those below them, own much of the industry and are able to provide for their children without worry. Discrimination due to classism occurs also, when Skeeter tells her editor her story idea, she did not support it at first due to its affiliation with the maids, Aibileen and Minny. Overall, this movie depicts a story during the civil rights movement that highlights many ideas that we have gone over in this class. Therefore, if you’ve never seen the movie, I recommend you watch it with your new perspective shaped by what we’ve learned.

Hindi Medium, When I saw the title of movie, I knew the film is talking about education in India. The protagonist Raj is the son of a tailor who lives in an old neighborhood. His family is not poor, but still not rich. When Raj grew up, he fell in love with Mitu, a beautiful girl from the same social class, then they married as they wished. Years later, Raj has become a well-known fashion merchant, and got his own brand and design studio, living a wealthy life, and is a well-deserved husband and father. When the daughter reached the age of school, the couple tried various means to get their daughter to enter top prestigious elementary school in Delhi. They even moved to the slums to pretend to be poor people, just to defraud the school. In the slum, Raj met the kind and honest family of Yahim. Yahim’s sincere dedication made Raj’s shocked. He saw the darkness and the nature of education, and Raj realized that the education system in India is so unfair. Raj eventually gived up sending his child to the prestigious school, instead, he sent his daughter to a normal public school, near his home.

In the film, it exposed the inequality between poor people and rich people, and the unfairness between these two classes in India. Moreover, in India, it seems that English is not just a language, but a status symbol, maybe we can give it a name as lingual discrimination. If someone speak English instead of Hindi, the society pays more respect to him. Raj speaks Hindi, and his wife Mitu  speaks English.  it is love that allows them to cross the class. I once heard someone says that Indians like to speak English, though grammatical errors are endless. This shows that the phenomenon of India’s class division is very serious and the gap between rich and poor is very large, even languages are classified. The greatest success of this film is that the director made very heavy topics in a relaxed and humorous way, though this film involves education, class, family, system, etc.

The crescendo of the whole film is the speech Raj made at the end. The speech was quite wonderful, Raj confessed a series of shameful deeds he had done to get his daughter into a prestigious school, and also revealed the ugly face of the wife of the headmaster. Usually after such kind of speech in a film,  there will be thunderous applause; however, this movie broke the convention, only Raj’s wife applauded for him, and then they quietly left. This is what the movie showed us, a serious and true attitude, because in our real life, the social barriers and cognitions actually cannot be eliminated by just a sincere speech.

The film just showed the audience of the unfairness and inequality of the education system and social classes, and I think it is great deeds for us to try our best to help eliminate such unfairness.

The movie Green Book is a film based on a true story. Dr. Donald Shirley is a world-class African-American pianist, who is going to hold a concert tour in the Deep South in 1962. At that time racial discrimination was very serious in the south, in need of a driver and protection, Shirley recruits Tony Lip, a tough-talking bouncer from an Italian-American neighborhood in the Bronx. Despite their character and racial differences, those two men soon develop an unexpected bond while confronting racism and injustices in an era of segregation.

When we are watching the film, we will find a lot of familiar things that we have learned in this class. We can find how intersectionality shape Dr.Shirley. He is a black man but not like other black people, he was brought up in an affluent environment so that when he was sitting in front of other black people in the hotel, he was so out of place since his education made it impossible for him to blend in with other black people. And then he was a well-known pianist, however, white people in the south show their respect to him only because of his talent. Except for playing time, Dr. Shirley was treated like other black people that he was facing lots of injustices and discrimination like he was not allowed to use the washroom and try clothes. Even though people gathered together for him, he was not permitted to have lunch there. There was a sentence in the film that touched me deeply when Dr. Shirley was having an argument with Tony, “Rich people pay me to play piano because it makes them feel cultural………I was not accepted by my own people since I am not like them either”. He was also treated as “Others” by all the people since black people can not understand that why would a white man serve a black man in a time of racism and white people in the South hate black people so that no one wants to accept him. I think that is the reason why he is always alone.

I think the author was trying to express that when people are facing discrimination or injustices, they should maintain their self-respect and rally against their inequality. Sometimes, a moment’s peace is achieved by forbearance. However, if people want to get out of unfair treatment, they should learn how to live with dignity and fight for their freedom. Like Dr. Shirley, in the beginning, when he was facing injustices, he just gave up his inherent rights and did not want to have a conflict with other people. By spending time with Tony, he learned how to deal with injustices and stand up to unfair treatment. Man is born great because they have been against fate.

Work cited:

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/green-book-2018