Altruism, Self-Interest In The Movie, The Help

Altruism, Self-Interest and, “The Help”

By: 600150501

“The Help” suggests that self-interest often trumps altruism. There are events in the movie that indicate that even when the intentions were targeted towards a selfless concern about the welfare of others, it will eventually become self-interest. Also, those that are privileged do not want to give up their ruling title. In fact, they will do anything to preserve their image, even if it means deceiving others and lessening the image of the ones already ranked below them.
Furthermore, it is human nature to want to be at the top, which is why a privileged individual would not want to give up their status. To elaborate, this is depicted when Charlotte failed to stand up for Constantine when

Hilly does not give loans to those “who are well and able” is what her excuse was for refusing to give $75 to her new maid. The maid is desperate to obtain the money for her two sons and when she finds a ring whilst vacuuming, she takes this opportunity to pawn it. Hilly finds out and without any palpable evidence or trial, the new maid is immediately arrested. After the ordeal, Hilly says that she always knew she was a thief. Hilly plays a big role in the group of white women who exercises her white supremacy by threatening to get some of the maids arrested as it was shown how quickly Yule was convicted even if the evidence was not solid. Furthermore, she did the same with Aibileen, accusing her of stealing silverware, though there was no actual evidence of this, and clearly, Hilly was being spiteful towards Aibileen because of the bad blood she had in the past with her previous two maids. To add, despite Constantine not having done anything wrong and being a faithful maid to the Phelan’s, taking Skeeter under her wing and raising her since she was born, Charlotte had fired her due to one embarrassing event. Unbeknownst to Skeeter, as this occurred during her college years, her mother had the audacity to lie about what really happened to Constantine even when Skeeter was clearly devastated to know that her caretaker had quit. This shows that the privileged, in that time would keep up any guise to preserve their image from society 's rigid construct of what was considered to be normal. To clinch, there are many documentations in “The Help” suggesting that Self-interest often trumps altruism, even when the first intentions were derived from a selfless concern towards the welfare of others, it will eventually turn into self-interest. Depicted in the movie through the privileged refusing to back down from their pedestal in society’s hierarchy by lying and submitting to