Discrimination In The Help

The film The Help directed by Tate Taylor, is set in Jackson, Mississippi during the 1960’s. The film depicts the segregation of the coloured help, compared to the superiority of the white employers during the early civil rights movement. The film's focal point is the circumstances of the coloured, particularly the female help and emphasizes the relationships that they engage with their white employers, along with their work environment. This film clearly illustrates the dysfunctional formation of society within this time which this is shown through multiple themes, through comparison of race, gender and education as well as how the influence society has on an individual's psychological growth this consequently make the viewer analyse the

All of the white, upper class characters portrayed within The Help, with the exception of Miss Skeeter, are racists. Therefore, whether or not it is intentional or just an example of how society has cultured their children to think, they consequently segregate and deliberately set themselves apart from the coloured. This is shown in various ways throughout the film. The most coherent examples of this discrimination being the circumstance in which one of the lead characters Aibileen is ordered to use an individual and deemed appropriate, external restroom. This is an obvious illustration of segregation as it shows how the coloured help are physically set apart from the rest of society as a consequence of their “differences”. If that is not enough, pure racism is demonstrated further along in the film. Miss Leefolt, one of the housewives of Jackson, encounters her infant daughter Mae Mobley practicing to use the bathroom and toilet train in their maid Aibileen’s bathroom. Miss Leefolt therefore

Another comprehensive theme in The Help is the theme of growth and how people as individuals within this time change and consequently learn to accept their incapabilities and lack of opportunities. A particularly apparent example of this is the representation of the character Celia Rae Foote. Celia Foote has suffered multiple miscarriages that she has hidden from her husband, and also hires a house maid, Minny Cooper, secretly, in an attempt to live up to her expectations as a wife, as she believes that if her husband was aware of the truth , it would result in their separation. Consequently she suffers isolation as she does not particularly fit into society and amongst the other women of Jackson. Due to this Celia resort to acts of desperation such as attending gathering uninvited, calling the women of Jackson on their home phones repeatedly and portraying herself as a fool at the biggest social event of the year, the Benefit. As a result of her exclusion she consequently acquires the ability to stand up for herself. This is justified when she eventually gains the courage