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How Is the Historical Era Reflected in the Help

In: Film and Music

Submitted By yuppeh
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How is the historical era reflected in The Help

The Help is a movie which depicts the historical era in 1960s, specifically in Jackson, Mississippi. The story revolves around a writer called Skeeter who tries to convince the black maids there to give her stories and confessions of how it feels to work for white women. The movie tries to give other people a view into what was it like for the black women 50 years ago, but many think that it has failed to do that.
The first and probably most important fact that the movie has missed, was the violence and sexual abuse against the black women. The movie showed how the white women and men pretty much disgusted the black women and wouldn’t even touch them. That was true, but only in public. It was often so, that when a maid was in private with the people she was working for, she was beaten and often sexually abused. In the movie though, the only violence we see is when Mr Evers is murdered, and that too is only shown in the TV, and when Minny was beaten up by a husband we did not get to see. This has been the main issue with the movie and has been criticized often.
Another problem that has not been brought out in the movie correctly is that black men are mostly betrayed as cruel or absent. I already brought out an example of how they were cruel in the last paragraph, how Minny was afraid of her husband and how he finally beats her. As for absent, we can’t really see the black men in their homes, taking care of kids or such. It is understandable that they worked, and we could see them do exactly that, but they were never shown in homes with their families. But in reality, family overall was very mportant for black people. Family supported all of their loved ones because they had few other ways in which they could seek comfort.
The movie is aimed for a feel-good ending. Skeeter’s book is published and it briefly

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