Film the Help Review

The Help: Film Review and Discussion The film The Help (2011), which was adapted for the screen and directed by Tate Taylor from the novel by Kathryn Stockett attempts to tackle heavy complex subject matter from a questionable perspective. The film is set in the 1960s in Jackson Mississippi, two details that make the film as loaded and complex as it can possibly be. The 1960s were the Civil Rights era in America, and Jackson Mississippi was a dangerous place.

It was home to the confederacy and was a place where hundreds of innocent blacks had been lynched, among many other horrors that they suffered. This review will focus on two characters: Skeeter Phelan, the main character, played by Emma Stone, and Minny Jackson, played by Octavia Spencer. Emma Stone’s character Skeeter is perhaps one of the most problematic in a film that is already very problematic.

The film attempts to tell the story of the marginalized women who have survived the Jim Crow era, one of the ugliest eras in American history. Instead the film teeters on the edge of being a “white savior” movie, attempting to tell the story of these marginalized women through the lens of the brave and spunk woman who is trying to help them (Skeeter/Emma Stone).

Stone’s character has just graduated college, and her experiences away from home have created a sense of dissonance between the people she grew up with and the realities of the world. Her mother (Allison Janney) is incredibly sick and wants her to focus on finding a husband. Skeeter continues to hang out with her old friends in town and edit the Women’s League paper, but she is eager to become a legitimate writer and establish herself via a real piece of writing.

She gets the idea to do a book interviewing the black women of the town, who have worked as housekeepers. The book will detail and discuss their experience helping to run the households of white women and raise white children.

While this might seem well intentioned, the film gets off on a clunky premise. Hence, the Skeeter character, while well intentioned, fails to be anything more than the hero of a movie about white people trying to help black people, rather than about authentic and unfettered stories of the black experience. This is because in terms of the “Cultural Awareness and Intercultural Adjustment Skills” Skeeter figures very low in terms of her own journey.

Skeeter’s time at college probably took her to Stage One: recognizing that there were cultures other than her own. When the film opens, we see her at stage two, rejecting the backwards and racist culture of her town and being unable to properly or happily mesh with her old friends. Perhaps by the end of the film one could argue that Skeeter reaches stage three, where a decision has been made, and she’s decided to permanently reject the backwards culture of which she was raised.

It’s not clear if she’s particularly selected a new culture or if her leaving to go to New York is supposed to imply that. In terms of cultural awareness and intercultural adjustment skills, Skeeter has to develop and make changes in this regard during her journey. She needs to create distance from her family and friends who were all previously the proxies and influences of her culture.

She undermines and criticizes many of the complaints her friends make about their black maids and attempts to subtly hold up a mirror to the rampant injustices that these women have suffered. Skeeter’s journey begins when she attempts to write the book and reaches out to the black maids of her neighborhood. Much of what Skeeter accomplishes is through a rejection of the historically created solutions to race relations that occur in Alabama. She rejects the idea that blacks and whites shouldn’t socialize.

She rejects the idea that the experience of black people is unimportant, especially that of black women. Skeeter’s rejection of the culture that has been shared with her makes up the bulk of her journey. She also has to learn how to engage in new social negotiations, such as ones which allow her to gain the trust of the maids around her. In a word, Skeeter has to select individualism over collectivism.

Skeeter must choose to view herself as an outsider in her own community, as a means of beginning her journey and achieving her goal. Octavia Spencer plays Minny, a character who has trouble holding down a job, as a result of the (understandable) attitude she gives the vacuous white women she is forced to slave away for. Minny is a source of much of the comedy in the film, for her deadpan humor and her bluntness. This occurs often during her time working for Celia Foote (Jessica Chastain).

A more complex character, much of her comedy is offset by the fact that we soon discover she is married to an abusive alcoholic. This is a fact about her life that her character deals with using bravery and toughness. Minny’s stage of cultural awareness and intercultural adjustment skills means that she is most likely at stage three. Since Minny grew up in the toxic climate of the segregated south, she is no doubt indoctrinated to the idea that there are other cultures than her own.

The segregated south was all about division of culture, so Minny learned at a young age that there is the culture of the white folks, versus the culture of the black folks. Minny has to reach state two, which is to accept things for the way that they are, as she doesn’t seem to have control or agency over the rampant injustices that continue to occur.

Minny plateaus at stage three as she has decided she is a participant in southern black culture, and the limitations that are placed on her reality. Minny is unable to reach a level of transcendence because of the injustices of the era. Transcendence is underscored by action, and the racist policies of the Jim Crow era along with the limitations placed on her from a socioeconomic standpoint mean that she is unable to progress further in terms of intercultural adjustment skills.

One aspect that Minny exhibited in terms of Cultural Awareness and Intercultural adjustment skills is that Minny maintained her personality and her sense of humor. In many ways one could argue that this was a form of revolt in her own way. In the south at that time, it was fitting for black maids to be submissive, quiet and exceedingly polite. Minny subverted these expectations as a form of adjusting to the culture of the time, and as a form of quiet revolt.

The immense hardships that Minny had to face, with her low-paying subservient job and her alcoholic husband are dealt with her courage and refusal to complain. It is a mark of the culture of the time that she has to stay with her husband and keep her job. The journey of bravery and acceptance that Minny had to deal with was on-going. The divisiveness of the south meant that many of the black people there had to develop an insider/outsider perspective in regards to their own culture.

Blacks were considered outsiders to the mainstream white culture, and they had to accept it, by essentially living two lives: that of deference to the whites around them for their own protections. Their second identity, which was their real one, could only be shared in private among other black people.  “Identify and explain the specific example of Cultural Awareness and Intercultural Adjustment skills Skeeter/Minny was within their journey.

Tell what the journeys were, what did the character do? How did you make these observations? What were the clues? Were the journeys which the characters had was a one-time thing, or was this an on-going journey? Please explain.  Was the journey complicated or simple? Did Skeeter/Minny go from one stage to another stage easily? Or did Skeeter/Minny have to struggle going back and forth between stages and identity? Please explain.  Was the journey by Skeeter/Minny finalized or was the journey an ongoing struggle for them? Please explain.  Write your reactions to the journeys that Skeeter/Minny took.  Here are the cultural approaches /definitions from the book.

• Historically Created Solutions a) Are methods of how to learn to live in the world and to solve problems that are learned and passed on throughout each generation of a particular culture.  b) Primary function of any culture is to provide access to historically created solutions for effective living.

c) Children have access to some historically evolved approaches to interpreting the world and have access to their parent’s (cultural players) collective solutions to common life problems.  d) Learn how to conduct other kinds of social negotiations.  e) Book: “The systems of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that the members of society use to cope with their world and with one another and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning.”  f) “As infants we begin to acquire our culture from those around us—our parents, siblings, relatives, friends, and teachers—who in turn learned it from their parents, siblings, relatives, friends, and teachers.

Thus the wisdom of the group is passed down from generation to generation. Not only is culture learned, but also it is shared with a very large group.

“ • Five Hallmarks of a Culture Language—allows people to have effective communication (most important) Heritage—history—provides historical perspective as to why people subscribe to certain belief systems and behave in specific ways Customs—rules—dictates the rules of behavior and are grounded in historical applications  Arts—reflects the soul of a culture Family—transmitter (cultural players)—are the ones who transmit those values from one generation to the next, providing the newer members with access to the historically created solutions for effective living  • Culture vs Community Culture—system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that the members of society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning Community—a group of people who may or may not live in a similar geographical location but share similar goals and/or common interests • Surface vs Deep Elements of a Culture Surface—food, language, clothes Deep Elements—customs, social etiquette, conversational discourse • Collectivist vs Individualist Cultures Collectivist—the goals of the community come before the individual and their rights and personal opinions—close-knit interconnected—the importance of open communication—having secrets and withholding information work against an collectivist culture Individualist—the community respects the needs of each individual—success depends on contributions made by individuals—privacy is very important—separate individuals who are exclusively responsible for their own lives  • Insider/ Outsider Distinctions It’s important to clearly identify connections.

Are you inside or outside However, I guess one could argue that Skeeter did go on some sort of a journey of cultural awareness and intercultural adjustment within the film. She was already sympathetic to the plight of black domestic servants in the Deep South, but her journey showed her the realities of their existence, which are often exceedingly harsh. The journey she goes on forces her to really connect with the harsh truths that the Jim Crow era bestowed on every facet of the black experience.

While one might argue that Skeeter was already cognizant of this to some extent, the film forces her to face the humiliations, degradations and hardships of being a black maid in Mississippi. This was an on-going journey that occurs for Skeeter over the course of the film, but the film approaches the subject with an empty hand. After all, it seems like.