Analysis Of The Movie The Help - 1187 Words

The Help is a drama set in Jackson, Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s. The film focuses on the development of Eugenia Skeeter Phelan, a young, aspiring Anglo American author trying to find her way in the world of writing. After becoming closer acquainted with Aibileen, an African-American maid employed by her peer Elizabeth Leefolt, Skeeter becomes more aware of the racist attitudes that white Americans in her community have towards ‘black’ Americans. After successfully interviewing Minny, Aibileen s best friend and fellow maid, Skeeter interviews the maids of multiple households and collects their stories and experiences of their lives. This leads Skeeter on a risky path towards bringing awareness to black†¦show more content†¦The Mammy is a stereotypical black motherly figure that has cast African-American actors as either slaves or domestic help in the film industry since its inception. For example in the classic 1939 film Gone with the Wind adapted from Margaret Mitchell’s 1936 novel set during the American Civil war in 1861, the character named Mammy is played by African-American actress Hattie McDaniel. In this role Mammy is portrayed as an overweight, elderly, black servant. She is beyond the years of childbearing but who is devoted to the white O’Hara family she is assigned to nurture. In the book she is described as, â€Å"a huge old woman with the small, shrewd eyes of an elephant. She was shining black, pure African, devoted to her last drop of blood to the O’Haras†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Mitchell, 1936) . Since this depiction a Mammy has become an archetypal figure that began with slavery but continued to be depicted by white Americans as classic domesticated help. Like McDaniel’s character these women are most often characterised as portly with large breasts (Gray, 2004) devoid of any sexual identity. In The Help the appearance of the African-American maids, particularly the main character, Aibileen, is reminiscent of the Mammy figure. Aibileen is not portrayed as overweight as Hattie McDaniel’s character, but she is noticeably larger than all of the white characters in the film. Aibileen also has very dark skin which separates her from her white counterparts. In the novel Aibileen compares