Special assignment: The Help

The Help – Special Assignment

Submission date: Monday 28th  

1)      Choose two of the following questions and answer them. Your answers should be full, concise and at least two lines long:

a)       How is the movie setting (time and place) related to the movie plot?

b)      Aibileen is at first reluctant to participate with Skeeter in the writing of her book. She mentions that taking part in it “scares me more than Jim Crow”. Why does she mention that character? Why is this character relevant in American history?

c)       Before starting with the writing of her book, Skeeter reads the Mississippi Laws Governing the Conduct of Nonwhites and Other Minorities, which read: “Books shall not be interchangeable between the white and colored schools, but shall continue to be used by the race first using them.” (…) “No person shall require any white female to nurse in wards or rooms in which negro men are placed.” What policy do these laws subscribe to? Explain it in your own words and include at least two more examples of the state law comparing them with what you saw in the movie.

d)      The assassination of John F. Kennedy is a turning point in the story. What was his approach to civil rights and what did his death mean in this context? What other death is important in the movie? Who was this man and why do you think his death made black people feel the way they did?

e)      When she realizes Skeeter has been reading the Mississippi Laws Governing the Conduct of Nonwhites and  Other Minorities, Hilly asks Aibileen if she likes her new toilet. Then she adds: “Separate, but equal”. What doctrine does she refer to and what did it mean for African Americans?

f)        Aibileen and Minnie are seen throughout the movie attending religious services. In one of the masses, they read the Exodus. What impact did the book of Exodus have in African Americans?

2)      Read the following extract from a magazine article and, using it as an argument in favour or against your opinion, write an opinion essay entitled: “The movie The Help does not properly portray the lives of black maids”. Your essay should be at least 150 words long and you should follow the regular layout (introduction – body – conclusion). Include examples from the movie as well as examples from the research you did to answer questions in exercise 1.

The Help movie: Black Women Historians slam 1960s race drama

By Karen Valby August 11, 2011 at 12:00 PM EDT

The Association of Black Women Historians released a statement today, urging fans of both the best-selling novel and the new movie The Help to reconsider the popular tale of African American maids in 1960s Jackson, Miss., who risk sharing their experiences with a young white journalist. “Despite efforts to market the book and the film as a progressive story of triumph over racial injustice, The Help distorts, ignores, and trivializes the experiences of black domestic workers,” the statement read.

The group of scholars took issue with novelist Kathryn Stockett’s use of “black” dialect, her nearly uniform portrayal of black men as cruel or absent, and the lack of attention paid to the sexual harassment that many black women endured in their white employers’ homes. “The Association of Black Women Historians finds it unacceptable for either this book or this film to strip black women’s lives of historical accuracy for the sake of entertainment.” They further made clear that while they may disapprove of The Help as storytelling, they very much admire and respect the “stellar performances” of the movie’s black actresses like Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer.

In EW’s cover story on the film, Davis (who plays Aibileen, the first maid to talk frankly with the white journalist, played by Emma Stone) acknowledged the charged conversations that were sure to accompany the film’s release. She says she too approached the novel with enormous suspicion, “because a white woman was writing what I felt was our story, and once again she’s going to get it wrong and she’s only going to skim the surface,” she said. Yet the story, and what she calls the deep humanity of the characters, won her over. “That’s what people bristle at: the maids,” she says. “I’ve played lawyers and doctors who are less explored and more of an archetype than these maids.”

The ABWH statement takes the film to task for seeming to suggest that after the assassination of Civil Rights pioneer Medgar Evers, the sole response of the black community was to quake in fear and anxiety. But it should be noted that at a recent special screening hosted by the NAACP, his widow, Myrlie Evers-Williams, bestowed upon The Help her most passionate blessing.