How Does Tate Taylor Create Sympathy For The Maids In The Movie The Help

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The film, The Help directed by Tate Taylor set in 1960’s Jackson, Mississippi, tells the story of Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson, two black housemaids who are struggling with racial discrimination from the society they live in. Together they were able to object to the rules of society by anonymously writing a book with stories about the challenges that housemaids have to face, with the help of Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan. After watching the movie I felt sympathy for the maids and disgust towards the people that employed them. The challenges that these characters faced reminded me of the society that Vincent Anton faced from “Gattaca”. The Help made me realise that it is unfair and unjust to judge people by the colour of their skin and treat them as inferior. Every individual …show more content…

Minny is the maid for a white woman, Hilly and her mother. Hilly enforces a rule where Minny can only use The Help bathroom outside. In the middle of a rainstorm, Hilly demands that she uses the bathroom outside, when it is clear that it is too dangerous. When Mrs. Walters says “I believe she was working for me before you dragged us here… Daddy ruined you.” We see that Mrs. Walters has liking for Minnie, most likely because she rebels against Hilly, her daughter who she dislikes. This is a very important part of the story because the abuse faced by Hilly inspired Minny to tell her story of being a maid to Skeeter We feel sympathy for Aibileen Clark when she says “Mae Mobly was my last baby. In ten minutes the only life I knew was done.” In this scene Aibileen has just been fired because she is accused of helping Skeeter write the book. From this scene we see that Elizabeth values her friend Hilly’s happiness over her own daughter’s. Mae loved Aibileen and saw her more as a mother then Elizabeth. We feel that Mae must be feeling betrayed and this may affect her relationship with her mother in the

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