Psychological Themes Portrayed In The Help

In this paper I will be pulling out and explaining three main psychological themes portrayed in the movie “The Help”. The three themes that I thought to be most important in the movie would have to be discrimination, gender differences, and depression. I will be explaining how these three roles play out throughout the whole movie from the perspective of white people. I will also be explaining the perspective of colored people living in the south in the sixties. These themes will reveal the harsh treatment of colored people and how most white people were blinded about the things that were going on in their society.

First, I will be explaining how discrimination was portrayed in the movie “The Help”. Discrimination occurred throughout the

whole movie but I believe the main example that demonstrated discrimination was how the colored maids were treated by the white women.. In the south, in the sixties discrimination towards colored people was not only a way of life but it was the law. Jim Crow laws promoted discrimination and hatred towards colored people and it created segregation. Colored people were not allowed to use the same rest rooms, eat in the same restaurants,or sit in the same seats they had a separate almost everything. Many whites believed colored people were nasty and disease-carriers. It was very hard for a colored person to attain a high level high paying job in the south so most had to get low level “blue collar” jobs. Most colored women would become maids and if they really needed the money some young girls would have to drop out of school and work as a maid. These maids would work for these white families raising and caring for their children, cooking their food, and cleaning their houses. Which in my book is very ironic because if the really believed they carried diseases why would they let their children be raised by them. In my opinion the society back then was just trying to justify their hatred but in all reality was just showing their ignorance.

Secondly, I will describe how gender differences were portrayed in the movie “The Help”. Gender differences could also be another form of discrimination. White women in the South in the sixties were only valued for their ability to produce children and to get married. It was seen very un lady like and abnormal for a girl to attend college and have a career. Males were to be the “breadwinner” of the household. Also many women's opinions were not valued and they were expected to be quiet and let the men lead. In this movie gender differences were demonstrated when Skeeter the main character of the movie challenged the norm of her gender role when she attended college and after wanted to pursue a career in journalism. Skeeter started writing a for a house cleaning column but, she wanted to write about something better. She got an opportunity to write an article about stories from the colored maids perspectives she then wrote book about it and revealed the harsh treatments to colored people.

Last, I will describe how the psychological theme depression is demonstrated in the movie. There are many examples of depression in this movie a few examples of depression from the maids and skeeter would have to be when Abaline mourned the loss of her son, when Constantine got fired, when Minny got beat by her husband , and when Skeeter found out Constantine got fired by her mother. The overall example of depression would have to be the poor treatment of colored people. They must’ve lived in a lifelong sense of depression due to the immense amount of hatred and discrimination towards them.

In conclusion I believe that those three themes were most important to this movie. All of them showed the harsh treatment that colored people had to face every single day. This movie really showed the awful reality and the ignorance of people back then. Luckily society has changed for the better, jim-crow laws became illegal and acceptance of colored people became normal. Even though we still may face different kinds or racism today everyone has an equal opportunity in life.