The Help

Last week, The Help finally made it to UK theatres. The story centres around a young aspiring journalist nicknamed Skeeter (Emma Stone) in Jackson, Mississippi. Set in the 1960’s, the film, based on Kathryn Stockett’s novel, deals with the racial segregation of southern America.

Returning to Mississippi after college, Skeeter decides to embark on a secretive plan to publish a book expressing the unjust experiences of the maids of Jackson society.

The maids’ experiences are heartbreaking. Looking after White babies until they grow up is part of their main job and so they become a bit like part of the family over the years. However, their treatment is obviously not as an equal family member as for instance, Black maids are forced to use separate toilets. The racial issues dealt with in the film allow viewers an insight into what it was truly like during the 1960s.

The film is a seamless fictional piece stemmed from historical fact. Racial segregation lasted in America up until 1968, when the Supreme Court finally outlawed it completely. In the film, there are many references to the separation of races which was extremely prominent in the South, such as the sign reading ‘Colored entrance’, yet it doesn’t fully encompass the horror of Jim Crow Laws.

When going to see The Help, you must remember that this is a fictional story which definitely doesn’t cover the segregation issue from every possible aspect, as is to be expected in a non-documentary film. It doesn’t speak about male segregation, focusing extensively on the female side. In fact, there are barely any males seen in the film at all.

The Help is also primarily character driven instead of diving into the politics during this era, and centres only on a few personal experiences. The friendships developed throughout are pure and inspiring. Keeping in mind the story is fictional, the film on a whole is an unexpected tasty little surprise.

Oksana Trofimenko