With the Help of Ralph Waldo Emerson When you think of an African-American female maid from the 1960s you probably do not think much about her. She might be passive, small-minded, unintelligent, nothing of a person whose job and only purpose in life is to serve the white family she has been put in charge of until the next one comes along. The character Aibileen Clark from the Oscar award winning film, The Help, is anything but that. She showed the people of the world the world is against you does not mean your voice does not matter. Philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson thought and wrote about the same concept in his essay, “Self-Reliance”. The character Aibileen Clark, from the film The Help, shows characteristics of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s
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Specifically, the maids that raised the white woman's children but were stilled seen as disease ridden people that are supposed to be treated as less important. Aibileen, one of the maids, saw this and decided to help support the writing of a book to voice their perspective. In “Self-Reliance” Emerson defines being a genius as: “To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart, is true for all men-that is genius”(Emerson 113). By this definition of genius, speaking your mind and having other people agree with you, Aibileen is a genius.When Aibileen helped write the novel The Help she shared what she thought was the truth and what she thought others needed to hear. During one of their church services the local pastor gave her the acknowledgment of people agreeing with her by saying: “‘Now, this is an important time in our community. And we have to thank you for what you have done...Now, we know you couldn’t put your name in here, so we all signed our own.’ He gives the book to Aibileen. She hesitates”(The Help). The entire community rallies behind what she said in the book and agrees with the point she is trying to make by her
Specifically, the maids that raised the white woman's children but were stilled seen as disease ridden people that are supposed to be treated as less important. Aibileen, one of the maids, saw this and decided to help support the writing of a book to voice their perspective. In “Self-Reliance” Emerson defines being a genius as: “To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart, is true for all men-that is genius”(Emerson 113). By this definition of genius, speaking your mind and having other people agree with you, Aibileen is a genius.When Aibileen helped write the novel The Help she shared what she thought was the truth and what she thought others needed to hear. During one of their church services the local pastor gave her the acknowledgment of people agreeing with her by saying: “‘Now, this is an important time in our community. And we have to thank you for what you have done...Now, we know you couldn’t put your name in here, so we all signed our own.’ He gives the book to Aibileen. She hesitates”(The Help). The entire community rallies behind what she said in the book and agrees with the point she is trying to make by her