The Help African American Maids

Sugarcoated Supremacy and Black Maids The Help creates this idea that everyone accepted living with segregation and the movie only showed a hint of the agony that people lived in. This softly written movie displays the lives of maids living in Jackson, Mississippi. This movie sweetly informed the audience of mistreatment of these maids, although, it lacks the heart wrenching brutality. The Help misleads the audience. The Help doesn’t display the heart wrenching tears when Aibleen’s son died or when Skeeter loses her mother figure, Constantine she had growing up, due to her blood related mother caring more about her social status. The Help displays these moments, but Tate Taylor sweetened it to the point where the audience doesn’t feel the need to make a difference. Manohla Dargis an author from the New York Times agrees that The Help “doesn’t rattle the china or the soul”. Overall, The movie The Help sugarcoats the lives of African American maids working in predominately white homes during the nineteen sixties.
Skeeter, a small town girl has New York City dreams. When she returns from college Skeeter begins working as Miss Merna the cleaning article for the local town paper in Jackson, Mississippi. As she begins asking the local African American maids for advice on cleaning she begins to notice the treatment and working conditions of the maids. She decides to dig deeper into the issue and begins interviewing the maids and asks for their stories. Minny worked for Hilly Holbrook and Aibleen worked for Elizabeth Leefolt. Aibleen cares for Elizabeth’s daughter Mae Mobley. Aibleen teaches Mae …show more content…
The domestic workers could not use the restroom inside the home. Although, employers rarely did provide restrooms outside for their crew, while other domestic workers did their business in the bushes. A few lucky workers used pots to use the restroom and, these “night pots” got cleaned after every