Compare And Contrast The Help

It’s not often that a movie is successfully adapted from a novel. In the 2011 film “The Help”, director Tate Taylor managed to do just that. “The Help” has an upbeat feel, which is a refreshing change from other films about this period. The film takes us back to 1960’s Mississippi-during the Jim Crow-era-following the life of an aspiring author that is trying to deviate from the social norms of Southern white women. Skeeter who is played by Emma Stone, returns from college to discover that her beloved maid was no longer with her family. This causes Skeeter to explore the lives of African-American maids that often raise and nurture white children that grow up to have maids themselves. Skeeter gains the trust of her friend’s maid Aibileen Clark played by Viola Davis. …show more content…
Eventually, Aibileen recruits Minny Jackson played by Octavia Spencer. Minny is vivacious and bold, characteristics that many maids did not possess during this time. Overtime, the ladies gather the experiences of a dozen maids giving them the green light for a book to be published. The accounts that the women share vary dramatically; some share stories of being treated well by their employers, while others share sad stories and horrible instances that are all too familiar of that era. The book is released and takes the community by storm. Word spread fast that the book was based on the maids of Jackson, Mississippi. The movie illustrates how the civil rights movement was slowly shifting southern society, giving African-Americans a voice they never had and the courage to demand better