Sociological Analysis Of The Help

971 Words4 Pages
We will be discussing and analyzing how the film, “The Help”, pertains to sociology. Out of the 3 main theories, conflict theory is the best fitted. Conflict theory has a major role in this film, because it portrays how African-American women were treated unequally based on their race and ethnicity. The 3 basic elements of the conflict perspective which are related and found on the film, are polarization, exploitation, and manipulation. In the film, we could perceive how the dominant group, the white rich community, would belittle the minority group,because of their dark skin and social status. The African-American women worked as maids in white house holdings, and suffered from racism and exclusion. Throughout the film we observed how the…show more content…
However, in the small town of Jacksonville the Jim Crow laws are highly implemented, making the African Americans maids doubt whether they should share their experiences and make them into a book. Aibileen, is a black woman that works for the Leefolts, she mourns upon the death of her only son, and is one of the major influences in Skeeter’s book. Minny, another black character, gets herself fired because she disobeyed Hilly’s orders regarding her rules on using the inside restroom, this causes Minny’s contribution in Skeeter’s book. To get the book pulished, Skeeter needed more than 2 maids, which was going to be difficult because African Americans were not suppose to speak up, and everybody feared for their life. One day, Aibileen’s house was filled with maids, and each had a different story to tell, which made Skeeter’s book complete. Hilly still isn't satisfied, though, and proves to Elizabeth that Aibileen is the author of a chapter of Help. Hilly tries to frame Aibileen for stealing silver, but Elizabeth doesn't go along with her plan. She does fire Aibileen, though. After a tearful good-bye,Aibileen discovers she's about to start a new life, one in which she plans to spend…show more content…
In this particular scene, it could be observe how the race of an individual will determine their social status within society. For instance, Minny, an African American woman from Mississippi works as a maid for the house hold of Ms. Hilly Holbrook, a white influential woman. There is also discrimination, because Hilly stereotypes and strongly believes that African American carry different diseases, and to prevent this, she makes a second bathroom outside for Minny use only, giving the scene a sense of individual inequality. However, due to a hurricane that was hitting the small town of Jacksonville, Minny was not able to use her own restroom she had outside, so she politely asked if she could use the restroom inside the house. Hilly immediately refused Minny’s request and told her to go to her designated restroom, this is clearly a method of authority overuse from Hilly. After Hilly denied her request, Minny decided to disobey and rebel against Hilly, making her way to the inside restroom ignoring Hilly’s protests. Due to this, and Hilly being the person that she is, she fires Minny, she commits an injustice towards

More about Sociological Analysis Of The Help

Open Document