Introduction
The Help is a film adaptation of a book that of the same name by Kathryn Stockett that was released in 2011. The movie is based on the 1960’s, during the civil rights movement when blacks were fighting for their rights in the American society. The story of the movie involves the efforts of a independent free thinking young woman, Phelan, who through literary means works to fight for the rights of the black maids who have been mistreated by the families they work for. Through writing stories of real life experiences provided by black maids in a book, she seeks to expose the mistreatment that these women suffer in the hands of their bosses. The effort meets a lot of opposition from several quarters in the community, and the ladies have to fight them off despite the odds being stacked against them. It is a show of the good results that resilience and concerted effort towards can achieve. Through this effort, secrets that have been kept under the wraps come to the light, and at the end of the effort, the society on which the movie is based is changed for the better, with more rights to the working class maids and the whites bring to an end the stereotypes that they have regarding the blacks.
Analysis of events
In the movies The Help there is a scene that the black helps are instructed to use separate toilets from their employers. The reason that is given for this discriminatory move is that the blacks suffer from diseases that the white people do not and thus the need for this separation. This stereotype is prevalent in the whit community on which the movie is based. This incident indicates the denial of rights to the black maids by their employers based on the stereotypes. It is the role of the government to ensure that equality is maintained to all its citizens. This scenario indicates a lapse of this duty by the government, since in this society those in authority do not take any measures to see to it that the discrimination comes to an end. It is the role of the government to ensure that the rights of all citizens as envisioned in the constitution are protected, and in this incident in the movie, the government fails to carry out its duty to the black citizens. Racism is a failure by the government to enforce the rules that are set out in the laws of the country. In this case, the government fails to enforce the protection of the fundamental rights of its citizens despite the knowledge of the existence of these injustices.
In another incident in the movie, Minny, a help and one of the main characters in the film is fired by her employer because she cooperates with Phelan in telling of her relationship with her boss. Minny’s quest for employment is made hard by her former employer who makes false claims to the effect that she stole from her, and many potential employers are unwilling to hire her as their help because of this false rumour. The government has role to protect the interests of both parties in an employment. In this case, the summary dismissal of Minny from her job is indicative of a lapse in the functioning of government at that level. The fact that she could not seek redress for her termination and the malicious rumours spread about her due to the status quo imposed by the society indicates that the government may actually fail to assure the security and the rights of the citizens.
In the film The Help, many of the helps do not wish to participate in the efforts fronted by Phelan to tell of their relationships with their employers due to the fear that they may open themselves to abuse from their employers if they are found out. The implication in this is that these helps were constantly abused by their employers, both physically and emotionally. This kind of abuse was against the law, yet no measures were taken to rectify the situation. This is despite it the authorities being aware of the situation. It is the role of the government to ensure that the rights of all individuals are protected, and this incident is indicative of a failure of its system to carry out its mandate successfully.
Security is another role of the government that is shown to fail in the film The Help. In the film, the security of the black helps in the society is not guaranteed, and they are open to attacks by those that consider their actions to be against what they believe is the status quo. Security is a major role of the government, and in this film, it seems only a section of the population was under the protection of the government. In this film, the whites are protected against the possible perceived aggression of the blacks yet the blacks are not protected against the abuse by the whites. This is a portrayal of a failure of the government in providing security. Another insecurity episode occurs at the assassination of a popular civil rights activist in the movie.
The movie has a negative view of the government. It portrays the government as inadequate and discriminatory. The fact that the helps cannot get justice in the society that they work in indicates that the government was not interested in protecting the well being of the citizens. An incident which illustrates this is the inability of Minny to seek legal redress for the abuse that her employer takes her through, her being fired due to a discriminatory policy and the libel that is labelled against her by her former employer in the form of false accusations. An ordinary government would have provided mechanisms under which all individuals would be able to seek for justice and ensure that the process of serving justice is available to all.
The government of the time seems to be blind to the discrimination against the blacks that occurs in the film. Racism seems to have the full support of the government since acts of racism go without any notice or action from the government. In the case of the movie, it would be expected that the local government authority in the area would take a notice of the ills that the black helps were being subjected to. The government also fails in its provision for security to all citizens. This indicates that the plot of the movie was intended to show the government in a very bad light, and it successfully does so.
References
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Goodin, R. E. and Klingemann, Hans-Dieter. A New Handbook of Political Science. New York: New York University Press. 1996.
Tausch, A. and Prager, F. Towards a Socio-Liberal Theory of World Development. Basingstoke: Macmillan: New York, NY. 1993.
