The Help came on screens in 2011 directed by Tate Taylor after the novel by Kathryn Stockett that was written under the same name in 2009. The Help is devoted to the relations of African-American maids with their employers. The main characters are: two maids Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson that are having different fates; the third character is Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, who has recently graduated from university and has a fresh look at the events happening, and the last one is Hilly Holbrook, the biggest racist in town. According to the plot, Skeeter returns home and finds out that the maid Constantine the one who raised her, left. As a result, she decides to write a book about the life that African-Americans are leading in Jackson. Her story is intertwined with the stories of Aibileen and Minny, who agreed to tell her about their real lives not being afraid of the consequences and with some other characters. The money gained from the book were split between 13 maids who told their stories. The book became very popular, and finally Skeeter gets the job of her dream. In the end, Aibileen gets fired since Hilly forces her employer to do so; we see the same city, where the changes are only starting to happen.
In the flow of the movie, we can see that African-Americans do not have any rights at all. Some of the employers like Hilly treat their maids very unfair. A great example is the story with toilets: Hilly was among those afraid of getting infection and untreatable illness from a maid, and spread a thought that African-American maids must go to a different toilet, situated outside. One day was a terrible tornado, 18 people died (as informed later), but Hilly was so cruel that didn’t even allow her servant Minnie to use the home one. Therefore, the working conditions are completely awful and unbearable. Another example of the above-mentioned working conditions can be seen on the situation of Yule May, who was working as Hilly’s maid after Minny got fired. She lacked money to send both of her boys to school and asked her employee for help. Obviously, the reply was negative, cold and contemptuous. The episode showed her true self and discovered real conditions of maids’ work at her house. In my opinion, Hilly’s behavior was totally inhumane and cannot be forgiven.
I would like to say that the idea of the movie is to show that all people are equal regardless of their skin color. Moreover, not all the white people presented are bad or selfish characters: Skeeter, her mother, Celia and Johnny behave not according to the rules of the society but of humanness. Celia doesn’t care about the negative feedback that was given by Hilly, opens her heart to Minny and treats her as equal, more experienced and wise woman. Here we can see that the working conditions for Minny have totally different level and she gives her all to help Celia. For instance, in the episode when Minny realizing that Celia really needs her help in cooking, agrees to help her and does all possible to teach her properly and finally she succeeds. They treat one another as equals and that is a wonderful example of good working conditions.
It was hard to see how innocent people were mistreated, punished for that, the working conditions that they were supposed to bear with. A story of Constantine is difficult to hear out calmly. It is an example where Skeeter’s mother didn’t have courage to go against the commonly accepted rules and do what was really needed to be done – protect her loyal servant in front of the others. The whole movie is full of similar stories, all of then unfair and sometimes even cruel. The director showed that after the book was published, the ice between white and colored people cracked, but still a lot of time had to pass till the total change of conscience. It was just a start, a first step, and in my opinion, it has a great value and should be always remembered.
As a conclusion, I would like to point out the necessity of being humane and treating people equally. Work is usually a place, where people spend a lot of their time and very often, I regret to say that, their efforts do not get any feedback. I believe that respect and understanding play an important role and cannot be omitted if you want a person to be loyal. The movie gave me a lesson to be tolerable to those of different skin tone, opinion, worldview or age and respect the working conditions of others.
The Social Network
The Social Network is one of the most popular American movies, directed by David Fincher in 2010. The plot of the movie was partially taken from the book about accidental billionaires written by Ben Mezrich in 2009. The main hero is Mark Zuckerberg studying in Harvard; the important role is of Eduardo Saverin (the best friend of the main character and also a co-founder of the social network). According to the plot, the main character is dumped by his girlfriend, and he writes about it in his blog. He creates a campus website called Facemash where the photos of different girls can be rated. The website becomes popular at once and crashes the network. This is the reason why Twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss get interested in Mark and offer him creating a new website for Harvard students. The protagonist gets an idea of creating Thefacebook as an exceptional network. The events unfold very quickly and very soon Sean Parker (the creator of Napster – famous music services) and influences in a negative way on the future cooperation of friends on Facebook. It is important to mention that all the events happen as flashbacks since Mark and the other characters connected to the creating of Thefacebook are being interviewed in court multiple times. In the end, Facebook becomes extremely popular, and all the contributors or even non-contributors are willing to take advantage out of it.
At the very beginning of the film, Mark is working at the campus room and is ruled only by his anger at his former girlfriend. The working conditions are rather simple – he has access to the Internet, networks of different campuses and has the possibility to reach his goals. He creates the website simultaneously, taking the idea from brothers Winklevoss. It is worth mentioning that the main hero was working at the website being pressured from different sides: for example, starting the idea of the website, Mark is having financial problems and is forced to take money from his best friend for the realization of the project. In my opinion, another striking example of the pressure can be seen when twins Winklevoss are trying to reach Mark and make him create a website for Harvard students. Finally, they realize that Mark simply took their idea and are willing to get compensation that is totally logical and expected.
With the flow of the film, it is visible that the working conditions are constantly changing and become more and more complicated. This was influenced by the increasing worthiness and popularity of the Facebook. I would like to say that the appearance of Sean Parker gave a new twist to the story, since he tried to use Mark in his only interests. It is worth to emphasize of the fact that the working conditions for Mark got more difficult because of constant parties held by Sean. A great example of such decrease of comfort in working conditions can be seen in episode when Eduardo was doing all his best for the new project whereas Sean was constantly tempting Mark to get into parties and distracting him from work. Here we can see complications for both characters: Mark didn’t have the possibility to do what he really wanted whereas Eduardo did really a lot but his attempts were not favored, that decreased his willing to proceed working at the project.
In the end, we can see that every “victim” of Mark received some financial compensation, but frankly speaking, all of them made mistakes and were to blame for them. Mark lost his best friend as a result of his doings. In my opinion, Eduardo was doing his best for the Facebook, but his intentions were misunderstood that influenced his attitude and actions. As for the working conditions, they become more morally difficult for him since his best friend chose to deal with some stranger rather than with him.
Therefore, I would like to make a conclusion about the importance friendship and trust between people. In the end of the movie, it is clearly seen that Mark doesn’t care about anything but his ex-girlfriend. Therefore, a lesson should be taken out of it – no good relations can go out of money and money won’t help to return a person hurt by you. Also, special attention should be given to doing business with friends since as soon as money come between you, the friendship is over.
