Before I take my stand on the circumstance depicted in the movie, I would like to give everyone a clue of what the movie actually had. This is a story of late 1940s when America started to expand at a lightning pace. We can compare that era with the current Indian scenario of development. The people were earning a handsome amount with high disposable income. But, as there are always a dark face beneath the brighter one, the racism also reached the peak in the tenure of the American President John F. Kennedy. The culture which was pretty popular in that era was of black helps(maids) assisting the white affluent families. Their work included all the chores along with the added work of baby sitting. We can call it the case of modern day maids combined with the babysitters in a single package. The treatment which the whites provided them can obviously be understood by us as we are having enough experiences of discrimination form the fieldwork! Even in the present world the situation of Apartheid exists in America. The only difference we can notice is that the situation has improved a bit.
The story takes a 90 degrees turn when an American white female wants to publish the perspectives of the Helps in a newspaper to get the required ovation and a job in the hot shot corporate editorial clubs of flying city New York. As it was difficult to get a Help interviewed with her own will (especially to speak against the Whites) and tell her true story, she first tried to interview a Help by force. The Help also responded to her as if she was ordered by her boss to answer the questions to this interviewer. These two conducted few sittings at the Help's house and soon became good friends. Help starts narrating her part of the story. American interviewee than asked the Help to get some more friends of her so that she can form a document which is more credible. Her request was obviously denied as no one wanted to go against their own WHITE bosses! Importantly, in the outer world, the atrocities against these helps also became more rampant. After some days the Helps decided to meet this American lady and tell their part of the stories. No wonder , in just a single night the entire book of 262 pages was ready to be published. To know what happened next, just click on
Kathryn Stockett, Author of The Help.
Many elements of collective Action are highlighted in this movie. Being a student of CAC, I would like to mention
some of them. According to me the people came together because:
- They wanted to change the status quo.
- They wanted to live a happy life.
- They wanted equal representation.
- They realized a way by which they could use their weapon(weapon of the weaks!)
- They wanted to change the existing power structure.
3 comments:
This is surely a collective action led movement.Here the helps uses their weapons i.e the weapons of the weak ,to come forword for an open confrontation for their much surpresed rights and freedom.their small acts of resistances in the forms of showing courage to come forword and speak about their conditions, their anger and above all what they want, surely stirred the sense of justice and a renewed sense of their own humanity which was lying stagnant and unquestioned by them for so many years.
These small acts of courage eventually inspire their community at large to gain courage and come forward to join the movement.It shows how non-violent resistance or the strength of the universal desire for freedom can erode unjustice of any form . It could be seen in the movie that initially there were everyday resistance from the helps in the form of outspokenness.This form of passive resistance was nearly unbeatable but it was only after the open defiance, in the form of coming forword to express their feeling through interviews,they got their voice heard.
SOHINI MAHAPATRA(32041)
The Help – A moving story of people’s fight for self-dignity. It is an example of how pain can ignite a collective response. Abilene, the protagonist Help was reluctant to share her feelings about being a Help, and so were the rest as this was their only livelihood option. Challenging the Whites would mean collectively being boycotted by them. As the atrocities against the Helps reached the zenith, the Helps decide to vent their feelings and thus, collectively the book was completed. Though the Whites formed a “collective” for “process benefits”, the Helps did it for sheer need and support.
Sameera Mushini
P32038
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