DO NOW
Diagram this sentence: The intelligent boy ran really quickly.
LEARNING INTENTION
- To explore the characters in The Help
- To begin to consider the theme of injustice
SUCCESS CRITERIA
- I have completed a character table that requires me to record my thoughts on how each of the main characters and how they impact on the life of the protagonist
- I have reflected on the informal and formal structures that affect justice in the world of the film
VOCAB
Protagonist – the main character in a text
Formal structures – the legal system
Informal structures – social rules/class system
TASK
The Help takes place in Jackson, Mississippi, during the 1960s. This time of great turmoil and
change is important to the history of the United States. While The Help is a fictional story, it is
set in a real time and place, dealing with real events that occurred in the United States.
One of the real life events rooted in The Help is the death of Medgar Evers. Evers was a
prominent figure in the Civil Rights Movement in Jackson, Mississippi. His death is the impetus in
the film for Aibileen and Minny to help Skeeter collect the stories of all the women who
contributed to the book, The Help.
Although changing people’s beliefs about why people should all be treated equally is a
very big and challenging topic that can’t be solved in a day, a lot of it begins with
understanding. We can’t begin to understand other people unless we open up dialogue
with others about our differences. As we learn more and more about people who are
different than us, we can begin to realize that differences should be embraced for what
they add to the fabric of our communities instead of being feared.
“Change begins with a whisper.” As we see in The Help, change does indeed begin with a whisper. We saw Aibileen, Minny and Skeeter band together, share stories and give a voice to a subject important to them.
Much of The Help takes place in the kitchen. Ailbileen, Minny and Skeeter sit around Ailbileen’s
kitchen table while they share the stories that contributed to the book. Celia Foote and Minny
bond in the kitchen over recipes that Minny knew by heart and passed along to Celia to help her
overcome her disastrous ways in the kitchen. Minny is a wonderful cook and introduces Celia to
some amazing food. Before that, Celia only really knew how to make Corn Pone. What is Corn
Pone and how does it help define Celia’s background? Hilly and the other women in the Junior
League are all fairly wealthy and college-educated women. Celia Rae Foote is from Sugar Ditch, a
very poor area of Mississippi, and is not received well by the other women.
Q. In this film, both unjust formal legal systems and unjust informal social systems and structures are
presented. Where do you see evidence of such systems and structures in the film? Why is it
necessary to change both informal and formal structures to achieve justice? Do such systems
reinforce each other? Is it harder to bring about change in legal systems or in social systems?
Do we still have informal systems that support racism even though laws have changed?