Cree Dueker

Professor Carter
BST 426U
15 January 2015
The Help Film Analysis
Scene:
In the scene that follows the well deserved feel good moments of Minnys shit pie being eaten by
her old employer Hilly it cuts to Minny and Aibileen talking on the phone with one another. Minny insists
to Aibileen that Hilly got what she deserved while also stating that she doesnt think that she will be able
to find work again after what she has done and thinks that her husband Leroy is going to kill her once he
finds out what happened. Aibileen then listens on the other end of the call as Minny yells and screams
while being beaten by her husband. Aibileen cries out to her but she cant seem to bear listening and
hangs up the phone. She then sees Skeeters phone number taped to her wall and picks up the phone once
more beginning to dial her number.

Quote:
The KKK assisted employers in securing the upper hand in conflicts with wage household
workers. They have some quarrel, and sometimes probably the colored woman gives the lady a little
jaw. In a night or two a crowd will come in and take her out and whip her. The Klan stripped and beat
African Americans with sticks, straps, or pistol barrels when all else failed to elicit their compliance
(Hunter, 32).

Analysis:
The quote presented from To Joy my Freedom: Southern Black Womens Lives and Labors After
the Civil War by Tera Hunter depicts an entirely invisible and arguably most present danger to the lives of
black women during this time in the South, that danger being white men. The scene depicted in the Help

informs the viewer that the most violent force in Minnys life is her husband Leroy who beats her after
losing her job. While Leroy is in fact a dangerous person in Minnys life having his character be the sole
depiction of a black husband, father, and man in the lives of the help gives the viewer the false sense
that Minny is not at risk of encountering physical violence elsewhere. In fact at the time this movie is set
in and described by Hunters quote black women ultimately were at risk of violence from any sort of
conflict with their employers, if they were to get mouthy with their white employer they could face
serious repercussions usually in the form of physical violence being enacted on them by white men
belonging to the KKK and looking to keep them in line and subservient however necessary. Depicting the
only physical threat of violence or enacted violence against these women to be black men completely
ignores the real violence that these women faced from white men.
This omnipresent threat of physical violence is a far cry from what the film is depicting when
after feeding Hilly a shit pie Minny fears her husband and not a retaliation from her white employers. The
only time we see Minnys fear of white male violence is when she is approached by Celias husband and
her fear is turned to a joke when the viewer is allowed to laugh at her fear when it turns out the threat is
completely benign. The Help lulls the viewer into believing that white women and men were not a violent
threat to their maids and frames the violence that they face as being domestic. The film presents a view of
these womens lives that frame their employers as annoying and hateful but overall harmless and informs
that the real violence is within their own homes. Although this scene proves to be the turning point for
Aibileen in calling Skeeter to speak out about her experiences as domestic workers it does not confront
the fallacies in where Minnys fear lied.

Works Cited
The Help. Dir. Tate Taylor. Perf. Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Emma Stone. Walt Disney
Pictures, 2011. DVD.

Hunter, Tera W. To 'joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women's Lives and Labors after the Civil
War. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1997. Print.