I know the conversation about the film version of The Help has been going for a while, but since I just finished the book last week and just saw the movie on Saturday, I’d like to enter the fray.
A lot of people have suggested that the story of The Help is fundamentally troubling: In both the film and the novel, a white woman in 1960s Mississippi compiles the stories of black maids into a book, empowering them all in a time of segregation. As many have noted, you’ve got yet another fictional property that puts white people at the center of the Civil Rights Movement (a la Mississippi Burning or Driving Miss Daisy.) You’ve got yet another white author telling a Civil Rights story and reaching millions of people, while stories by black writers that have black people in leading roles continue to be rarities.
I can understand that frustration, and when I read Kathryn Stockett’s novel, I definitely encountered “white people are awesome!” moments, like when Skeeter Phelan (the writer) got to righteously disapprove of the prejudices of her well-heeled Southern friends. However, the book also features many scenes where white people—Skeeter included—arecasually racist without realizing it, which reminds the reader that every white person, no matter how decent, was culpable in the segregated South.
Plus, the black characters are written with equal dimension, equal amounts of good and bad traits. And since two-thirds of the novel is narrated by Aibileen (a maid with a gift for writing) and her brassy friend Minnie, black voices actually dominate the storytelling. So while I was always aware that a white woman was telling me a Civil Rights story, I was also drawn into a rich and interesting narrative that did a pretty good job of balancing its perspectives and intentions. Yes, characters like Hilly (the “evil white lady”) are over-sized caricatures, and yes, there’s plenty of treacly, preach sentiment, but not every popular novel can be written by Faulkner. Ultimately, the book strikes me as the story of two black women and one white woman who are equally important. It’s not a masterpiece, but I’m glad to know it.
I can’t say the same for the movie, which was written and directed by Stockett’s friend Tate Taylor. Though it tells roughly the same story as the novel, it makes several small changes that seriously upend the racial balance. Much more than the novel, the movie is a story about white people being awesome and noble.
I’m not saying the movie is malicious or racist. It’s trying really hard not to be. But some of the changes make the story much more palatable to white folks.
Here are three of the differences between the book and the film that seriously alter the message of The Help:
[MANY SPOILERS AHEAD]
(1) In the movie, we never learn why Aibileen “raised” so many children.
Early in the film, Aibileen (Viola Davis) tells us in voiceover that she has “raised” seventeen children, meaning the white children she cared for at various homes in Mississippi, and when she starts sharing her stories with Skeeter, she recalls the very first child she ever raised. It used to bother him that she was black and he was white, Aibileen recalls, so she told him that she drank too much coffee. Aibileen and Skeeter laugh at that joke and share a happy glance. End of scene.
This plays as a bonding the two characters and also casts a warm glow over the memory of the children that Aibilieen has raised. It implies that Aibileen’s “children” are just like Skeeter, who essentially avoided racism because she loved her maid Constantine so much.
But in the novel, we learn that Aibileen left all those babies because eventually, they learned to think black people were less human than white people. Eventually, they learned to be racists, and no amount of Aibileen’s love could stop it from happening. She left to avoid that heartbreak.
If it were in the movie, this revelation would put a damper on the “I drink too much coffee story. It would remind us that racism is an enormous institution that poisons almost everyone. It would also underscore the dubiousness of Skeeter’s flawless love for Constantine. But since we don’t know why Aibileen has raised so many white babies, the movie invites us to think that she’s had wonderful relationships with all of them… that somehow, a maid can exempt children from racism. (Obviously, that doesn’t make sense, since white babies grow up to be white bosses.)
(2) In the movie, Celia Foote learns to cook.
One of the last scenes of the movie features Celia Foote, the town outcast, preparing a big meal for Minnie, who’s been cleaning Celia’s house and trying (unsuccessfully) to teach her to cook for months. As Minnie sits before the giant spread that’s been whipped up just for her, Celia and her husband say she can always work for them. The moment plays like a big reward, like Minnie’s prize for life is getting to work for this white family. A voiceover even tells us that this meal somehow empowers Minnie to leave her abusive husband. Um… thanks, white people?
Things are very different in the book. For one thing, when Minnie is promised a permanent job with the Footes, it’s a guarantee that they won’t let Hilly convince them to fire her. (Hilly has kept Minnie out of work several times.) Celia hates Hilly, too, so there’s a certain “you and me against the enemy” dignity to this promise, and Minnie makes it clear how relieved she is to have a job. It’s not that she especially wants to work for this family… it’s that she wants to work. And yes, she leaves her abusive husband because of the promise of work, but also because she’ll be earning royalties from the book.
What’s more, the Footes still need Minnie. Celia never learns to cook, never learns to clean… never gets her act together at all. She’s not just beneficently bestowing grace upon Minnie. She’s getting something out of it, too. The novel leaves you room to consider how unfortunate it was that black people had to rely on the whims of white people for their livelihood, but also that white people allowed themselves to become helpless as they relied on black labor to create their homes. (This dynamic still exists, I think, in a lot of homes with full-time servants/nannies/etc.) That’s much more complex than, “Elegant white lady makes delicious food for her own damn self, but hires the black lady out of the goodness of her heart.”
(3) In the movie, Constantine’s daughter doesn’t pass for white
In the movie, Skeeter’s mother, Charlotte Phelan, fires Constantine after Constantine’s daughter Rachel publicly embarrasses Charlotte during a DAR meeting. (Follow all that?) Rachel storms into the Phelan home through the front door and refuses to leave until she sees her mother. This horrifies the DAR ladies, as does Constantine’s advanced age, trembling hands, and slow service.
In other words, Rachel “forgets her place” and Constantine can’t do her work in front of White Society. Even though Skeeter’s mother loves Rachel and loves Constantine, she fires Constantine to save face. This makes Charlotte an essentially decent woman who is just too cowardly to stand up to her friends.
In the book, Mama Phelan is not so sympathetic.
For one thing, she doesn’t even know Rachel exists. Constantine was raped by a former white boss and sent Rachel off before she came to work for the Phelans. Because of her mixed race, Rachel can pass for white, so when she shows up at the DAR meeting, everyone thinks she belongs there. Charlotte discovers what’s happening just as Rachel is applying for membership in the DAR… just as she’s trying to enter white society.
This is the “crime” that makes Charlotte furious and that makes her kick Constantine to the curb. What’s more, unlike in the film, she never regrets her actions. She is mortally offended by the idea that a black woman would try to saunter into white society.
That’s much thornier than a white lady timidly dismissing a maid she loves. It complicates our relationship to Charlotte—who also has good qualities—and highlights both the porous distinctions between races and the sexual horror that white men often enacted on black women. In the movie, we get to love Charlotte (Allison Janney) and forgive her weakness, and we get to enjoy the easy morality of a black woman refusing to enter through the back door. In the book, we’re thrown into a quagmire that engages our hearts and minds much more powerfully.
28 responses so far ↓
1 Andrew K. // Aug 25, 2011 at 4:18 pm
I’m growing tired of defending The Help, and I don’t even love it that much. I haven’t read the book, and as I’ve said elsewhere I don’t really consider this a film about civil rights as much as a film about relationships between women. Your final point is excellent, though, because I feel that the Skeeter arc is problematic. Not because she’s white, but because the inclination to write the novel is stodgy.
If I remember correctly the first point you make was alluded to. And as for the second, I think the fact that Celia changes shows the importance of Minny. Their relationship is a significant portion of the movie’s success to me.
Still, your words are a good read either way.
2 Mark Blankenship // Aug 25, 2011 at 4:21 pm
Hey Andrew! As always, I love having you in the conversation! (I feel like I should actually know you by now).
I hear what you’re saying about Celia/Minnie in the movie. My perspective was probably altered because I finished reading the book two days before I saw the movie. It was really hard for me to accept new elements in the story, since the novel was so fresh in my mind.
3 Jenn Hoey // Aug 25, 2011 at 4:45 pm
The movie had the emotion, but it was definitely cleaned up. I regret that the scene where we see Mae Mobley playing master/slave at the end was taken out of the movie. Leaving that it would have made it VERY clear why “Ibee” left 17 of her babies.
4 Kitty // Aug 25, 2011 at 5:00 pm
I appreciate your comments Mark. First, I just want to say as a “black woman”, I’ve never understood the criticism that The Help (both book and film forms) has taken over being patronizing and all “white people can be awesome”. The Help has taken the same criticizing that The Blind Side had thrown at it which I didn’t think was fair either.
But I totally agree that there are several instances in the movie version of The Help where the white female characters come off smelling a lot rosier than in the book, and that I was disappointed because it marred my enjoyment of the film a little.
Regarding the 3 instances that you pointed out – I actually thought they did a decent job of showing why Aibileen left each of her families when she did. At one part doesn’t Skeeter say that she’s writing the book to tell the story of how these black women struggle with dealing with the children they “raised” growing up to be their racist bosses?
Anyway my two main problems with the movie were the betrayals of Celia and Charlotte.
Not only do they show Celia learning to cook and serving Minnie a meal(!) but they also totally gloss over her alcoholism and the real reason for her miscarriages. Jessica Chastain is a good enough actress that I think she would’ve been able to potray those dark characteristics and still bring enough to Celia that we felt compassion for her.
Same with Allison Janney; Charlotte Phelan was way too sympathetic in this film. Janney has the chops to bring a character like that to life without you hating her. I kind of get why they didn’t do the whole “Rachel passes” thing because quite frankly that kind of thing is hard to film realistically and most white audiences don’t understand how monumental the whole passing/paper-bag test thing was in that era. But I still felt cheated about the way they handled the Constantine story.
Good conversation starter. Thanks!
5 Matt // Aug 26, 2011 at 1:21 am
While the movie does seem a little pro-white, I disagree with your first point. I think it was in voice over or something but I distinctly remember Aibileen saying that the adorable loving children grow up to be just like their hateful parents, and that’s why she left. But I agree with the last one, I kind of thought that all of their reactions with Rachel’s arrival seemed a little over the top
6 Carrie Ann // Aug 26, 2011 at 10:51 am
Kitty, just a note about this:
“Not only do they show Celia learning to cook and serving Minnie a meal(!) but they also totally gloss over her alcoholism and the real reason for her miscarriages.”
Wasn’t Celia’s “alcoholism” actually a misunderstanding on Minnie’s part? Minnie found the boxes of bottles and thought that Celia was drinking like a fiend, but they were actually bottles of a “catch tonic” that was supposed to prevent her from miscarrying. So she was drinking a ton of that, and then resting all day, on a doctor’s recommendation. She did get publicly drunk that one time, but I thought that was a result of nerves because all the other women were ignoring her.
Mark – I think you bring up good points here. The book did a good job of staying on the right side of the fine line, and while the movie sort of strayed over it a few times, I still think it kept to the spirit of the book pretty well.
7 Terence // Aug 26, 2011 at 11:34 am
I love this article. I especially agree with the last point. The actions of both Rachel and Charlotte in the book would have made for a great scene in the movie because these women’s motivations were so complex. The passing aspect of the storyline would have been very difficult to visualize onscreen, but imagine the possibilities for the discussions we could have had!
Kity-Celia wasn’t an alcoholic. In the book, Minny thought she was, but she was taking a special tonic so that she could get pregnant.
Speaking of that miscarriage storyline, I thought it was so much more powerful in the book. Especially in the way it culminated in Minny being there when Celia told her husband about the miscarriages. That’s when you see how really complex the relationship between these characters were and that while, yes it’s Minny’s job, there was something more to the relationship. It’s very difficult to see someone else go through traumatic experiences and not develop something deeper than just a boss-worker relationship.
As far as Hilly, I believe Bryce Dallas Howard played that character as well as anyone could have. Yes it’s true she was really evil, but are we to believe that wasn’t the case in the 60s. Hell, I know women today who attempt to wield that sort of power Hilly had.
8 Kitty // Aug 26, 2011 at 1:39 pm
Thanks for the corrections about Celia’s “alcoholism”. I read the book ages ago, and clearly seem to have misremembered some parts.
One more comment – I think this movie was perfectly cast.
9 AndyLuvr // Aug 27, 2011 at 4:31 pm
Both the book and the movie had the potential to be great but they never quite got there. I too read the book shortly before seeing the movie and agree with the three of the major points you raise especially the last one. It irritates me to no end when Hollywood underestimates its audience’s intelligence. That Rachel passed for white is something that a moviegoer – especially a black audience member – would have understood as extremely verboten in the days before Loving v. Virginia was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. Even in 1929, when “Show Boat” first came out, folks knew that for Julie to pass as white was a very dangerous thing to do. To have Rachel act sassy be the cause of Constantine’s termination was a complete copout as was the unseemly and, frankly, cheap redemption of Eugenia’s mother. It was completely superfluous to turn that specific daughter of the Confederacy into someone with whom we should sympathize when she is quite a monster not only to black people but to her own daughter.
There were many other small moments that could’ve been better executed in the film and in the book too to be honest, but you’ve hit the Big 3. Again, the concept behind “The Help” is a good one especially because many Civil Rights stories told to a wide audience predominantly come from a male perspective. But perhaps had a white woman actually interviewed maids who worked in the South and then contrasted their experiences with maids who worked in the North rather than having the fictional Skeeter speaking with fictional maids whose spectrum of experience was not fully conveyed in both the book and the film would have elevated “The Help” to a higher level both as a piece of literary work and as a lens that provided deeper insight to the plight of the black woman during the Civil Rights Movement.
10 Stacey // Aug 28, 2011 at 9:16 pm
I just finished the book today and watched the movie following.. I felt that similar points were lacking in the movie but books by nature can fit much more detail simply because the reader makes the time for the book while the movie has to be restricted to it’s own time slot.
However, wasn’t Constantine’s daughter named Lulabelle and didn’t she spit in Charlotte’s face.. or did I read a completely different story than everyone else? (Towards the end of chapter 27)
11 Maggie // Aug 29, 2011 at 8:31 am
In your third point you wrote: “This makes Charlotte an essentially decent woman who is just too cowardly to stand up to her friends.”
The thing that bugged me about this movie is that they rely on this convention a LOT. The movie makes it seem like decent people everywhere were basically peer pressured into racist social conventions they weren’t totally comfortable with by a few bullies like Hilly and the DAR president. Celia comes across as some kind of aberration who didn’t get the memo because Hilly won’t talk to her.
The book does a much better job of showing how ingrained racist attitudes were in all of the characters. It’s presented as complicated. Some of the characters are sympathetic in spite of it, and some aren’t. The movie just picks a villain and lets her run wild.
12 Mark Blankenship // Aug 29, 2011 at 10:04 am
Hi Maggie — I completely agree with you. One of the things I liked about the book was that even Skeeter, despite her best intentions, kept making racist assumptions (or at least ignorant assumptions that were based on her life of utter segregation.) When she doesn’t initially understand, for instance, Aibileen’s awkwardness about having a white woman in her house, Skeeter becomes a much richer character.
Hi Stacey — I don’t remember that happening (re: Lulabelle.) But I could just be forgetting!
Hi AndyLuvry — Thanks for the insights, particularly the historical reference points.
13 LauraMac // Aug 29, 2011 at 9:05 pm
The Daughters of the Confederacy and the Daughters of the American Revolution are different entities, and I should think the Confederacy group would have been in this film? My memory is confused now..
I liked the film, but it was so emotionally naive. I mean, what did Skeeter even learn, except to exploit a bad situation to Mary Steenbergen? Kind of a questionable outcome for a film which promotes itself as Anthropology with a heart. Skeeter’s character needed a little more reflection, but I guess her broken romance and relationship with her Mom was supposed to provide that?
I did not hate it, but it I think the critics who call foul have a point. To the, though, I would say political outrage and a couple of volumes of Faucoult do not a Hollywood flick make. These dots of things have sensitivity ceiling more often than not..
14 LauraMac // Aug 29, 2011 at 9:07 pm
(typos: these sorts of things have sensitivity ceilings more often than not..)
15 Mark Blankenship // Aug 29, 2011 at 9:36 pm
Hi Laura — I expected it to be DoC as well, but in the book (at least) and in the film (as far as I remember) it’s DAR. Weird, right?
16 Susan E // Aug 30, 2011 at 8:44 pm
Carrie Ann, a “catch tonic” was a medically labeled alcoholic beverage that was intended to stop miscarriage long before there was an awareness of fetal alcohol syndrome. Like laudanum another patent medicine that contained opium and was widely addicted to by the genteel.
When I was pregnant with my second child and we lived in Tennessee I started going into premature labor and the country doctor recommended the midwives get me drunk. I was appalled and called my mom who was a nurse, and she said that was one of the most common remedies in the 40s and 50s, it wasn’t uncommon for it to be administered intravenously. The idea is that is gets the smooth and uterine muscles so “drunk” they no longer can conduct labor. Pretty freaky, right? Brandy was prescribed for high blood pressure and other heart problems.
But something like “catch tonic” would be an easy euphemism for alcoholism in a “lady”
17 » 14/31: The Help Pull Up A Chair // Dec 14, 2011 at 2:24 pm
[...] the book of the same name that’s the film’s source material, but Mark Blankenship wrote an excellent piece about it over on The Critical Condition you should check out. But I don’t have to have read the book to know that the film plays a [...]
18 Bianca // Dec 23, 2011 at 2:02 am
I completely agree with you on the disjustice of the book, and actually changing the skin tone of one of the characters, was absolutly absurd
BUT..Constantine wasn’t raped and had to send her daughter away before working with the Plenans. Constanine’s father was White and she had a white looking daughter(even though she herself was very black looking) It’s actually not that unusual but two black people can make a white looking baby if one is half white. Constanine’s husband left when he saw how white the baby turned out and she sent the girl away around 7, because it was very hard for a black person to keep a white baby(even though the baby was actually black) in the South. Charlotte actually knew this, but didn’t recognize her till later on in the DAR meeting. And wanted Constantine to kick her daughter out of Jacksonville, for trying to act white.
19 Bianca // Dec 23, 2011 at 2:35 am
I really just want to ask the Director Why? Why did u do it, what possessed you to make such acurate portrayals of Ms. Hilly, Ms. Leefoot, even Ms. Jolene French(no lines,but she still looked like the book character). And then completely 180 us on Stuart, Celia, and Charlotte, and some situations that where vital?
20 Angry reader // Jan 4, 2012 at 12:25 am
I cannot believe that the author was willing to dilute the story. It was a huge disappointment for me. The most important parts were omitted to make way for but another feel good tale. This was the case with “Push” but very few people have addressed this issue. Her teacher was a dark skinned woman with locks who spoke firmly to her class of young women. I never imagined the character to be Paula Patton. Maybe it is hard for viewers to accept that a person who does not fit the Western standard of beauty change lives. The irony is that Constantine was described as an attractive tall woman but was played by Ms. Tyson. I just don’t understand why there is such a lack of dialogue.
21 Lindsay // Jan 6, 2012 at 10:51 pm
So true! And in the movie they totally left out the creepy naked pervert…And they totally dumbed down the miscarriage scene-in the book it is very dramatic and lasts for about 5 minutes. In the movie, it lasts for about 1 minute. Maybe less. This article is very well written. Thanks.
22 Amy // Jan 17, 2012 at 12:42 am
I enjoyed your comments. I did feel the movie was acted out very well but of course the book is always better. Films typically gloss over or change plot elements to make things flow more smoothly or make it more “feel good”, unfortunately. In addition to the changes you mention, they left out a LOT about the relationship between Skeeter and Stuart, especially the political position of his family and how Skeeter knew the whole time that the book would be the end of the relationship. It was such an aside in the movie, that felt very one-dimensional.
23 Nicole // Feb 1, 2012 at 2:34 pm
I was kind of dissapointed when the movie didn’t go into the depth of Minny and Celia’s relationship. I thought Celia’s story was very interesting and compelling, although they may have though it was too depressing for the movie. Minny and Celia, i felt, had a tense relationship in the book, even Minny would say at times she did not like Celia as a person, but in the movie they came off more friendly. Anyone else notice this?
24 Berlande // Feb 11, 2012 at 6:13 am
Ok. So am I the only one who noticed that Constitine’s daughter’s name, in the novel, is not Rachel, it’s Lullabelle…also she dd not get raped, she got pregnant by a worker on the cotton plantation who then left her…..
25 Latisha // Feb 25, 2012 at 10:29 pm
Just finished watching the movie and I really felt robbed.
The book does an excellent job of developing the characters and displaying their complexity. I would have liked to see more of Minny and Celia. The actors were superb so I think they all could have made the role more interesting.
I totally did not understand the Charlotte change. This was certainly a move to make her more palatable and sympathetic to white audiences. I think description from the book shows that both racism and good can lie in the same person.
I thought Hilly’s mom was hilarious in the movie. I enjoyed this change.
I thiought the movie was good but definitely and unfortunately not the movie of the year.
26 Abigail // Feb 28, 2012 at 3:55 am
Can someone explain to me why in the movie when they’re showing Constantine touching her wall with the height marks, there are marks for Skeeter and for Elizabeth? Who is Elizabeth? I know Miss Leefolt and Skeeter’s sister in law are Elizabeth but why would they be in Constantine’s house? Am I missing something?
27 Reader // Mar 3, 2012 at 9:04 am
Berlande – You and I read the same book. And Lulabelle was 4, not 7 (like another commentor stated) when her mother left her at the “colored” Chicago orphanage. And she did spit at Skeeter’s mother (even though some do not remember this). Amazing how some missed so many details in the book.
28 Hdhfhf // Apr 26, 2012 at 12:10 am
You Have something wrong here, in the book it is stated that constantines father was white and that’s why her daughter is as well, also it is clearly stated by aibeleen that her husband was African american
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