I recently viewed the movie “The Help.” It is an inspirational tale of courage and perseverance in the face of oppressive attitudes from one group of humans toward another. The setting is Jackson, Mississippi, in the early 1960’s. The background is the practice of white families to hire African-American women to manage the home and raise their children.
The main antagonist, Hilly, seeks to forward a bill to racially segregate bathrooms in the home. The main protagonist, Skeeter, is recently returned from college and seeks a writing career. Skeeter, like the other women in her social circle, is raised by an African-American woman, but there is evidence that she deeply values the relationship. She is distraught to find out that her nanny is no longer there when she returns home. Skeeter is unhappy with the racial attitudes of her community and seeks to tell the true stories of the oppressed African-American women. The hope is that by doing so, change for the better in the situation can occur.
Of course it is not a simple task. The laws of the land forbid any attempt at considering the races as equal. Undaunted, Skeeter finds a way to get the stories from the maids Aibileen and Minny, then from other maids. Aibileen is unsure of what backlash she may have to endure, but she has already endured much. Her son died following a workplace accident, and received little care or compassion from his white employer. Aibileen hears a sermon about courage, and decides to go ahead with the telling of her story.
The constructive mindset is evident in the way Skeeter relates with the African-American women of the community. Being black is not a problem. Whites and African-Americans are humans, period. But “The Help” also shows destructive attitudes which are not along racial lines. Hilly also treats Celia with contempt. Celia is portrayed as a woman struggling to be accepted, but failing. After hiring Minny to be her help, the positive and constructive relationship between Minny and Celia helps Celia to find the path to self-acceptance. In one scene, Celia constructively realizes that Hilly is not mad at her, but at what Hilly thinks she did. Even though Hilly does not know the difference between being mad at Celia and mad at what Celia supposedly did, Celia can see the difference. Celia’s constructive vision transforms her from hopelessness and empowers her to action. Knowing the difference between wrongs committed and the people responsible or supposedly responsible for the wrongs is the essence of the constructive mindset.
Another powerful image in the movie is the constructive message that Aibileen has for Mae, the white toddler she is raising. Even when the girl is reprimanded by her mother for supposedly poor behaviour, Aibileen comforts her with the words: “Remember, you is smart, you is kind, you is important.” This is an important message for all of us to remind ourselves of when we find ourselves doubting who we are and what we are to do. The message constructively affirms our relationship with our self, with our neighbour, and with our place in this world. At the end of this movie, the packed theatre audience applauded; people seem to instinctively know how powerful and real the constructive mindset is.