On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks, a woman of African-American heritage refused to obey the driver’s order to give up her seat to a white passenger. For the Civil Rights movement in the United States that action was as pivotal as Mahatma Gandhi’s making salt without paying the salt tax on the beach at Dandi, on April 6, 1930. Behind each of those acts was the history of oppression that had brewed and simmered till one valiant person took it into his or her hands to say ‘No.’
A few years ago, Kathryn Stockett, a writer born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, who was brought up by an African-American maid, wondered what the woman who raised her thought and felt about life. Kathryn’s thoughts led her to write the Help, about African-American maids working in white households, in the early ‘60s.
Her book which was initially rejected by 60 literary agents, according to one article, finally got published in 2009, and, has been on the New York Times Best Sellers list for 53 weeks now, selling, reportedly, over 5 million copies. The book captures the social ethos of the South in the US, particularly in regard to the lives of the women working in homes of white people, providing a peep into the world that led Rosa Parks to refuse the order to vacate her seat on the bus.
The book was made into a movie which was released in 2011, and is an ensemble piece about a white woman, Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan, played by Emma Stone, and her relationship with two African-American maids, Aibileen Clark, played by Viola Davis and Minny Jackson, played by Octavia Spencer. As we now know, Octavia Spencer won the 2012 Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her part as Minny Jackson/ Viola Davis was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar this year for this role, and, I was personally surprised that she did not win it. The movie itself was nominated for Best Picture. Skeeter who wants to become a writer, decides to write a book from the viewpoint of the African-American maids and the racism they suffer as they work in white households of the South.
Understandably the maids are initially reluctant to share their stories, for fear of losing their jobs. However, an initiative by Hilly Holbrock, one of the white woman in the film, to build separate toilets for people for colour since, ‘they suffer from different diseases …’ prompts Aibileen to start sharing her experiences.
‘The Home Help Sanitation Initiative’ that Hilly Holbrock sponsors is straight out of the sets of what could be a modern day Nandanar Charitram. The telling scene in which Minny Jackson is unable to use the outdoor Help’s toilet because of a tornado storm, and, loses her job for using the house toilet, is all about human tyranny. Of course, Minny gets her own back in a way that I will let the reader watch the film to know. Too powerful for me to steal the thunder of the scene in the movie.
In a way the movie sadly reminds me of the way household help often gets treated in India, even today. Scenes like where the Help lavishes loving care on the children of the households they work for while their own children grow up fending for themselves.
Again the scene where Yule May Davis, played by Aunjanue Ellis asks her employers for a loan to send her two children to college, is refused, ends up stealing a ring and is arrested as she tries to pawn the ring to raise the money, could all be scenes out of an Indian movie, or, if truth be told, real life… As I watched the Help, I was reminded of the White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, a book I read at one sitting returning from India a few years ago…, and, its scenes of how servants get ill treated
The white upper class portrayed in the movie have the same values and attitudes of the upper class in almost any society. The snootiness, the exclusivity and class-colour consciousness is set in the Southern US of the ‘60s, and, could easily be transferred anywhere else in the world at any period of time.
The movie also tellingly portrays the stereotypes that existed (and continue to exist in places) about women, work and what they could do and not do. The ‘interview’ Skeeter has with her Editor, Mr Blackly, played by Leslie Jordan, speaks volumes about attitudes that prevailed towards women at work … The only column Skeeter gets to write is Miss Myrna’s Household Hints column, which actually gets written by Aibileen, since Skeeter doesn’t have the faintest idea of how to prevent tears as you cut onions … see the movie to know how to do so, as per Aibileen.
Like Nandanar Charitram there is an intense religiosity woven into the movie and one gets glimpses of the faith that stirred Rev. Martin Luther King, and, also the ‘acceptance’ that seems to be a part of the ethos of a community struggling, like Nandanar and the Aibileens…
A definite watch if you are concerned about those sort of issues…
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