Introduction
One of the most ideologically reactionary varieties of naturalism in sociology is the racial-anthropological approach. The main theme of the film ‘The Help’ is the relationship between representatives of different social and racial backgrounds. Therefore, this particular sociological perspective will be rational as the other approaches do not concentrate on the concept of race as much. Racism as a socio-psychological phenomenon has existed since time immemorial, but in the XIX century (Nanlohy et al., 2021). For the first time, this phenomenon began to appeal widely to the authority of science.
Discussion
The main ideological functions of this trend were to justify the privileges of the ruling class within bourgeois states and imperialist colonial expansion in foreign policy. The basic principles of this theory are that social life and culture are the product of racial and anthropological factors. The fact that races are not perceived in society as equal among themselves causes inequality. According to the racial-anthropological concept, social institutions are not determined by the vital activity of races, but on the contrary. they determine it, which is demonstrated in the film ‘The Help’.
The film takes the viewer to the USA of the 60s; that is the historical time when Martin Luther King is successfully fighting for the rights of blacks in the capital. In the provincial town of Jackson, Mississippi, the white daughter of a local cotton merchant, Skeeter, unexpectedly decided to stand up for the blacks. There is no slavery in America in the 1960s, it was abolished almost 100 years ago (Nasir and Abdullah, 2021). However, most black people still serve whites. Although they are paid to work, the restrictions in society between whites and blacks are still significant. They are forbidden to ride on the same buses as whites. Blacks are not allowed to use the public library. Although white people are not rude to black servants, they still look down on them, not counting them as people.
According to the royal-anthropological approach, for several centuries’ racism remained the cause of a serious defeat in the rights of entire peoples. Some white people put themselves above other races, believing that their skin color and other features of appearance gave them such a right. Many people are convinced of the incompatibility of different races (Adam, 2018). Therefore, they have a very negative attitude towards foreigners who move to their cities, settle in the neighborhood, start families, give birth to children, and take them to the same kindergarten or school where white children go.
In the film, there is a change of author’s positions, respectively, the ideological points of view of three completely different focal characters are presented in detail. Their lives intertwined, and they came face to face with segregation. The narrators are united by the idea of writing a book with the voice of a servant about their difficult life in the White House and the unfair treatment of them. According to the idea of Skeeter, the initiator of writing the book, the events described not to be subjective, the stories of the twelve maids are included in Skeeter’s novel (Idris et al., 2020). However, all of them somehow support the postulates of the racial-anthropological social theory.
All focal characters act as the subject of evaluation of the social racial-anthropological theory, as well as its carrier. They are estimated from the point of view of the narrator, respectively, they appear to be the subject of evaluation (Hanafiah and Melansari, 2021). The evaluation carriers are in those cases when they act as narrators. For example, Aibileen acts as a carrier of evaluation from the point of view of the racial-anthropological social theory of her mistress. The servants think that Miss Leefolt is completely not engaged in the upbringing of her daughter.
In some scenes of the film, Aibileen is the subject of Skeeter’s assessment, confirming the postulates of the racial-anthropological social theory. Spending more and more time with Aibileen, Skeeter realizes how skillfully the servants have learned to hide their feelings (Iban et al., 2019). Society determines the lack of feelings in its dark-skinned members, but at the same time, the servants are still able to experience emotions, which confirms the principle of determining the racial characteristics of an individual’s behavior by society.
There are three focal characters in the film, each of which is an illustration of the racial-anthropological social approach. Skeeter is a young educated white American woman who wants to become a writer and decides to write a book on behalf of a black servant. Aibileen is a servant who raised seventeen children of white masters, agreed to participate in the writing of the book, and is the link between Skeeter and the servants (Taylor, 2011). Minnie is Aibileen’s best friend, who also agreed to participate in the writing of the book, who is constantly out of work because of her talkativeness. Thanks to Aibileen, they are joined by other maids who tell their stories. These women in this way want to resist the injustice prevailing in society, to give vent to their feelings, to talk about what they did not dare before.
The category of point of view on the racial-anthropological social approach in the film is revealed by the specifics of the narrative of each of the heroines. All three narrators are evaluated to one degree or another from the position of each other (Nanlohy et al., 2021). The various points of view and evaluation systems presented in the film enter into certain relationships with each other, thus forming a rather complex system of social identities and oppositions.
Representatives of the white population of the 60s in the United States had a legal and political system that was characterized by the dominance of white Americans, which Skeeter admits (Adam, 2018). Public figure and Skeeter’s friend, Hilly Holbrook, actively advocate racial segregation. She believes that blacks are carriers of deadly diseases for whites. To minimize the intersection points between blacks and whites, she is preparing a variety of projects, which, in turn, infringe on the rights of colored people. Hilly has significant importance in society, so her opinion is listened to and her ideas are supported.
Aibileen has to follow the rules set by the whites. That is why she does not pour water into a glass for a dark-skinned worker because she knows that her mistress would not like it. Of course, throughout her life, she has learned to suppress her feelings, which she has no right to show (Nasir and Abdullah, 2021). Aibileen does not hide the fact that she has to tell the hostess what she wants to hear.
White ladies, Celia and Skeeter, violate established rules, erasing the boundaries of communication between whites and blacks, which causes an ambiguous reaction from the latter. Minnie is perplexed and calls her mistress stupid when Celia brings her, the servant, a drink (Taylor, 2011). Minnie voices her husband’s point of view, which she shares, that all whites are very strange. Miss Skeeter is the only one who talks to the servants, this is the initial description given to her by Aibileen, who is surprised by it.
Despite the significant differences between Skeeter and Aibileen, their worldview regarding the injustice in the manifestation of segregation coincides. They both think within the framework of the royal-anthropological social theory (Iban et al., 2019). Scooter is different from the rest of the girls in her town, she has a kind heart and a sense of justice. She tries to fight for equality and even loses the support and understanding of her friends.
The socio-ideological point of view of Aibileen and Minnie largely coincides due to their social status and race. Nevertheless, their personalities and how they cope with the difficulties that arise are completely different (Hanafiah and Melansari, 2021). Thanks to the narration from the representatives of the servants, the viewer has the opportunity to experience the world in which these women live.
For example, Minnie and Celia’s relationship is filled with humor, which is absent in the strained and cold relationship between Aibileen and her mistress. In this film, there is a Rashomon effect, which reflects the discrepancy in the ideological point of view of the characters, each of whom is convinced of his rightness (Idris et al., 2020). Skeeter sincerely believes that a personal visit to Aibileen’s home will help her win the favor of the dark-skinned servants. However, Aibileen was not happy about this visit, because such behavior is unacceptable in society, whites do not go to the area for colored citizens. This fact outrages Aibileen, she believes that she spends a lot of time with white people and does not want them to watch her at home.
Despite the good attitude towards Skeeter, Aibileen is unhappy with her arrival and believes that it would be possible to make do with a phone call. The opportunity to see this meeting through the eyes of both heroines reveals to the viewer different sees on segregation within the same sociological approach, without illuminating any of the focal characters in a bad light (Hanafiah and Melansari, 2021). Instead, the recipient sympathizes with them and understands that they are both victims of the racist system adopted in American society.
The ideological point of view of each focal character is formed directly through the prism of their statements, as well as through the description of each other. Getting to know Minnie and Skeeter, the other storytellers, takes place through the prism of Aibileen’s perception, which gives them an evaluation characteristic. Minnie, according to Aibileen, is the best cook in the entire state of Mississippi, but she has a drawback: she does not know how to keep her mouth shut (Taylor, 2011). The viewer finds confirmation of these words in the scene where Minnie says that she would like to find a deaf mistress, which was Miss Wolters.
All levels of manifestation of the ideological point of view have a semantic monologue when the external and internal manifestations coincide. Sometimes the viewer can notice that the internal and external demonstrations of the ideological point of view differ from each other, one of them turns out to be false. In this case, the viewer observes the confirmation of one of the positions of the racial-anthropological social theory (Adam, 2018). The characters in the film demonstrate that society, not race itself, is the determining behavioral factor. For example, this is noticeable when Aibileen, who does not want and has no right to express her attitude on any occasion, is unable to restrain her emotions, and utters a general phrase that does not reflect her inner state at all.
In some of Minnie’s statements, it is seen that Minnie, who understands her precarious position in the city, hardly restrains herself from saying something superfluous. Like Aibileen, she has to play by the rules accepted in society (Idris et al., 2020). Minnie has no right to make remarks to whites; she says one thing, but feels completely different, as evidenced by her facial expressions and phrases uttered by her when she is alone.
Conclusion
Thus, due to the change of narrative situations in the film ‘The Help’, the ideological point of view of the focal characters is manifested. Internal and external points of view can be revealed both in terms of sociology and ideology. They, in turn, may coincide or differ depending on the situation. The focal characters in the film act both as the subject of the assessment of the racial-anthropological approach and as its carrier. The expression of an evaluative point of view is expressed not only by speech but also by behavioral characteristics.
References
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Hanafiah, A. W., & Melansari, N. (2021). An analysis of social conflict between black and white skin in novel ‘The Help’ written by Kathryn Stockett. English Education Journal, 9(4), 1–12.
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Idris, D., Wahyuni, B., & Prautomo, A. (2020). The influence of social class on racial discrimination in the movie ‘The Help’. Prologue: Journal on Language and Literature, 6(2), 69–77.
Nanlohy, O. M., Rorintulus, O. A., & Kamagi, S. (2021). The acts of racial discrimination to the blacks as seen in Stockett’s ‘The Help’. Journal of English, Culture, Language, Literature, and Education, 9(2), 144–158.
Nasir, A., & Abdullah, S. (2021). White saviour complex and (mis)portrayal of blacks in Kathryn Stockett’s ‘The Help’. Journal of Research in Humanities, 57(1), 43–56.
Taylor, T. (Director). (2011). The Help [Film]. DreamWorks Pictures.