The Help – Movie
Short answers to each question
The Help (Movie) shows us the inner workings of a segregated society against the backdrop of the growing US Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Watch this movie and try to understand the social stratification system in the South. Answer the following:
1. What did you learn about the class system in the South – describe the separate lives led by the main characters.
2. There are several powerful symbols used – what is the significance of a separate bathroom?
3. What is the significance of the “pie”?
4. In the American South in the first half of the 20th century, whites espoused the doctrine of “separate but equal.” This was supposed to keep the races separate but treat them equally. Did it work in practice?
5. When Aibileen gets the Miss Myrna job at the end of the movie, does this signify that the society is changing?
6. Celia doesn’t even seem aware of false stereotypes about black people. Why?
7. How does Celia’s past poverty influence her views on social class? Does she get over wanting to join Hilly and the gang by the end of the movie?
8. How does this community compare with your own? What are the similarities? The differences?
9. If you visit Jackson, Mississippi today, what changes since the 1960s when The Help was set will you expect?
10. Who is your favorite character? Why?
Pick two: 500 words total
1. What is the main premise (idea) of Merton’s theory? Explain the 5 categories of deviant Behavior. Explain what category homeless people fall under and why? 2. Why does labeling theory argue that its not the act of deviance, but people’s response to it that is important to understand. (Please explain the theory first) 3. Explain 4 types of social bonds discussed in the control theory by Travis Hirschi
Pick any 2: 500 words total
1. Discuss at least 3 major changes in marriage and family in the US. 2. Differentiate between lines of decent and residence. Why is it important to examine them? 3. What do you understand by the concept of cultural capital? Why is this concept important to understand education inequality?
