Theme

1. Racial Injustice

Leland, Mississippi, in the Delta area. June 1937.

One of the main theme of this film is racial injustice that happened in Mississippi during 1960's. Racial injustice is define as racial discrimination, discriminatory or abusive behavior towards members of another race. From this film, we can see an obvious racial injustice that happened between the black and the white people. In my opinion, it is not fair if society practice certain laws that deny the right of some races especially the black. These kind of law give a limitation for the black to carry out their daily activities. They were also need to be cautious every time in order to avoid themselves from dangerous. Besides, the black tend to hate themselves because they are prevented to do anything that they want and this can lead to a depression. They do not have works, their children need to quit school at early age because of financial problems and for women, they might be tortured by their husbands because they do not go to work. Self depression  can also lead to suicide. Next everything that the blacks do will be doubted and people are not trusting them. 

As for the white people, they also lost something by practicing the laws that discriminate the blacks. Most of the blacks worked as their housekeeper and maid. In the same way, raised their children. Their children spent more time with the maids compare to their own parents. This can make them lack of parenting skills. Their children love their maids more than their mother and father. Therefore, they must not blame their children if they do not listen to what they say because their children have lost some respect to them. Besides, the maids that raised them might also give them a bad influence  or teaching them to hate and betrayed their own races. We might not know but not all the blacks are like that. One day, all the blacks might also taking revenge to the white by doing sabotage to their house or their family. The white people also lack of surviving skills. The are living in a very comfortable condition and have someone to help them in their life which is the blacks. Imagine if one days the blacks rules the country, are they prepared to be treated just as the same as the blacks were treated? Nowadays, America was ruled by a black President and this is not impossible to happen.  

2. Class and Gender

Under the gender , the example would be the time period. This is the time where the society think that a women must get married and stayed at home happily with their family. It was different with Skeeter. She was a fresh graduate and want to build her career in journalism. But her mother, a famous senator and had a place in the society , followed the tradition and always pushed her daughter to get into relationship and marriage. This is not a good example of society because his kind tradition somewhere are not fair for women. As human, women also have their own dream and interest in a certain things. It is no use to follow the tradition if they are not happy and do not feel satisfy for what they did in their life. In the same time, those women who followed the tradition may seems to be happy but who knows what are inside their heart and mind. They might pretend to be happy in order to be accepted by the society. As for man, their job is only go to work and provide a financial support for their family. All the responsibility in the house are given to women (maid). Their relationship with their children is also not good as they do not spend much time with them. As parents, they should be closer with their children, get to know what is their interest and be a good companion to them.

Under the class, there was an obvious gap that we can see between the blacks and the white people. Even the white people has their own classes among them in the society. Example, Hilly is a rich young white women who has the power to influence others, while her friend Elizabeth seems to look like rich but actually she was struggle to look like a wealthy person. She tend to followed the lifestyle of rich people even though she was not one of them. Besides, her other friend Celia is considered to be married 'above her station' since she was from Sugar Ditch, a very poor section in Mississippi. The division of classes practiced by the society in Mississippi was not good for them actually. People cannot live in harmony because their relationship are not close enough. Everybody only mind their own business and it is hard to get help from other people if we are in trouble. Maybe this kind of classes will give the rich people to feel powerful and proud of themselves. Therefore, everybody will try to compete each other to become richer in order to get the power among the society. This is not a healthy competition because it can lead the society to become suspicious to each other.