Book Report: “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett

Synopsis

The book The Help tells the story of three different women: Aibileen Clark, Eugenia Phelan,
and Minny Jackson. Two of them are African American who works for white families, and
the other one is a young white woman that recently graduated from college. The three of
them will be working on a book that tells the stories of the experiences of how African
American maids are treated by their white employers in Jackson Mississippi. The Help talks
about discrimination and isolation of African American people by white people, as well as
social injustice such as injustice of sexism.

Dramatis personae – characters

List of important characters and a brief description

 Aibileen Clark:

African American women who works as a maid for white families, caring for their
children, doing the cooking and cleaning of the house. She has raised 17 white
children since she started to work as a maid, but the most special white child for her is
Mae Mobley, because she had lost her son, Treelore, a few months before accepting
the job. She accepted to help Skeeter on her book, revealing the truth of how most
white women treat their maids, even though it is extremely dangerous for her.

 Miss Skeeter:

Her given name is Eugenia Phelan. She is known to be as “Skeeter”, name given by
her brother, because she was as small as a mosquito when she was born. She is a
young white woman, who had been raised by a black maid called Constantine, and
has a deep affection to her. Since she had graduated from college, she has been
receiving pressure from her mother who wants her to follow the path of most white
women to find a man to marry with, but Skeeter instead wants to be a writer. Her best
friends are Elizabeth Leefolt and Hilly Holbrook.
 Minny Jackson:

African American women who is Aibileen’s best friend. At the beginning of the book,
she works for Hilly Holbrook, taking care of her mother, Miss Walters. She was
accused by Hilly Holbrook for stealing and started to work for Celia Foote. She has
very good cooking skills, but she has an outspoken personality, which often leads her
to lose her job. She has five children and her husband’s name is Leroy. At the time
when she finds out that Aibileen wants to help Skeeter on her book, she started to
warn Aibileen, because she thinks it is too dangerous for them.

 Miss Elizabeth Leefolt:

Aibileen’s employer and mother of Mae Mobley Leefolt. She is friend of Hilly
Holbrook and Skeeter. Similar to most white women, she strongly opposes to
assimilate with colored people. She often leaves her daughter Mae Mobley to
Aibileen to take care of, and focuses on other things except on her daughter. She
agrees on Hilly Holbrook’s idea of a separate bathroom for her black maid, Aibileen.

 Mae Mobley Leefolt:

She is the special child for Aibileen and Elizabeth Leefolt’s daughter. She often thinks
that she is a bad girl, because her mother often scolds her and slaps her legs. Aibileen
started to tell her something good every day, so she wouldn’t underestimate herself
because of her mother’s words. Aibileen hopes that Mae Mobley wouldn’t turned to
be like her mother when she grows up.

 Miss Celia Foote:

She is Minny’s employer after Minny stopped working for Hilly Holbrook and her
mother, Miss Walter. She secretly hires Minny as a maid, without telling her husband,
because she wants to pretend to be the one who does the cooking and cleaning of the
house, instead of Minny. She doesn’t have any kids, but she often stays on the second
 floor of her house, where there is a room for kids. She doesn’t have any white women
friends that comes to visit her to her house, and she rarely goes out of her house, not
even for shopping, like other white women.

 Miss Hilly Holbrook:

She is Elizabeth Leefolt and Skeeter’s friend since elementary school. She is the
president of the Junior League Benefit and wants to pass a bill that requires all white
houses to build a separate bathroom for black maids. Her husband is a future
politician whose name is William Holbrook. She strongly influences other white
women to isolate colored people and support her bill. She made spread discrimination
and racist towards black people throughout all around Jackson, Mississippi.

Setting: social, cultural, historical, economical details; general ideas and how does ideas
affect the plot

The book The Help is set in the South of the United States in Jackson, Mississippi, during the
Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. After the end of the Civil War in 1865, President
Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which was passed to law as the
thirteenth amendment and abolished slavery. The 13th, 14th and 15th amendments that were
ratified into the Constitution, were supposed to guarantee equal rights for African Americans,
however, racial segregation and discrimination towards African Americans still maintained in
the South. These were later known to be as “Jim Crow Laws”, which enforced segregation
between white people and African American people in public places such as schools,
transportations, bathrooms, and restaurants. The Civil Rights Movement was a series of
political movements asking for racial equality and equal rights after the Civil War. The Civil
Rights Movement rose in 1954, when the Supreme Court declared that racial segregation in
schools was illegal and unconstitutional. In 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to
give up her seat on a bus to a white person.

In the book The Help, the author included themes such as the black codes, racial segregation,
and Civil Right Movement, which clearly reflects the reality of the social society of Jackson,
Mississippi in the 1960s. The author mentioned the racial segregation between white people
and African Americans with the bill of the separate bathrooms for black maids proposed by
Hilly Holbrook, and used Skeeter’s book as a great influence that led to the Civil Rights
Movement. The author showed in the book that black people are often being accused from
stealing things or doing something wrong.
Plot: characters – main one- and interpretation of the story thru your eyes.

Aibileen works for the Leefolts’ as a black maid in Jackson Mississippi, taking care of 2
years old Mae Mobley Leefolt, and does the cooking and cleaning of the house as well. Her
only son died in a car accident before she started to work for the Leefolts’. Aibileen often
tells Mae Mobley that she is a good girl and an important person, because she doesn’t want
Mae Mobley to be hurt or affected by her mother, Elizabeth Leefolt, who only scolds her and
neglects her. Aibileen is best friend of Minny, a black maid who at first worked for Hilly
Holbrook and later started working for Celia Foote. Minny was accused by Hilly Holbrook
from stealing and was fired. She was then hired by Celia Foote secretly, and she needed to be
aware when her husband, Johnny Foote, arrives home, so he wouldn’t find out of her. Skeeter
is friend of Aibileen’s employer and Minny’s employer. Skeeter appears to be different from
other white women. She wants to be a writer, while her mother wants her to find a man and
marry soon. Aibileen knows Skeeter from her employer Elizabeth Leefolt, and had been
asked to help her in writing a book about how’s the lives of black maids who works for white
people in Jackson, Mississippi. At first, Aibileen didn’t agree to Skeeter, even Minny had
warned her not to do it, because it was extremely dangerous for them once their employer
finds out, but Aibileen changed her mind because she was irritated by Hilly Holbrook’s bill
of separate bathroom. Although knowing the danger they are putting themselves into, both
Aibileen and Minny agreed to help Skeeter by revealing the truth of working for white people
and how they are treated by them.

The story of The Help shows people the reality of the lives of African Americans in the late
1960s. No matter how hard black people work, they were payed the least and needed to face
racial segregation and isolation. They needed to be aware of every word that comes from
their mouth, because it may probably cause them to lose their job. White people have their
power in society. They are able to let black people lose their opportunities to find a job. Black
people are often subject to white people, just because they don’t have enough power to even
say a word to fight for their rights. This story tells us that maybe the voice of one African
American is not loud enough to be heard by the people, but if people join together as one
single body, equal rights may be guaranteed to everyone and racial discrimination may end.

Change the ending of the book

I would like that Skeeter’s book The Help and Mae Mobley’s teaching of her brother about
the Civil Rights Movement would at least change the Leefolt’s bias towards colored people. I
would like Elizabeth Leefolt to stand on Aibileen’s side when Hilly was accusing her from
stealing her silver, but I don’t want to change the ending of the book. I still consider that
Aibileen deserves a better life than working for the Leefolts’. Now that she is able to do Miss
Myrna column with the local newspaper, she can also complete her son Treelore’s desire of
writing about black people’s experience regarding of working for white people. As for Minny
as well, I consider that she will get a better life if she leaves her husband Leroy. I would like
Hilly Holbrook to receive the same treatment she treated colored people and being isolated
from other white women.