The Help Maids

“Miss Skeeter asking don’t I want to change things, like changing Jackson, Mississippi, gone be like changing a lightbulb” (Stockett 24). In the latter half of The Help, the story revolves around the anonymous book Skeeter Phelan is writing with Aibileen, Minny, and twelve other maids. The book is about the relationship between domestic help and their bosses. Skeeter works day in and day out to finish her book with the hopes of it eventually being published. When it finally comes to bookstores of Jackson, the women there begin to realize that the bosses in the stories are actually one another. Most of the maids find themselves out of a job when their bosses find out, but both the maids and Skeeter are happy about their decision to defy the

Minny best described it as “Hot pink and silver sequins from her extra-large boobies all the way to her hot pink toes” (Stockett 317). This dress was much different than the dresses the other women wore; most barely even had a shoulder showing. When Miss Celia enters the Benefit in her gown, everyone stares. She immediately thinks that she may have overdressed and is diffident about her looks. A couple days after the Benefit, she receives a letter from Hilly Holbrook stating that Celia should no longer go to any League events because of the scene she caused at the last one. Miss Celia is so angry at herself for wearing the dress and drinking to much, and at Hilly for not letting her help in any way with the League, that Celia decides she will never speak to Hilly again, never write to Hilly again, and never call Hilly again ☺. Miss Celia’s dress symbolizes the divide between white women on the outside of the elite society and the white women who belong to the elite society. No woman in the League would ever show up to the Benefit showing that much cleavage, but Celia did not know any better. Hilly had basically shunned her from all the League’s events, so Miss Celia was just excited to actually go to a social event. Miss Celia’s dress is a critical component to The Help, as it shows the separation between white women who are “in” with the popular ladies, and the

It is not simply a story about a few maids and white ladies in Jackson, Mississippi; instead, it shows the ever-present divide between African Americans and whites. In the 1950’s, however, many people are beginning to share their beliefs that segregation should no longer exist, but it will take a long time before integration is common in the U.S. “Wasn't that the point of the book? For women to realize, We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought” (Stockett