The Help (2009) (edit title/settings)

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• Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan: Skeeter is a young journalist who struggles with life while trying to talk to the help
• Aibileen Clark: First of the novel's three narrators, Aibileen is a black woman working as a maid for Elizabeth Leefolt. She adores Miss Leefolt's daughter, Mae Mobley, whom she calls 'Baby Girl'. Although she was forced to leave school at a young age in order to work, she loves to write, has a lot to say, and knows the power of words. Aibileen's best friend is Minny, even though they are complete opposites. Aibileen follows the rules, especially when it comes to her job. She always listens and follows the advice her mother constantly gave her as a child.
• Constantine Bates: The African-American housekeeper/nanny who raised Skeeter and her brother. Skeeter loved her and was able to go to her with problems. When Skeeter returns home from college she learns that after 29 years of employment, Constantine no longer works for the Phelan family, but it is unclear to Skeeter whether Constantine was fired or if she quit.
• Mrs. Charlotte Boudreau Cantrelle Phelan: Skeeter's mother. Deep down, she cares about Skeeter, but she is always nagging, criticizing, and poking her nose in her daughter's business. She wants badly for her daughter to get married and has always shown disapproval of Skeeter. She is sick but does not want anyone to know. She is a fighter.
• Minny Jackson: Her husband Leroy is an alcoholic who has been beating her throughout their marriage, sometime quite severely. She has five children and gets pregnant with her sixth in the book. Minnie's character is so well portrayed. She has many shades, she is strong, yet she is scared of losing her job; she is funny and blunt but she also cares for Celia....and she knows how to protect her friends even though that might lead her to be in trouble.....
• Miss Hilly Holbrook: The novel's antagonist married to William Holbrook. Minny works for her mother, Miss.Walters, until Hilly fires her, beginning a long boiling hatred between the two of them. She's best friends with Skeeter and Elizabeth, but she and Skeeter start to drift apart because of their different views of racism and the treatment of the help. She came up with the Home Help Sanitation Initiative and is constantly promoting it. She would do anything to protect or improve her reputation, and she will do anything to ruin anyone who dares defy or humiliate her,
• Carlton Phelan: Skeeter's father.
• Carlton Phelan Jr.: Skeeter's brother who is away at law school during much of the book, but occasionally returns home with his girlfriend. He gave Skeeter her nickname when she was born, when he declared that she looked like a skeeter, or a mosquito. He is liked by his mother, more so than Skeeter.
• Miss Celia Rae Foote: A naive, blonde woman from Sugar Ditch married to Johnny Foote. She constantly tries to be included in events with the society women. Minny works for her, and finds her lazy lifestyle strange for a white woman.
• Elaine Stein: Senior Editor of the Adult Book Division at Harper & Row Publishers in New York. She encourages Skeeter to continue to pursue her dream of being a writer. Initially declines Skeeter for a job due to her lack of experience, but personally roots and helps her during the writing of Help.
• Treelore: Aibileen's son who died two years before the story begins but plays a huge role as a struggle for Aibileen in the book. Died when he was run over by a truck while working. Very smart. Was writing a book..this is the inspiration for Skeeter's book.
• Miss Elizabeth Leefolt: Skeeter and Hilly's best friend. She doesn't really show much love to her children. She doesn't operate well without Hilly and will do just about anything Hilly asks. Aibileen's employer. She doesn't care for her own children and would be lost without Aibileen there to help the children when they get sick or hurt. She isn't as rich as most white people in town and uses fabric to make covers for everything to make it look new.
• Benny Jackson: Minny's asthmatic son. Her other children are often jealous of his special treatment and inability to do chores.
• Charles Gray: Gave Skeeter her only kiss at Old Miss.
• Ernestine: Hilly's one-armed maid who was about the only person left who would work for Hilly.
• Patricia Van Devender: Stuart Whiteworth's high school sweetheart. They'd been dating since age 15 and not only left him at the altar, but cheated on him. For that reason he had trouble trying to date again. After a while, though, he believes that he is over her and starts to date Skeeter. However, he is not actually over her, so apparently he really loved her.
• Felicia Jackson: One of Minny's children.
• Gretchen: Yule May's (very rude) cousin.
• Heather: Hilly's daughter.
• Johnny Foote: Celia's husband is the ex-boyfriend Hilly never got over.
• Kindra Jackson: Minny's youngest child who has almost as bad an attitude as Minny herself.
• Leroy Jackson Jr.: Minny's oldest son.
• Leroy Jackson: Minny's husband, who gets abusive when he drinks.
• Louvenia Brown: Lou Anne Templeton's maid and Robert's grandmother.
• Mae Mobley Leefolt "Baby Girl": The little girl Aibileen looks after. She is still young and doesn't understand racism yet. She loves Aibileen and considers her her real mother because Aibileen loves her while Elizabeth Leefolt does not. Mae Mobley understands that Elizabeth does not love her, and because of how her mother treats her, she often believes that she is a bad girl, so Aibileen tells her every day that she is smart, pretty, important, etc, and has Mae Mobley repeat it back to her.
• Miss Fredericks: Elizabeth Leefolt's mother.
• Taylor Shoppe: Mae Mobley's preschool teacher. When Mae Mobley lets slip some of the things Aibileen was teaching her, she covered it up by saying Miss Taylor was teaching her that. Mae Mobley's father then goes down to her school to switch her teacher. Mae Mobley is also confused by the contradicting things that Miss Taylor and Aibileen were teaching her, but decides that Aibileen is smarter than her educated teacher.
• Miss Walters: Hilly's mother, who is becoming a little confused as she ages. Minny's original employer. Hilly sent her to a nursing home and fired Minny, even though Miss Walters seemed to be a little fond of Minny.
• Francine Whitworth: Wife of Senator Whitworth. Mother of Stuart who is very protective of her son after he has had his heart broken by his ex-fiance Patricia van Devender, whom she loved right from the start.
• Pascagoula: The Phelan's current maid. Yule May's cousin. Skeeter eventually recruits her for Help as well.
• Robert Brown: Louvenia's grandson who does yardwork.
• Ross (aka Li'l Man) Leefolt: The other child Aibileen cares for and Mae Mobley's younger brother. Elizabeth seems to love Ross a little bit more than Mae Mobley, but Aibileen cares for them equally. She tries to teach Ross the same things as Mae Mobley, but he is still a little young for understanding.
• Stuart Whitworth: The man Hilly sets Skeeter up with as a date. He is Senator Whitworth's son and works in the oil industry. On the first date, he is shown as careless and rude, and Skeeter immediately tells him it won't work out. He tells her that he wasn't ready for dating after he broke up with his love, a girl who cheated on him. Eventually he comes to apologize to Skeeter and they begin dating.
• William Holbrook: Hilly's son.
• Yule May Crookle: Hilly's maid who wants to send her twin sons to college but doesn't have quite enough money to do so. She is reluctant to help Skeeter because of the chance that it may leave her jobless and unable to make money for her kid's college, but still agrees to do it. Before she can help, however, she is sent to jail for stealing a worthless, unimportant ring from Hilly. Hilly refused to loan her the $75 she needed to pay for college, so she desperately stole the ring. Hilly made a big deal out of nothing, and not only gave her a fine of $500, but also four years in jail.
• Kiki Brown: Another maid.
• Franny Coots: Another maid, worked for Miss Caroline.
• Betrina Bessemer: Another maid. Called Abilene a fool for marrying Clyde. who left her for Cocoa, his mistress.
• Clyde Clark: Abileen's ex-husband. Left her for Cocoa, his mistress.
• Cocoa: Abileen's ex husband's mistress.
• Miss Woodra: Minny worked for her before working for Mrs Walker, Hilly's mother.
• Sugar: Minny's oldest child.
• Reverend Johnson: Pastor of the colored Baptist Church.
• Cora Blue: Raised Mr. Johnny.
• Fanny Peatrow: Skeeter's friend, engaged to be married.
• Henry Crookle: Yule May's husband.
• Mister Golden: Owner of The Jackson Journal.
• Patsy Joiner: Skeeter's tennis partner.
• Medgar Evers: Field Secretary of the NAACP. Was murdered. After this, Minny convinces other maids to help with the writing of Help.
• Mr. Cross: Owner of the Black newspaper.
• James Meredith: First Old Miss black student.
• Shirley Boon: Leader of the Black Community Concerns Meetings.
• Lulabelle Bates: Constatines daughter
• Mister Golden: Mister Golden, is the one who gives Miss Skeeter the job of the Jackson Journal
• Mayor Thompson: City mayor who is interviewed on the radio after Medgar Evers is killed.
• Flora Lou: A maid who shared a story for the book. Works for Miss Hester. What a rich character!
• Winnie: A maid who shared stories for the book.
• Roxanne: Cupcake committee chairman
• Charles Neal: Charlotte Phelan's doctor.
• Sissy Tucker: Wife of Doctor Tucker. Home where a maid worked.
• Rachel Cole Brant: Member of the Junior League.
• Julia Fenway: Woman at the Junior League Annual Ball.
• Mary Nell: Little black girl Skeeter played with.
• Mister Raleigh Leefolt: Elizabeth Leefolt's husband
• Faye Belle: A maid.
• Jameso: Black man who works for Skeeter's dad.
• Eula: A maid.
• Deena Doran: Junior league member.
• Miss Hester: A white woman whose maid is Flora Lou.
• Preacher Green: A radio preacher listened to by Constantine, Aibleen, Minny, and most black maids.
• Callie: Maid for Miss Margaret for thirty-eight years.
• Lou Anne Templeton: Junior league member.
• Bertrina Bessemer: A resident in Jackson, Abileen knows her.
• Susie Pernell: Add a description of this character.
• Doreena: Minny Jackson's sister.
• Leroy Junior: One of Minny Jackson's children with her husband Leroy. Named after his father.

Quotes edit see section history

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• “It ain't a baby, it's a skeeter!”

  Carlton Phlean

• “You is kind, you is smart, you is important.”

  Aibileen Clark (page 199)

• “How the first time his foot fell asleep and he say it tickle, I told him that was just his foot snoring.”

  Aibileen Clark

• “She already got the blue dress on I ironed this morning, the one with sixty-five pleats on the waist, so tiny I got to squint through my glasses to iron. I don't hate much in life, but me and that dress is not on good terms.”

  Aibileen Clark

• “That's what I love about Aibileen, she can take the most complicated things in life and wrap them up so small and simple, they'll fit right in your pocket.”

  Minny Jackson

• “All I'm saying is, kindness don't have no boundaries.”

  Aibileen Clark

• “He's crying. She's crying. We are three fools in the dining room crying.”

  Minny Jackson

• “But the dichotomy of love and hate living side-by-side is what surprises me.”

  Skeeter Phelan

• “I can't help but notice, she stands a little taller in her own house.”

  Skeeter Phelan

• “We living in hell, we trapped. Our kids is trapped.”

  Minny Jackson

• “My exclusion is tangible, as if concrete walls have formed around me.”

  Skeeter Phelan

• “Who knew paper and ink could be so vicious.”

  Skeeter Phelan

• “I always thought insanity would be a dark, bitter feeling, but it is drenching and delicious if you really roll around in it.”

  Skeeter Phelan

• “I put the iron down real slow, feel that bitter seed grow in my chest, the one planted after Treelore died. My face goes hot, my tongue twitchy. I don’t know what to say to her. All I know is, I ain’t saying it. And I know she ain’t saying what she want a say either and it’s a strange thing happening here cause nobody saying nothing and we still still managing to have us a conversation.”

  Aibileen Clark

• “But Lou Anne, she understood the point of the book before she ever read it. The one who was missing the point this time was me.”

  Skeeter Phelan

• “You listen to me, Miss Skeeter. I'm on take care a Aibileen and she gone take care a me. But you got nothing left here but enemies in the Junior League and a mama that's gone drive you to drink. You done burned ever bridge there is. And you ain't never gone get another boyfriend in this town and everbody know it. So don't walk your white butt to New York, run it.”

  Minny Jackson

• “Cause that's the way prayer do. It's like electricity, it keeps things going.”

  Aibileen Clark

• “Ugly live up on the inside. Ugly be a hurtful, mean person. Is you one of them people?”

  Constantine

• “I turn back to my dough so she can't see my face. Twice in a minute she's managed to irritate me. "Anything else you want Mister Johnny to think you did?"”

  Minny Jackson

• “"So you saying they ain't no line between the help and the boss either?"Aibileen shakes her head. "They's just positions, like on a checkerboard. Who work for who don't mean nothing.""So I ain't crossing no line if I tell Miss Celia the truth, that she ain't good enough for Hilly?" I pick my cup up. I'm trying hard to get this, but my cut's thumping against my brain. "But wait, if I tell her Miss Hilly's out a her league . . . then ain't I saying they is a line?"Aibileen laughs. She pats my hand. "All I'm saying is, kindness don't have no boundaries."”

• “"You and the kids want a come stay with me?""No." I untack the bandage, slip it back in my pocket. "I want him to see me," I say, staring down at my empty coffee cup. "See what he done to his wife.""Call me on the phone if he gets rough. You hear me?""I don't need no phone. You'll hear him screaming for mercy all the way over here."”

• “"I can't put it in the book," I tell her. "About Mother and Constantine. I'll end it when I go to college. I just . . .""Miss Skeeter--""I know I should. I know I should be sacrificing as much as you and Minny and all of you. But I can't do that to my mother.""No one expects you to, Miss Skeeter. Truth is, I wouldn't think real high a you if you did."”

• “"You cannot leave a Negro and a Nigra together unchaperoned," Mother'd whispered to me, a long time ago. "It's not their fault, they just can't help it."”

• “I want to yell so loud that Baby Girl can hear me that dirty ain't a color, disease ain't the Negro side a town. I want to stop that moment from coming--and it come in ever white child's life--when they start to think that colored folks ain't as good as whites.”

  Aibileen Clark

• “"I watched them try to integrate your bus station on the news," Missus Stein continued. "They jammed fifty-five Negroes in a jail cell built for four."”

• “I've never even sat at the same table with a Negro who wasn't paid to do so.”

  Skeeter Phelan

• “My father clears his throat. "I'll be honest," he says slowly. "It makes me sick to hear about that kind of brutality." Daddy sets his fork down silently. He looks Senator Whitworth in the eye. "I've got twenty-five Negroes working my fields and if anyone so much as laid a hand on them, or any of their families . . ." Daddy's gaze is steady. Then he drops his eyes. "I'm ashamed, sometimes, Senator. Ashamed of what goes on in Mississippi."”

• “Write about what disturbs you, particularly if it bothers no one else.”

  Elaine Stein

• “But with Constantine's thumb pressed in my hand, I realized I actually had a choice in what I could believe.”

  Miss Skeeter

• “They say it's like true love, good help. You only get one in a life time.”

  Mrs. Phelan

• “Mm-hmm”

  Minnie Jackson

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• “Ugly live up on the inside. Ugly be a hurtful, mean person. Is you one a them peoples?”

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• Cause that’s the way prayer do. It’s like electricity, it keeps things going.

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• Write about what disturbs you, particularly if it bothers no one else.

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• I always thought insanity would be a dark, bitter feeling, but it is drenching and delicious if you really roll around in it.

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• All my life I’d been told what to believe about politics, coloreds, being a girl. But with Constantine’s thumb pressed in my hand, I realized I actually had a choice in what I could believe.

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• All I know is, I ain’t saying it. And I know she ain’t saying what she want a say either and it’s a strange thing happening here cause nobody saying nothing and we still managing to have us a conversation.

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• I was surprise to see the world didn’t stop just cause my boy did.

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• They ain’t rich folk, that I know. Rich folk don’t try so hard.

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• degustationary compliments. Mother views this supper as an important move in the game called “Can My Daughter Catch Your Son?”

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Jackson, Mississippi
• Mississippi
• LSU: Louisiana State University- Where Carlton Phelan attends law school and where Foote meets Celia.
• Tougaloo College: Where Yule May Crookle wanted to send her children.
• University of Mississippi: University of Mississippi - school where Skeeter graduated from and Hilly attended.
• Longleaf: A cotton farm where the Phelan family lives.

Organizations edit see section history

• DAR: Daughters of the American Revolution, comprised of only certified female descendants of those who fought in the American Revolution.
• The Ladies Junior League: Probably started with good intentions but actually a large clique designed to make the women feel better about themselves.
• Chi Omega: Chi Omega Fraternity for Women was founded in 1895 at the University of Arkansas. Today, it is still the largest sorority in the National Panhellenic Conference. Chi Omega's everywhere hold themselves to the standards laid out in the Chi Omega Symphony, written by a Northwestern University initiate in 1904:To live constantly above snobbery of word or deed; to place scholarship before social obligations and character before appearances; to be, in the best sense, democratic rather than 'exclusive' and lovable rather than 'popular'; to work earnestly, to speak kindly, to act sincerely, to choose thoughtfully that course which occasion and conscience demand; to be womanly always; to be discouraged never; in a word, to be loyal under any and all circumstances to my Fraternity and her highest teachings and to have her welfare ever at heart that she may be a symphony of high purpose and helpfulness in which there is no discordant note. (Ethel Switzer-Howard)
• NAACP: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• Huarache: A leather-thonged sandal, originally worn by Mexican Indians.
• Pica: A size of letter in typewriting, with 10 characters to the inch (about 3.9 to the centimeter).
• Poplin: A plain-woven fabric, typically a lightweight cotton, with a corded surface.
• Settee: A long upholstered seat for more than one person, typically with a back and arms.
• Degustationary: Degustation means "tasting", so degustationary most likely means, relating to tasting or to the taste of something.
• Taffetta: A fine lustrous silk or similar synthetic fabric with a crisp texture.
• Cornichon: The French word for a pickled gherkin cucumber.

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Racism and Prejudice: Three of the women are The Help for the rich white folks of Jackson. Some are treated well, some are not. They don't even want to eat food that the black women touched.
• Stereotyping: Southern Black women are good and kind. Southern Black women are good cooks, the best housekeepers, and the best mothers. White women are racist, selfish, and egotistical. Southern White women can't cook, clean, or mother. Backwoods White women are ignorant, useless, tasteless, and have no class. Backwoods women are clumsy and dress like prostitutes. Southern White men are racists, work all the time, and dominate their wives. Southern Black men are abusive drunks. These were common stereotypes in the 60's--the same things we were shown in movies, tv, the news, and word of mouth.
• Segregation: Slavery may have been abolished but the people of Mississippi still don't look upon Black people as equals. The employers of these black women even go so far as to build and outhouse for their "help" so that they don't use the same facilities as the white people. This is a tale of segregation at it's worst, with the white bus and the black bus. The white school and the black school. It is said by one character that the black people carry different diseases than whites. It's hard to swallow when you think our ancestors treated these people so badly.
• Working as a group: Working together can create unimaginable success as long as the individuals are working towards a common goal. This theme is evident in The Help. Helping each other out and using one another's strengths will cause accomplishment.

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Kathryn Stockett (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Álvaro Abella (Translator)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• BookBrowse Awards (2009: Best Book)
• Exclusive Books Boeke Prize (2009)
• Amazon.com's Best Books (November 2009: Editors' Picks, #19)
• Audies Awards (May 2010: Distinguised Achievement in Production)
• Audies Awards (2010: Fiction)
• Indies Choice Book Awards (2010: Adult Debut)
• Townsend Prize (2010: Fiction)
• Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Book Award (2010: Fiction)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PS3619.T636 H45
• Dewey: 813.6

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Young adults with the caveat to enter in discussions with groups of different races and age groups. Think about stereotyping when reading this book and enjoy it for the stories. A history explanation may be needed if a young adult does not understand the dynamics of the events in the book. It has some language in it, but it is important to discuss the issues of the past as they still linger in the present.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › United States › African American
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Women's Fiction › Friendship
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Authors, A-Z › ( S )
• Books › History › Americas › United States › 20th Century › 1960s
• Books › History › Americas › United States › African Americans
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Women's Fiction › Domestic Life
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Historical
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Women's Fiction › Mothers & Children

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Kathryn Stockett: Author's official website

Movie Connections edit see section history

• The Help (IMDb): 2011 film starring Emma Stone (Skeeter), Viola Davis (Aibileen), and Ocatvia Spencer (Minny).

More Books Like This edit see section history