The Help – Week 2

Miss Skeeter has convinced Aibileen and Minny to sit for her interviews, and to start spilling their stories about the families they have worked for. Aibileen and Minny are both extremely cautious, as they know that any wrong step will cause their termination, and they both rely on their jobs to get by. Although Aibileen does not have a large family like Minny, if they get let go, there is no way that they will find work in Jackson.

While the stories are being told, they agree that names of both the maids and the families have to be changed. They need protection and insurance. Skeeter is doing everything that she can to protect her stories, but something is always bound to go wrong…

Hilly seems to have a tight grip on the ladies that surround her, and she pretty much controls everything that they do. Ideas, fashions, and more all come from Hilly. She is the queen bee of the Jackson league. What she wants goes, and if she does not like you, you will not stand a chance. Poor Celia Foote is finding that out. Her only crime is that she married the man that Hilly used to date. Now Celia is outcast to the fringes of society, not allowed to help with any of the benefits or goings-on in town. She is not even invited to the bridge games.

Skeeter’s mother feels as though she failed. Her daughter in unmarried, not dating, and wants to be a writer. When the state Senator’s son shows up at their home to ask Skeeter on another date and apologize for the last one. There is just something about Skeeter that is different from all the other women that he has known. Women are not supposed to be blunt and tell you what they are really thinking..

This week we are reading Chapters 9-17

Questions:

1. Minny seems to have a lot of pent up anger against her white employers. No matter what, she is angry. Do you think that she is more resentful than the author is really letting on?

2. Skeeter is questioning just about everything that comes out of Hilly’s mouth. Why do they have to be separate? When she discovers the Jim Crow laws in the library, she steals it. Why should Hilly get so upset when she finds it in her bag?

3. Aibilieen loves the children she cares for as though they were her own. Since she lost her own son, do you think that she has become closer to the children she cares for?

Happy Reading!