The Help – Week Three

Things are starting to heat up a little bit in Jackson, Mississippi, and its not just the summer heat.  Miss Hilly is convinced that Miss Skeeter is about to try and change Jim Crow laws within the state of Mississippi, or at least give it a try, and that is not something that she is about to let happen. Miss Skeeter is continuing to work on her stories. They are slowly starting to come together. When Yule May gets arrested for stealing from Miss Hilly, because she was trying to raise the money to send her twin sons to college. Her arrest, and Miss Hilly’s involvement, spur the maids in the area to embrace and support Miss Skeeter’s secret work.

Minny is still working for Celia, and starting a better relationship with her employer. Now that her husband knows that Minny is working there, she can breathe easier and enjoy her job. Celia has been guarding a secret that she didn’t want anyone to know about, not even Minny; yet she is still trying to break into the League scene. She is finding it hard to get anywhere as Miss Hilly blocks her at every turn.

Aibileen, Minny, and the other maids are going on about their daily work as if nothing is amiss, but inside they are all tangled nerves, just waiting for the day that there secret comes spilling out, and it seems that one secret is about to be let out of the bag, and its not just the maids leading a secret life……

This week we are reading Chapters 18-23

Questions:

1. Miss Hilly sure likes to throw her weight around. Everyone seems to hang on her every word and follows her lead. Why is Miss Hilly so bent on making certain people’s lives miserable? What is she hiding?

2.  The author manages to paint Aibileen with a quiet grace and an aura of wisdom about her. How do you think she does this?

3. How much of a person’s character would you say is shaped by the times in which they live?

4. What did you think of the turn around that Miss Skeeter managed to pull on Miss Hilly!?