The Help By Haley Armstrong Main Characters Aibileen

The Help By: Haley Armstrong

Main Characters • Aibileen Clark is a colored maid who works for Miss Elizabeth Leefolt. • Minny Jackson is also a colored maid who works for Miss Walters is Miss Hilly Holbrook’s mother, and she is Miss Leefolt’s friend. • Miss Skeeter is a friend to Miss Leefolt and Miss Holbrook. Miss Skeeter’s real name is Eugenia Phelan.

Plot Line • The Help is set in Jackson Mississippi in 1962. • Miss Skeeter moves back to Jackson with a diploma for writing. While at a bridge game at Miss Leefolt’s house, Miss Holbrook is complaining about having to use the same bathroom as the maid, Aibileen. She insist that Miss Leefolt build a separate bathroom for the maid, and she does later on. This event is what gave Miss Skeeter the idea to write the book, Help, which is about what colored woman think about working for white woman. • Aibileen agrees to help Miss Skeeter with the book.

Plot Line Continued • Help ends up consisting of interviews from other maids. Because of this, Miss Skeeter needs more than just Aibileen’s interview for her book. • Aibileen ask her friend Minny to give an interview. She says no in the beginning, but later changes her mind after she is out of work because Miss Holbrook spreads false rumors about her around town. However, Minny later gets revenge on Miss Holbrook and finds work. • Also, a chocolate pie plays a big part in the book as well.

Other Events • Miss Holbrook tries to get a Home Help Sanitation Initiative bill passed into law. The bill would require every house in Jackson to have separate bathrooms for the service maids. • Miss Skeeter miss prints something Miss Holbrook wanted in the paper she works for. The incident causes Miss Holbrook to have several toliets placed in her yard while she is away from home. • The feud between Miss Holbrook and Miss Skeeter continue as well as the one she has with Minny.

Hype • The Help was given 4 stars out of 5 on most internet sites. It was said to be very good, and a movie was even made about it. The movie had more publicity about it then the book did. I didn’t even know about the book until after I saw the movie. I personally enjoyed the book more then the movie, but they were very close in content. I thought the movie followed the movie quite well. I would have to agree with the average and give The Help 4 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation • I would recommend The Help to an audience of students in either junior high school. I think it would give them a better understanding of how life was for woman in the South because it explores the lives of both white society women and the colored maids who work for them. Also, The Help had funny twist as well as sad moments for the reader to experience through the many different characters.