The Help Helped Me
Skeeter was the main character of The Help. She was a recent college graduate, living with her parents. She was raised by a Black maid who she loved. When she did things, she often wondered if she was pleasing Constantine, the maid. She spent her days writing, hearing her mother’s complaints that she was single, and going to play bridge with other wealthy White women, and going to country clubs. After writing about something she believed in, she was alone.
Skeeter noticed things that she thought no one else did. In the South, a grown woman had to call a younger woman Ms. if she was Black. White women ordered their maids, and yelled at them in front of their children. A housekeeper could raise a child, and later be employed by the child they'd potty-trained, the child they'd fed and held.
She went against the wishes of Hilly Holbrook, a powerful socialite who was once her friend. People who used to be her “friends” now wouldn’t speak to her. Then, she wrote a book on the lives of colored housekeepers and their opinions on the families they worked for. Many people sought to destroy the lives of her and the housekeepers. One of the housekeepers, Minny, was especially impacted. Her husband was fired after a complaint from Hilly’s husband. Another maid named Aibileen was accused of stealing and later fired by Hilly, who she didn't even work for. Later, Stuart, Skeeter’s boyfriend, ended the relationship after she admitted to writing the book.
Skeeter was ALONE. No one but her boyfriend who broke up with her , Hilly and the maids knew of the book. No one would talk to her, not even friends whose weddings she’d been in. She was dropped by her tennis partner. She was no longer invited to parties, and treated like she didn’t exist.
By then, after losing my friends and my boyfriend, I might have given up the cause I was fighting for- Skeeter didn’t.
Often in life, we put what others will think over what is really the right thing. Skeeter’s life was becoming miserably lonely and sad. In order to write the book that went against the beliefs of her neighbors, she had to lose friends. Writing Help wasn’t a major benefit for Skeeter. She didn’t need the little money she received. The book was written anonymously, so fame wasn’t what she sought. Skeeter sought a change. She could’ve gone on with the racist, mean, phony friends she had, she could’ve married Stuart and she could’ve kept her thoughts and desires inside like so many people do.
Writing the book was a personal accomplishment. It showed what so few people do in their lives; risk everything for a fight they believe in. If you think about it, Skeeter could’ve even lost her life- people were just THAT racist. Skeeter was revealing the truth about a way of life that was prominent in the South.
I found that this quote shows the beginning of Skeeter’s rebellion against the ways of life of those near her: ‘“A bill that requires every White home to have a separate bathroom for the colored help. I’ve even notified the surgeon general to see if he’ll endorse the idea. I pass." Miss Skeeter, she frowning at Miss Hilly. She set her cards down face up and say matter-a-fact. “Maybe we ought to just build you a bathroom outside, Hilly.” Skeeter faced her enemy with humor, not letting all she had lost stop her. She was lonely, but she won.
