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Miss Hilly In Kathryn Stockett's The Help

651 Words3 Pages

The villain in Kathryn Stockett’s work, The Help, is Miss Hilly Holbrook. What makes Miss Hilly a villain is that she is controlling and manipulative to everyone, she also does not like the idea of integration, and the last thing that makes Miss Hilly a villain is she is very rude to those around her. Miss Hilly Holbrook is villainous because she controls and manipulates not only her “friends” but also her help and strangers in order to get what she wants. In chapter twenty one Miss Hilly says, “I want that initiative in the newsletter before election time…or I'm calling upstairs, missy” (Stockett, 330). In this particular part of the book Miss Hilly is trying to get Skeeter to put her bathroom initiative in the monthly league newsletter by threatening to call the people in charge of the whole league organization and get her fired. In chapter two Minny, a black maid, calls Aibileen, another black maid, to tell her what has happened: “Say Miss Hilly told …show more content…

In the beginning of the book Miss Hilly is able to convince Miss Leefolt, Aibileen’s employer, to build a separate bathroom for Aibileen to use. “She's upset because the Nigra uses the guest bathroom and so do we... Elizabeth, if you had the choice wouldn't you rather them take their business outside” (Stockett, 9). Miss Hilly refuses to use the same bathroom as Aibileen so instead of getting over the fact that Aibileen uses the guest bathroom she instead convinces Miss Leefolt that the best course of action is to build her her own bathroom outside. Miss Hilly also says, “But Aibileen colored people and white people are just so…different” (Stockett, 218). This comment is in response to something Aibileen said about colored people and white people going to the same school and using the same facilities. Miss Hilly's attitude about integration and change in her community is not a positive

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In Anne Moody’s autobiography, Coming of Age in Mississippi, she discusses the hardships that “negroes” faced during a time when segregation was prevalent. Anne Moody, or Essie Mae, as she was often referred to in the book, was a black rights activist. Certain events lead her to be such a strong advocate for African Americans. Her first memory of being separated from white people was at the movie theatre. Children were the last to see color, so they did not realize how sternly the segregation was enforced.

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Kathryn Stockett’s The Help, attests to the hateful and cruel reality that is the life of African Americans in Jackson, Mississippi circa the 1960’s. Stockett writes many anecdotes surrounding the relationship between Constantine, an African American maid, and the child she cares for, Skeeter. Skeeter reflects upon a memory of Constantine and

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The Help focuses on the story of a upper class writer that tries to find her social identity as well as others. With help from the maids of Jackson, Mississippi, they all overcome stereotypes and discrimination. Aibileen's story was the foundation idea for Skeeter because she had been through so much in her life that she decided to tell her story. The fact that she was black, and a woman the role of a maid for the upper class families were passed down from generations so she saw her fair share of being looked down upon. Being a part of the Black/African African race, there were certain things

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(The Help, 2011) Inspired by this, Aibileen amends her fear and becomes the first of the maids to disclose her story to Skeeter. She realizes the danger that could result from her decision, but she embraces the risk and relies on her faith for guidance. Aibileen wrestled with just how much courage she would need to do what Skeeter had asked her to do, despite the "bitter seed" planted inside of her. The convergence of Skeeter and Aibileen is a result of the courage demonstrated by Aibileen. Subsequently, Aibileen muses to herself, “God says we need to love our enemies, it hard to do, but it can start by telling the truth."

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By using different topics and putting her characters in uncomfortable situations and making them address the problems in their lives and confronting the risk of writing a book about the treatment of the help and also by using realistic situations and realistic personalities, Stockett chooses a interesting choice of have three different perspectives. Kathryn makes all of her characters choices have a cause and effect on other characters everyone in the book she is affect one way or another by the release of Skeeter book at the end of the

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In the novel The Help, Stockett writes about the lives of the African American women working for the prominent white families and the trial and tribulations that they have encountered. The African American women are the people who are taking care of the white families home and children while being disrespected and unappreciated by their boss. “I’d like to write this showing the point of view of the help. The colored women down here.' I tried to picture Constantine's face, Aibileen's. '

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Although a futile act it may seem, as she in the end cannot stop the cancerous ulcers she has from taking her life, her stubbornness about her death, allows her daughter, Skeeter, to have the courage to accept the job she was offered in New York City, along with a push from Aibileen and Minny. This is the second least important element, as although there are more things that have been kept or altered between the two forms, it wraps up Skeeter’s part in the book, putting it on the bottom of the list. The second least important element in this book to be kept or change is How Minny left Leroy. In both forms of “The Help”, Minny Jackson ends up leaving her husband, Leroy, with her kids, but why and how she leaves him changes with the media. In the book Minny tells the readers that while she is pregnant Leroy does not beat her

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