Skeeter Phelan In Kathryn Stockett's The Help

In 1962, Jackson, Mississippi was facing racial problems even after segregation was abolished years before. Stores, libraries, and churches were segregated and colored workers and maids had rules such as: not being able to use the same bathroom as the white families they worked for. Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help, uses the character Skeeter Phelan to oppose these morals and to attempt to share the true values of society. Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, was the outcast compared to all of her other so called friends. She was tall with kinky hair and fair skin, which wasn’t considered very charming. She may not have been as beautiful on the outside, but she was so much more than her two-faced, fake friends. At one point in the book, it flashes back

After being on the Dennis James show for a book review, suspicions arose and rumors were spread about whom the book was about. White women were being told to fire their maids and so they did. Skeeter and the maids knew this was bound to happen, but they knew the stories needed to be told. After all the negative results, Skeeter runs into Lou Anne for a more positive reaction. She explains to Skeeter that Hilly told her to fire her maid Louvenia and that she told her that Skeeter was the one who wrote the book. “She’s the only reason I can get out of bed sometimes…She helps me get through my days. When I read what she wrote about me…I’ve never been so grateful in my life” (Stockett 491), Lou Anne admits about her maid. She swears she would never fire Louvenia no matter what Hilly says. When Skeeter learned Lou Anne struggled with depression, she realized there was a lot more to a person than you think. She thinks, “Wasn’t that the point of the book? For women to realize, we are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I’d thought” (Stockett 492). After months of hard work and all the negative feedback, someone finally understood the point of the