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Who Is Skeeter Phelan In The Help

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Eugenia (Skeeter) Phelan is a main character in Kathryn Stockett’s novel, The Help. Skeeter is a wealthy white woman who has just graduated from college, as opposed to the rest of her friends who did not finish college and instead got married. She is not beautiful as per society’s standards; instead of being petite and feminine, she is very tall, with pale, unruly hair and an awkward disposition. Her features are cause for trouble in her developing years; boys will not ask her to dances and her mother spends most of her life trying to make her daughter beautiful and seen as potential wife material. Her mother’s obsession with her physical appearance strains their relationship, and instead Skeeter becomes who she is because of her maid, Constantine. …show more content…

According to lecture, Gender Schema Theory is a theory that explains how people get their gendered roles in the society that they live in, and how they transmit these roles onto others in their culture (N. Salahuddin, Becoming Gendered: Infancy and Childhood, September 25th, 2015). In Skeeter’s society, women are expected to be demure, petite housewives with no discernible skills other than having babies or playing bridge. Men are supposed to be the ones who get a college education and then jobs to provide for his wife and children. In her society’s schema of women, they are mainly expected to be beautiful, something that Skeeter is not despite her mother’s several attempts at making her so. This gives Skeeter a high sense of awareness of what she looks like; in lecture, this is described as the ‘self’ and is negative on developing children (N. Salahuddin, Becoming Gendered: Infancy and Childhood, September 25th, 2015). Since Skeeter’s appearance does not fit into the society’s gender schema, she often feels excluded, especially as all her friends are married and having babies. In lecture, this could be summed as peer rejection (N. Salahuddin, Becoming Gendered: Infancy and Childhood, September 25th, 2015). However, through her caring upbringing by her maid, Constantine, Skeeter learns to look outside the gendered schemas of society, and chooses to be who she feels is the best version of herself, even if it is different. Skeeter already sees herself as fitting outside society’s schema of being a woman, thus she does not feel pressured to conform to the other parts of the schema, such as being dainty or not

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In the Help, Skeeter has to sacrifice her relationship with all of her friends in order to stand up for what she actually believed in. She wanted to make a major change in the way things worked in Jackson because she kept a relationship with her maid, Constantine. Sacrifice is key with all of the maids and Skeeter because it is the obstacle of actually writing the book. Every writer has to make sacrifices when writing a novel. Skeeter is a great representation as she loses her friendships, her relationship with Stuart Whitworth, and spending time with her sick mother in order to make a bigger change.

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When Celia Foote, a woman from a poor town who marries into riches, is mentioned around the socialite girls of Jackson, they treat her as underprivileged. At first Skeeter does nothing, but she sees her friend Hilly make rude remarks about Celia. Hilly comments, “She can’t take a hint can she? … The tacky girl Johnny married … Mail’s a lot slower way out there in the county, huh?”. Skeeter hears this, and starts to rebel against Hilly’s views.

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Skeeter views Aibileen as a person that struggles in life with the fact that she isn’t white. To everyone Aibileen is perceived as a minority or lower class so throughout the film Aibileen treated with disrespect and taken advantage off. Luckily for her Skeeter helps her out and is practically her voice by taking out and showing Aibileen’s truth and perception of the world in which she lives in. Skeeter did this story for both her and Aibileen, she wanted a job in New York as a writer and saw how bady Aibileen needed her help. Overall Skeeter continued to ask Aibileen to help her write the book until she agreed afterwards Skeeter thought that Aibileen was a hero for sticking up and knowing what some possible outcomes would be like threats

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Growing up in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s, Eugenia Phelan was expected to conform to the values of southern women in order to maintain the status quo. Of these unwritten but well known sets of rules included women marrying young to demonstrate their value and keeping the social conditions as they were. Due to having different values, Eugenia finds herself ostracized by the people who at one point she considered close loved ones. Although surrounded by numerous opposing forces Eugenia chooses independence over conformity by being ambitious and gaining strength by educating herself.

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Phelan’s expectations placed on her daughter affects Skeeter’s image of herself. Charlotte Phelan wanted Skeeter to get married and have children while she was still young, but Skeeter’s appearance was not acceptable enough to her in order for her to believe that Skeeter could actually engage with a man. Mrs. Phelan made Skeeter feel extremely self-conscious about her height, her hair, and her clothes by constantly commenting on her appearance and height, booking her hair appointments, trying out new hairstyles on her to make her appear shorter, or by sending her shopping. On top of her disapproval of Skeeter’s appearance, Charlotte Phelan made sure that Skeeter knew she disapproved of her idea to get a job as a writer, and not as a housewife and mother which was society’s norm in the 1960s. She criticized Skeeter’s choice of education by saying, “ ‘Four years my daughter goes off to college and what does she come home with? …

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