Summary The story begins in August 1962 in the kitchen of Elizabeth Leefolt. Aibileen is caring for the plump two-year-old Mae Mobley Leefolt whom she affectionately calls Baby Girl. Aibileen’s own son, Treelore, was killed months before she began working at the Leefolt residence. Treelore fell from a loading dock […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Chapters 1-2 – Aibileen

Elizabeth Leefolt Skeeter’s childhood friend who is consumed with making her home look nicer than it is. She seems to have little interest in being a mother and is annoyed by her own daughter, Mae Mobley. Elizabeth cares about appearances and will do anything to protect her reputation. Mae Mobley […]

Read more Character List and Analysis Minor Characters

A newcomer to Jackson, Celia desperately wants to belong to the Junior League but finds herself unwelcome because she married Hilly’s ex-boyfriend, Johnny Foote. Celia hires Minny to secretly cook and to clean so Johnny does not discover her lack of womanly skills. Celia’s backwoods upbringing and glamorous Hollywood looks […]

Read more Character List and Analysis Celia Rae Foote

Hilly is Skeeter’s childhood friend turned wealthy Jackson socialite. She is the president of the Junior League and married to a future politician. She enforces the need for segregation and punishes anyone who disagrees. Hilly tries to control the white women in Jackson, Mississippi, and holds tight to power through […]

Read more Character List and Analysis Hilly Holbrook

Minny, a black maid and Aibileen’s best friend, has five children and is married to Leroy. She is highly regarded for her cooking skills, but her outspokenness often leads to getting fired. Minny develops an uneasy friendship with her employer, Celia Rae, who becomes devoted to her. Celia and Minny […]

Read more Character List and Analysis Minny

Aibileen is a wise and weathered black maid who has raised seven white children. She works for Elizabeth Leefolt and adores toddler Mae Mobley Leefolt— even though she knows that the loving relationship could hurt them both. Aibileen has changed since her son’s death, and she finds that she cannot […]

Read more Character List and Analysis Aibileen

Skeeter is the 22-year-old privileged daughter of a cotton plantation owner. She returns to Jackson, Mississippi, following her college graduation and finds that her perspective on the division between white Southern households and black maids has changed. Skeeter wants to be a writer, but her mother wants her to be […]

Read more Character List and Analysis “Eugenia “”Skeeter”” Phelan”

The Help, Kathryn Stockett’s debut novel, tells the story of black maids working in white Southern homes in the early 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi, and of Miss Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, a 22-year-old graduate from Ole Miss, who returns to her family’s cotton plantation, Longleaf, to find that her beloved maid […]

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