The Help: Blog 2

As i mentioned in the first blog about some of the main characters, i want to mention another important character; and her name is Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelhan.

Skeeter grew up in Jackson, Mississippi all her life, and has never been anywhere outside Mississippi all her life. But then, she went off to college for four years in hopes of becoming a journalist someday. She is now back from college after the four years have finally past, and she is home, but curiously wondering where their black maid Constantine, has gone. She was the black help who raised Skeeter, and has been Skeeter's best friend all Skeeter's life. Skeeter is back home, and she is looking around, the town, her white friends, all over; and sees racism everywhere she goes. Her best friend Hilly, who i will talk more about in the next paragraph, is the probably the worst, more racist person there is in all of Mississippi, maybe even all of down South. Skeeter keeps thinking to herself "I wish i could make this change." One day, she even asks Aibileen, Skeeter's other friend, Miss Elizabeth Leefolt, if she ever wished things could change. Aibileen just brushes Skeeter's question, thinking it the stupidest question any person could ever ask. But Aibileen kept on thinking and imagining what it would be like without all the tense racist issues going on in her mind. I will talk about the plan Skeeter hatches in the next blog or so.

Hilly Holbroock... the devils wife i like to call her. Even Minny Jackson says that she believes Hilly was sent from hell to destroy the black people's lives. I suppose i have to agree with her. Hilly has to be one of the most abominable woman i have ever read about in a story. She tries her hardest to make sure the black people either get thrown in jail or get beaten up by the white men. One day, her black maid Yule May, asks Miss Hilly for a raise on her allowance; because Yule wants to send both her sons to college and is short 75 dollars and doesn't want to send just one, Miss Hilly just says that it wouldn't be Christian of her to give charity to those capable of working, and doesn't give Yule May the raise. Later while cleaning, Yule May finds a ring under the couch. Thinking to sell it, she quickly takes it, thinking she can finally send her boys to college. Later in the book, we find out that Yule May gets thrown in jail. The author never specifically says so, but you get the distinction that Hilly planted the ring, because later, she says "I knew that Nigra was a thief the minute i saw her. Oh, the ring was fake." Which is kind of a stupid statement because if she knew that she was a "thief", why did she let her continue to work for her? Anyways, it doesn't matter, because back then, the whites did not care much about a white person's faults as much as a blacks. I remember when i went and saw the movie, i wanted to throw something whenever Hilly's face appeared on the big screen, i hated her so much.

I believe though, Hilly Holbrook is a very significant character in the book because the author had to show how bad the white people were to the black, and Hilly really showed how they acted. Although some white people, such as Skeeter Phehlan, wanted things to be different, a lot of them fall right into Hilly's category, although maybe not as extreme as Hilly.