11.13.11-11.20.11

The Help   Pg. 328-391

11.15.11    8:45-10:15 (90 minutes)

                All of the women are beginning to find out that Skeeter and Stuart are on the outs. And if Hilly has anything to say about it, it will stay that way. She is still upset that Skeeter has been reading those “laws.” Hilly is more upset, though, that when Skeeter finally announced Hilly’s bathroom project in the League newsletter, there was a “small typo” in the winter coat drive section causing everyone in town to take all of their donated toilets to Hilly’s house instead of their coats. The picture of her yard covered with toilets was front page of the newspaper for all to see.  Many found the supposed prank amusing while Hilly has threatened to tell Stuart about Skeeter’s view of interracial friendships to keep them apart. And after Hilly shared her feelings with Elizabeth, Elizabeth’s husband instructed Aibileen never to associate with Skeeter—quite a predicament for Aibileen.

                Minny has a very strange experience when a drunken white man trespasses onto Celia’s property. He is threatening Minny so she goes after him to protect Celia. Thinking she has been beat and will have to endure whatever this man plans to do to her, Celia comes into the yard and beats the man until he is nearly dead; he eventually staggers off. What baffles Minny is the fact that Celia, a white woman, was willing to put herself in danger to protect her, a black woman. She can hardly believe that it happened. She is worried about Celia because not only does she not see the lines drawn between white and black (which Minny is grateful for now), but she also does not see the lines between her and the league women she so desperately wishes to be friends with. They think of her as white trash, but she does not see this and continues to pursue them. But she is in for a little wake-up call when she attends The Benefit.

                Hilly is on her high horse at the benefit, everyone telling how great the event is. Everyone is walking around in their fancy, yet modest, gowns—very high class. Miss Celia walks in feeling more beautiful than ever in her deep v, high slit, hot pink gown. The other women gasp while their husbands cannot break their stares. Disgust, with a hint of jealously, fills the room. Celia spends the whole night chasing women she wishes to talk to; upon seeing her approach, many of the women escape her intended path. Out of nervousness Celia has had too much to drink and, after a confrontation with Hilly, vomits everywhere. She begins to realize that she may not fit in well with these women.