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The Help takes place between the summers of 1962 and 1964 in Jackson, Mississippi. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights movement, the novel focuses on a reckoning on race and segregation in a far more intimate sphere than the national stage: the home. Alternating between the perspectives of two Black maids, Aibileen and Minny, and one white woman, Skeeter, who’s mourning the disappearance of her own maid, The Help shows how personal prejudices and racist government policies influence each other to the detriment of everyone. While people such as Hilly Holbrook try to ensure that Jim Crow segregation laws are adhered to even in private houses, Skeeter and the maids learn that there is more that binds them together than that separates them.

The major conflict of the novel is Skeeter’s desire to write a book from the perspective of Black maids who work for white families. A fledgling writer and recent college graduate without any sense of direction, Skeeter is inspired to write such a book after receiving a letter from Harper & Row editor Elaine Stein encouraging her to write about something that disturbs her. Skeeter’s inspiration is then furthered when Aibileen mentions her deceased son had started writing a book about what it was like for a Black man to work for white people in the South. Though excited by the idea, Skeeter encounters a good deal of resistance to it. She first has trouble finding enough maids to agree to be interviewed by her, afraid of being found out by their employers. Then Elaine Stein casts doubt on whether the book will even be worthy of being published. And finally, the publication of the book puts Skeeter and all the maids who participated in the book in severe danger if their identities are discovered. Still, Skeeter and the maids know that it is because of the risks involved that their stories are important to tell.

The inciting incident occurs when Hilly announces her Home Health Sanitation Initiative. The blatant racism behind the proposal shocks Skeeter into realizing how unfair things truly are for maids and how deeply prejudiced her lifelong friends are. The Leefolts’ construction of an outdoor bathroom also contributes to the bitterness Aibileen has felt ever since the death of her son, which eventually compels Aibileen to agree to be interviewed by Skeeter. This incident also sets up the symbolism of bathrooms and toilets that will appear throughout the novel. Jackson, Mississippi, in the early 1960s is heavily segregated by the Jim Crow laws. However, Hilly wants to further that segregation by introducing it into the home with separate bathrooms. The need to use a bathroom is common among all humans. By advocating for differentiating the rooms people use for bodily functions based on race, Hilly is trying to assert the superiority of white people while at the same time humiliating Black maids like Aibileen. A microcosm of the Jim Crow laws of greater society, these everyday degradations within the home are how women like Hilly try to maintain their power.

The rising action occurs as more maids, starting with Minny, agree to talk to Skeeter. As Skeeter and the maids meet in private at night, Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny each have their personal developments as a result of working on the book. Skeeter begins dating the son of a state senator, Stuart Whitworth, Jr., who proves himself to be more concerned with how his actions impact his father’s political career than his morals. Though Skeeter cares for him, getting to know the maids while writing the book helps her realize that she cannot put aside her principles for a man. Meanwhile, Aibileen and Minny begin to feel more empowered by their involvement in the book. Aibileen, who was already sick of the status quo, tells Mae Mobley stories to help her see that Black people are not inferior to white people, showing how storytelling can change things on both a societal and personal level. And Minny, who previously despised white people based on how she had been treated for her entire life, learns to look past the facade of her employer, Celia Foote. While Minny initially saw Celia as vain and vapid, over time Minny learns about Celia’s struggles and her strengths and understands that the two women are not necessarily so different after all.

The climax occurs once the book is published, as Skeeter and all of the maids wait for what the aftermath will bring. They hear talk of the book around Jackson, as people speculate which chapter was told from which maid’s perspective. However, the power of writing and storytelling is fully realized as they understand the white women cannot fire or somehow punish their maids without admitting to their ugly behavior. This is especially helped by Minny, who risked her safety in including the story about Hilly eating a pie that contained Minny’s feces, showing the power people like Minny can exert over people like Hilly. In addition to Skeeter avoiding the worst of the potential consequences, the publication of the book also helps her see how much she did not know about people she thought she had figured out, such as Constantine and Lou Anne.

In the end, the publication of the book allows the three narrators to move on to more liberated futures. Skeeter moves to New York to begin her career in publishing, free from the rigid social expectations of her family and Jackson society. Minny, after she is assured a permanent job by Celia and her husband, takes her children and leaves her abusive husband for good. And although Aibileen is fired, she looks forward to what will come next, having secured Skeeter’s former role writing the Miss Myrna column. At the beginning of the novel, Aibileen and Minny did not think any sort of change was possible in Jackson. Yet by having the bravery to tell their stories for the world to read, they and the other maids have shown that there are ways in which they can assert their power and, over time, create real change.

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