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Chapters 14–18

Summary: Aibileen, Chapter 14

One afternoon, while Hilly and her children visit Elizabeth, Hilly begins talking about the bathroom initiative. Elizabeth tries to change the subject, but Hilly continues, saying how the government “knows best.” Hilly mentions finding Skeeter’s satchel, and Aibileen tenses up. That night, Aibileen thinks of how women dole out punishment differently than men. Rather than using brute force, women take their time to ruin a person’s reputation until they are left without job prospects or a place to live. The next night, Skeeter calls Aibileen and tells her that Hilly took the Jim Crow booklet from her satchel. A few days later, Aibileen learns that Medgar Evers, a field secretary for the NAACP, was shot and killed by a Ku Klux Klan member. 

Summary: Aibileen, Chapter 15 

The day after Medgar Evers’s funeral, Aibileen tells Mae Mobley a story about two girls, one Black and one white, who see that they are the same except for the color of their skin. A few days later, Aibileen goes with Elizabeth and Mae Mobley to the country club as Hilly’s guest. Skeeter, who was playing tennis, greets Hilly and Elizabeth, who make excuses for not returning her calls. After Skeeter probes Hilly, Hilly mentions what she found in Skeeter’s satchel. Skeeter insists she simply took the booklet home to read. Skeeter distracts Hilly by changing the subject to her husband’s campaign for state Senate. As Skeeter leaves, she and Aibileen exchange a glance of relief.

Summary: Aibileen, Chapter 16 

After a community meeting, Aibileen talks with Yule May, whose twin sons will be starting college that fall. Yule May says they need to save more money before the school year begins. Yule May says she has heard about the stories Aibileen is working on with Skeeter. Yule May asks Aibileen to confirm that the maids’ names are being changed and asks if they can talk more in private another time. As Yule May leaves, Aibileen realizes Yule May has wanted Aibileen to ask her to participate.

Summary: Minny, Chapter 17 

After church one Sunday, Aibileen asks Minny if she can do another interview with Skeeter. Minny finds she cares more about making sure her children are treated more fairly when working in service than larger issues. That night at dinner, Minny’s husband Leroy reads a story about a sit-in at a drug store. Leroy tells their kids they are not to get involved with such issues. Minny fears what Leroy would do to her if he found out she was working with Skeeter.

Minny resolves to find out what Celia’s hiding. She sneaks upstairs and watches from the hallway as Celia begins drinking from one of many brown bottles. Minny remembers her father drinking from similar bottles and realizes Celia is an alcoholic. One day, Celia says she is grateful to have a friend like Minny. Minny grows angry, tells Celia they are not friends and threatens to pour what is in the bottles down the drain. Celia orders Minny to go home, threatening to fire her. 

Summary: Minny, Chapter 18 

Minny returns to Celia’s house, where Celia appears sick, though doesn’t object to Minny doing her regular work. Minny checks on Celia after she has been in the bathroom for a long time. Eventually, Celia opens the door, and Minny sees there is a great deal of blood in the toilet. Celia asks Minny to call her doctor, Dr. Tate. As they wait for the doctor, Celia tells Minny that she was five months pregnant, and this is not the first time she has lost a baby. Minny says she could not have expected to stay pregnant while drinking so much whiskey, though Celia is confused. Celia explains that the bottles contain a tonic she ordered from a Native American tribe that she thought would help her keep the pregnancy. Dr. Tate arrives and tends to Celia.

Analysis: Chapters 14–18

In these chapters, both Aibileen and Minny begin to understand the power they wield in telling their stories. Although Minny is still skeptical of Skeeter’s motives, she feels compelled to keep participating in the interviews. Minny thinks of the change she could help create on a very practical level. Rather than changing laws, Minny simply hopes that putting her stories out into the world will compel white women to think about how they treat their maids so that Minny’s daughters do not have to endure the same treatment as Minny. This shows Minny doesn’t have aspirations for her children beyond doing the same work as Minny and her mother before her. However, Minny’s belief that she can help influence a small bit of change to make that work more bearable for her children shows that she is more optimistic than she lets on. Not only does Minny feel capable of effecting change by telling her stories, but she also feels unburdened by sharing them with others, showing that storytelling can be powerful on both a societal and personal level. Aibileen, meanwhile, uses her own stories to help teach Mae Mobley about equality.

The quiet upheaval occurring under the cover of darkness in Aibileen’s house mirrors the upheaval of society at large. While the main characters and specific plot of The Help are fictional, Medgar Evers was a real person who was assassinated due to his outspoken opposition to racism. Including real-life figures like Medgar Evers and James Meredith in an otherwise fictional novel shows, first of all, that the racism and segregation experienced by the characters are not exaggerated and also how high the stakes were for doing anything that could be conceived of as sympathetic toward the civil rights movement. What Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny are doing may not seem that dangerous. However, Medgar Evers’s murder reminds them of what could happen if they are discovered.

The main characters of The Help are all women, with any male characters having mostly insignificant roles. At this point in the novel, it is 1963, a time when women still had relatively little freedom to do as they wanted. However, in Chapter 14, Aibileen considers how white women have figured out how to wield what power they do have. While men will use violence, women use nothing more than their words. Though words may not seem that destructive, rumors and gossip can get someone fired and prevent them from getting hired, which could lead to the loss of their home, the dissolution of their family unit, and possibly the desperation to do something illegal to get by. Still, both Celia’s and Minny’s arcs show how regardless of race or social class, women remain under the heel of men in society. Though Celia’s husband is caring, Celia’s doctor threatens to tell her husband about her miscarriages against her wishes. Minny, meanwhile, lives in constant fear that her husband Leroy will beat her, whether he finds out about her participation in the interviews or not. This shows that all of the women in the novel have more in common than they realize.

Minny’s experiences with Celia in these chapters show how appearances can be deceiving. All of Minny’s previous experiences with white people have influenced how Minny sees Celia. From their first meeting, Minny judges Celia as lazy and trashy. When Minny finds Celia’s bottles, she immediately assumes she is an alcoholic based on her own experience with her father. However, in Chapter 18, Minny discovers the reason behind most of Celia’s quirks is the difficulty she has had in keeping pregnancies. With five children of her own, this is not something Minny has ever had to grapple with. Minny is now able to see Celia and her seemingly odd tendencies in a new light, showing her initial judgment was wrong.

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