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Chapters 19–23

Summary: Miss Skeeter, Chapter 19 

One day while reading Life magazine, Skeeter comes across the story of Carl Roberts, a Black teacher who was lynched after calling the governor of Mississippi immoral, and thinks of how naive she was a few months prior. Stuart invites Skeeter to go down to the coast with him for a few days. Skeeter is tempted, though thinks of the scandal that would ensue if they spent the night together. 

One morning, Pascagoula delivers a letter to Skeeter from Yule May, explaining that she will no longer be able to participate in the book as she is in jail. Trying to come up with the money for her sons’ tuition, Yule May stole a ruby ring that Hilly never wore, but she was caught and arrested. That night, Skeeter goes to Aibileen’s house to find it packed with people. One by one, women approach Skeeter to tell her they will help with her book. Skeeter begins interviews with the new maids and learns of the complex relationship between the maids and the people they work for, as there is often pure love for the children mixed with hatred for their mothers. Skeeter also learns of both the cruelty and kindness of her friends, knowing why her friend Lou Anne could never reveal how she took care of Louvenia after her grandson was attacked.

Summary: Miss Skeeter, Chapter 20 

Skeeter and her parents arrive for dinner at the Whitworths’ house. During dinner, Mr. Whitworth brings up Carl Roberts. Skeeter’s father surprises her by saying he is sometimes ashamed of what happens in Mississippi. Mr. Whitworth, getting progressively drunker, claims Roberts’s words about the governor were unwise, but does not disagree with them. After dinner, Skeeter is cornered by Mr. Whitworth, who drunkenly tells Skeeter that he was worried about Stuart after his engagement was broken off. Skeeter asks to speak to Stuart in private, and Stuart reveals that Patricia had an affair with a civil rights activist. Stuart knew what she did would damage his father’s political career. Skeeter asks Stuart if he is still in love with Patricia, though he simply says he and Skeeter should take a break from seeing each other.

Summary: Miss Skeeter, Chapter 21

Skeeter spends the next several weeks immersed in her work. She feels that she is in more danger than ever, though she knows how important these stories are to tell. At a League meeting one night, Hilly confronts Skeeter over not printing her Home Health Sanitation Initiative in the newsletter and says she will only return Skeeter’s booklet if Skeeter prints the initiative. When Skeeter gets home, she types up the newsletter including Hilly’s initiative, feeling ashamed of what Constantine would think of her.

Summary: Aibileen, Chapter 22

Aibileen wakes Mae Mobley up on her third birthday. Though Elizabeth told her to make a chocolate cake, Aibileen knows strawberry is Mae Mobley’s favorite, so she made both. The next day, Skeeter tells Aibileen she will be gone for the next three days. While Skeeter is gone, Aibileen answers the Leefolts’ phone to hear Hilly screaming for Elizabeth, who quickly rushes over to Hilly’s house. Aibileen takes Mae Mobley on a walk, and when they get to Hilly’s house, they see there are dozens of toilets in the front yard. After returning to the Leefolts’ house, Aibileen pieces together what happened as she hears Elizabeth talking on the phone. In the newsletter, Skeeter printed information about a coat drive under the piece about Hilly’s initiative, though instead of directing people to drop off their old coats at Hilly’s house, she wrote that they should drop off their toilets. A few days later, Hilly shows Elizabeth the booklet of Jim Crow laws. Hilly insists that Elizabeth can no longer be associated with Skeeter. That night, Skeeter returns to Jackson and visits Aibileen and Minny. Skeeter says she will be more careful going forward, though Aibileen fears Skeeter doesn’t know how much danger they are in.

Summary: Aibileen, Chapter 23 

As the summer goes on, Martin Luther King, Jr., delivers his speech during the March on Washington, and four Black girls are killed in a church explosion in Birmingham. One day during bridge club, Aibileen answers the door to find Celia Foote looking for Elizabeth, offering to help with the Children’s Benefit. Elizabeth and Hilly decline her help, though invite her and Johnny to the benefit. While writing a check for the tickets, Celia mentions her maid, Minny. Aibileen overhears Celia saying Elizabeth recommended Minny and she wonders if the lie she told many months ago will be traced back to her.

Analysis: Chapters 19–23

What happens to Yule May in these chapters shows how difficult it is for Black people to rise above the ranks they were born into in 1960s Mississippi. Yule May’s twins have the opportunity to receive a college education, which would have been prohibitively expensive for most people of their economic class. Only seventy-five dollars short, Yule May attempts to procure the money honestly and resorts to petty theft when that fails. Not only does she not get the money she needs, but she loses the money she has worked so hard to save in the process. Yule May’s experience shows how people like Hilly do not see their maids as humans who are their full equals, which is why Hilly feels no qualms about sending her maid to jail for stealing a worthless ring she never wore anyway. The fate of Yule May is exactly what the maids feared would happen if they participated in Skeeter’s interviews. Paradoxically, it turns out to be what pushes them to agree to be interviewed by Skeeter. Yule May’s arrest seems to make the maids realize that their white employers would not hesitate to have them sent to jail for any infraction, real or imagined, so they might as well do something that could make these women start to see them as human.

As Skeeter interviews more maids, she sees her own family’s relationship with Constantine reflected in the stories she hears. Like many of the children the maids look after, Skeeter saw Constantine as more of a maternal figure than her mother. This dynamic is also present in Aibileen’s relationship with Mae Mobley. Aibileen knows Mae Mobley better than Elizabeth does, as proven by her familiarity with Mae Mobley’s preferred flavor of cake. Despite this intimacy between the maids and the children, the relationships with the children’s mothers are not as warm nor are they seen as equals. What seems to surprise Skeeter more about these relationships, though, is not the cruelty of her friends but instead their kindness. She understands that if Lou Anne shared how she helped Louvenia, Lou Anne would be ostracized. Though society tries to dictate what the relationship between a maid and the family she works for should be, these stories prove that people are far too complex to be boxed into a certain role.

Skeeter is also surprised by the intricacies in both her own father’s and Stuart’s father’s views on Carl Roberts. In keeping with the rest of Jackson society, Skeeter likely assumed neither man would address the topic or that they would express contempt for Roberts. However, both seem to feel some measure of sympathy toward him and remorse for the way Black people are treated in Mississippi. However, these views would not be expressed anywhere besides in the privacy of their homes. Though Stuart wanted to continue his relationship with Patricia, he knew a story about her affair with a civil rights activist would be enough to end his father’s political career. While not everyone is who they appear to be on the outside, in early 1960s Jackson, keeping up certain appearances is the only option that seems viable to most of the characters.

Skeeter is not immune from this need to keep up appearances, though she is becoming increasingly frustrated with the constraints of society. Though she is tempted to spend the night with Stuart, she turns him down only because of what others would think of her. Even though Skeeter is falling in love with Stuart, she knows sharing the book she is writing with him would spell the end of their relationship, so she continues to keep it a secret. However, after Stuart breaks off their relationship, Skeeter seems to feel more freedom to do as she pleases, as she sets her own supposed best friend up for a prank that she knows will not go over well.

The symbol of toilets is again used in these chapters, as Skeeter ensures that a bunch of them end up in Hilly’s front yard. Skeeter’s trip out of town and her assurance that Aibileen is aware of it shows that the directive in the newsletter to leave toilets at Hilly’s house was no simple misprint. Hilly spends an inordinate amount of time talking about bathrooms and toilets throughout the novel. However, she is horrified to see them in front of her. Hilly prefers not to acknowledge the existence of Jim Crow laws, though she is happy to perpetuate them as subtly as she can. The toilets in her yard symbolize how she is confronted by the ugly ideas and beliefs she tries to leave.

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