The Help 4

I am still reading “The Help” (because I have to read other books for the book bowl), which is about Skeeter’s book. She writes undercover and interviews maids to see what it is like to work for white families. I think that the book revolves around Hilly, the president of the League. She knows almost everybody in the town and all of the characters are afraid of her. “Help”, the title of Skeeter’s book, causes quite a ruckus in Jackson, Mississippi, and of course, Hilly is in the center of it.

 Hilly is a quirky character. On the one hand, she is very nice to all of her friends and has them over to play bridge and hang out. She has a popular side of her too, the side everyone sees most. She knows everyone in the town and always must know what is going on. But, she has a gossip side as well. Whenever she has the smallest hunch about Skeeter’s whereabouts or anyone else’s, she tells everyone she knows. She hurts many people this way. After Skeeter publishes her book, Hilly spread both true and false rumors about who is in the book. She tells people to fire their maids, and even send them to jail. But because of this, people are starting to realize that Hilly is not such a nice person. One woman, Lou Anne, tells Skeeter that Hilly is wrong and that she would never send her maid to jail, or even fire her. I think that later in the book, this will start a wave of rebels against Hilly. I predict Skeeter will become president of the League because people (only the people who believe what Hilly said about Skeeter writing the book) know she wrote the book, but are proud. Lou Anne already told Skeeter that she was not going to vote for Hilly again. One thing I wonder, though, is if Hilly knows that people don’t like it when she gossips. Does she know that she is only hurting herself though she thinks she is hurting other people? I think that if she did know that, she would stop telling people all of these things. But the fact that she changed her mind and now thinks that the book does not take place in Jackson (it does) makes me think that she knows she is spreading some false knowledge.

Hilly finds it entertaining to hurt people. She is known for revenge and does a good job holding up that title. But if it wasn’t for Skeeter, Hilly may not be liked in the town anymore. The book is making people realize that she is selfish and wants to see people suffer. But that will backfire, and fewer and fewer people will like Hilly, the same thing that had happened to Skeeter.