ipl-logo

Miss Hilly In Kathryn Stockett's The Help

651 Words3 Pages

The villain in Kathryn Stockett’s work, The Help, is Miss Hilly Holbrook. What makes Miss Hilly a villain is that she is controlling and manipulative to everyone, she also does not like the idea of integration, and the last thing that makes Miss Hilly a villain is she is very rude to those around her. Miss Hilly Holbrook is villainous because she controls and manipulates not only her “friends” but also her help and strangers in order to get what she wants. In chapter twenty one Miss Hilly says, “I want that initiative in the newsletter before election time…or I'm calling upstairs, missy” (Stockett, 330). In this particular part of the book Miss Hilly is trying to get Skeeter to put her bathroom initiative in the monthly league newsletter by threatening to call the people in charge of the whole league organization and get her fired. In chapter two Minny, a black maid, calls Aibileen, another black maid, to tell her what has happened: “Say Miss Hilly told …show more content…

In the beginning of the book Miss Hilly is able to convince Miss Leefolt, Aibileen’s employer, to build a separate bathroom for Aibileen to use. “She's upset because the Nigra uses the guest bathroom and so do we... Elizabeth, if you had the choice wouldn't you rather them take their business outside” (Stockett, 9). Miss Hilly refuses to use the same bathroom as Aibileen so instead of getting over the fact that Aibileen uses the guest bathroom she instead convinces Miss Leefolt that the best course of action is to build her her own bathroom outside. Miss Hilly also says, “But Aibileen colored people and white people are just so…different” (Stockett, 218). This comment is in response to something Aibileen said about colored people and white people going to the same school and using the same facilities. Miss Hilly's attitude about integration and change in her community is not a positive

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Aibileen's Opinions On Race

    239 Words  | 1 Pages

    Summary: Aibileen is becoming more confident and vocal about her opinions on race, especially after a member of the NAACP is killed by someone who is presumed to be KKK. Hilly also confronts Skeeter about a booklet about the Jim Crow laws that she had seen Skeeter reading because she says it would be bad for her husband’s image as he is running for the state senate. Hilly’s maid, Yule May, also agrees to be interviewed by Skeeter. Personal Connection: Most of this chapter is about things changing, whether it is relations between blacks and whites or a new tension between Hilly and Skeeter. I feel like this time in my life involves a lot of changes.

    Read More

  • Racial Segregation In Melba Pattillo Beals 'Warriors Don' T Cry

    600 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the memoir Warriors Don’t Cry, Melba Pattillo Beals details her and the rest of the Little Rock Nines’ struggles against segregationists in their attempt to integrate Central High School. They fought through constant harassment and death threats on their journey to become the first black students to successfully complete a school year at a previously all-white school. The book highlights the effects of racial segregation while emphasizing the importance of perseverance and resilience when facing adversity. One of the major themes of the book is the effects of racial discrimination and segregation. Everything from bathrooms to water fountains were separate and black people were treated as second-class citizens.

    Read More

  • The Help Rhetorical Analysis Essay

    1025 Words  | 5 Pages

    By using different topics and putting her characters in uncomfortable situations and making them address the problems in their lives and confronting the risk of writing a book about the treatment of the help and also by using realistic situations and realistic personalities, Stockett chooses a interesting choice of have three different perspectives. Kathryn makes all of her characters choices have a cause and effect on other characters everyone in the book she is affect one way or another by the release of Skeeter book at the end of the

    Read More

  • Still Separate, Still Unequal

    650 Words  | 3 Pages

    One teacher Kozol interviewed at a school where 95 percent of the students were either black, asian, hispanic or native american, told him “not with bitterness but wistfully--of seeing clusters of white parents and their children each morning on the corner of a street close to the school, waiting for a bus that took the children to a predominately white school”. (p.203)

    Read More

  • Personal Narrative: My Aunt Bernadette

    593 Words  | 3 Pages

    TITLE, Lauren Helgason, September 25, 2015 Over a year ago my Aunt Bernadette and my Uncle Glenn got divorced. My Aunt didn’t take it very well, but to the rest of my family it didn’t come as much of a surprise. They were always fighting with each other over petty things and didn’t get along. However, my Aunt couldn’t accept that she was part of the problem, so she decided to push the blame onto someone else.

    Read More

  • The Crucible Greed

    952 Words  | 4 Pages

    Although the novel, The Crucible took place a long time ago, the ideas and aspects of the play connect strongly to our current lives. A common theme that relates to modern America is greed. Abigail Williams, who takes part in the majority of the play definitely is the instigator of issues. All of the town 's problems somehow connect back to her. The strongest connections to me are the use of rumors, peer pressure, and wanting to gain power.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Housing Frameworks In Gainesville

    396 Words  | 2 Pages

    1. Camara Phyllis Jones, a framework of institutional, personally mediated and internalized racism each brings an example of many things we’ve read about in class throughout, the issue of perception and personal issues that have been. Through the housing frameworks in Gainesville itself and in other communities in the states all across America internalized, personally mediated and institutional racism all plays a huge role in analyzing how and why some communities are safe and secure and others are polluted and less secure, on why some schools get more funded than others, they reflect on the systems privilege, unintentional and intentional racism, along with numerous structural barriers that keep people of color of actually succeeding in place

    Read More

  • Coming Of Age In Mississippi By Anne Moody

    425 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Anne Moody’s autobiography, Coming of Age in Mississippi, she discusses the hardships that “negroes” faced during a time when segregation was prevalent. Anne Moody, or Essie Mae, as she was often referred to in the book, was a black rights activist. Certain events lead her to be such a strong advocate for African Americans. Her first memory of being separated from white people was at the movie theatre. Children were the last to see color, so they did not realize how sternly the segregation was enforced.

    Read More

  • Character Analysis Of Janie In Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale

    829 Words  | 4 Pages

    Mrs. Turner does not like dark skinned people and likes only light skinned people like Janie. She thinks that Janie is better than herself because of her lighter skin color. She treats all light skinned people kindly and dark skinned people unkindly. She is always speaking good of light skinned people but badly about dark skinned people.

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried, By Zora Neale Hurston

    1746 Words  | 7 Pages

    Kathryn Stockett’s The Help, attests to the hateful and cruel reality that is the life of African Americans in Jackson, Mississippi circa the 1960’s. Stockett writes many anecdotes surrounding the relationship between Constantine, an African American maid, and the child she cares for, Skeeter. Skeeter reflects upon a memory of Constantine and

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Help By Kathryn Stockett

    1546 Words  | 7 Pages

    Although a futile act it may seem, as she in the end cannot stop the cancerous ulcers she has from taking her life, her stubbornness about her death, allows her daughter, Skeeter, to have the courage to accept the job she was offered in New York City, along with a push from Aibileen and Minny. This is the second least important element, as although there are more things that have been kept or altered between the two forms, it wraps up Skeeter’s part in the book, putting it on the bottom of the list. The second least important element in this book to be kept or change is How Minny left Leroy. In both forms of “The Help”, Minny Jackson ends up leaving her husband, Leroy, with her kids, but why and how she leaves him changes with the media. In the book Minny tells the readers that while she is pregnant Leroy does not beat her

    Read More

  • Courage In The Help

    696 Words  | 3 Pages

    (The Help, 2011) Inspired by this, Aibileen amends her fear and becomes the first of the maids to disclose her story to Skeeter. She realizes the danger that could result from her decision, but she embraces the risk and relies on her faith for guidance. Aibileen wrestled with just how much courage she would need to do what Skeeter had asked her to do, despite the "bitter seed" planted inside of her. The convergence of Skeeter and Aibileen is a result of the courage demonstrated by Aibileen. Subsequently, Aibileen muses to herself, “God says we need to love our enemies, it hard to do, but it can start by telling the truth."

    Read More

  • Social Stratification In The Movie The Help

    610 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Help is set in Jackson, Mississippi during the 1960s. Skeeter, a southern society girl, interviews the black women who have spent their lives being servants for wealthy white Southern families. There are various scenes throughout the film that show social stratification, racial inequalities, gender inequalities, and class inequalities. Massey’s Social Stratification Theory states that humans allocate people to different categories. These categories often lead to inequality which is implemented socially.

    Read More

  • Conflict In The Help

    759 Words  | 4 Pages

    The profound novel, The Help, can be interpreted as having many themes and subliminal messages about life, but to truly understand the meaning of them, the conflicting points must be recognized. Due to the fact that the setting of the novel is during segregation, the friction between blacks and whites is what creates the novel. Although it is easily recognizable that one of the main conflicts is segregation, there is a major conflict between two prominent characters, Hilly and Skeeter, wealthy white women. Some of the issues within this novel lye in location and the social aspects of living in a small southern town in that time. There are several underlying conflicts in The Help, but the main one that sets up all the themes are the conflicts

    Read More

  • The Tortilla Curtain: Racism And Discrimination

    1084 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the novel The Help, Stockett writes about the lives of the African American women working for the prominent white families and the trial and tribulations that they have encountered. The African American women are the people who are taking care of the white families home and children while being disrespected and unappreciated by their boss. “I’d like to write this showing the point of view of the help. The colored women down here.' I tried to picture Constantine's face, Aibileen's. '

    Read More

More about Miss Hilly In Kathryn Stockett's The Help

Open Document