The Help: Chapter 12 Summary & Analysis

Every other night for two weeks, Skeeter goes to Aibileen’s to hear Aibileen read her stories. Skeeter realizes that Aibileen’s clear, honest style of writing means that Skeeter won’t need to rewrite the stories herself. During the fifth session, Aibileen reads to Skeeter about the day Treelore died. She reads about how his body was thrown on the back of a pickup by the white foreman and taken to the black hospital. The nurses told Aibileen that the men rolled his body off the truck and then just drove off.

After a few meetings, Aibileen asks Skeeter to check out some classic works of literature from the white library so that she can improve her own writing. Skeeter agrees, but asks why Aibileen why she waited so long to ask for this. Aibileen says she doesn’t know which white rules Skeeter follows and which she doesn’t. Skeeter says that she’s tired of these rules and Aibileen chuckles softly and looks out the window. Skeeter realizes how “thin this revelation” about the rules must seem to Aibileen.

After the two weeks of interviews, Skeeter spends four days straight organizing Aibileen’s stories into a twenty-seven page manuscript. Whenever her mother Charlotte asks what Skeeter is up to all day, Skeeter lies and says she’s writing down all the things she loves about Jesus. Skeeter knows that her mother, an old-fashioned Southern woman, would try to put a stop to her writing if she found out that Skeeter was helping a maid speak out against her white employers. On the morning of the fifth day, Skeeter mails the manuscript to Elaine Stein.

The following day, Skeeter plays bridge with Elizabeth and Hilly at Elizabeth’s. Elizabeth announces that she is pregnant and that the baby is due in October. The women congratulate her and Elizabeth lights a cigarette and says without emotion that she’s “real excited.” Before Skeeter leaves, Hilly gives her the bathroom bill ad that she wants Skeeter to run in the next newsletter. The ad says that whites can catch “colored diseases” because “we lack immunities coloreds carry in their darker pigmentation” and that “some germs carried by whites can also be harmful to coloreds too.” The ad ends with the lines, “Protect yourself. Protect your children. Protect your help.”

Ten days later, Elaine Stein gets back to Skeeter, saying she likes the material and that she wants Skeeter to get interviews from twelve more maids. Skeeter gasps with excitement that Elaine wants her to write a whole book’s worth of stories. Elaine says that she wants a draft of the book before New Years so that she can decide if she wants to publish it “before this civil rights thing blows over.” After Stein hangs up, Skeeter realizes that no other maids are willing to contribute their stories, which dampens her excitement about the possibility of publishing her first book.

That evening, Skeeter informs Aibileen that Elaine said that they need twelve more maids if they want the book published. Aibileen says she already asked thirty-one maids in the community, but they all said no. Aibileen sighs and says she’ll ask them all again. A few days later, Aibileen calls Skeeter to tell her that Minny has agreed to be interviewed. Aibileen says that Minny only has one requirement: Skeeter must sit on the opposite side of the table from Minny. Minny, suspicious of white women, wants to be able to keep an eye on Skeeter the whole time.

The interview takes places at Aibileen’s house. Aibileen is there to support and encourage Minny who is visibly distrustful of Skeeter. Minny asks why a white woman would want to help black people and if Skeeter truly knows the danger she’s put them all in. Feeling attacked, Skeeter cannot come up with any answers for her. Aibileen interjects, telling Minny that it’s okay if she doesn’t want to contribute her stories any more. Minny slowly settles into a chair and says that she’ll do it.

Aibileen nods at Skeeter, giving her the okay to begin the interview. Skeeter asks Minny to talk about her experiences working as a maid. The whole time Minny looks at Aibileen as she talks. Skeeter feels as if Minny is trying to forget that Skeeter is even in the room. Minny tells a story about how one employer made her work every evening for weeks and then, without warning, moved out of town before Minny had time to find another job. Telling this story makes Minny angry and she storms out.