The Help: Chapter 19 Summary & Analysis

At her home, Skeeter reads a magazine article about a black man near Jackson who criticized the Mississippi governor. A few days later, a group of white men lynched the man for speaking out. With the racial tensions so high in Jackson, Skeeter realizes how unlikely it is for the other maids to speak about their stories.

Stuart arrives at Skeeter’s home and asks her to join him on a three-day business trip where they’d share a hotel room. They’ve been going out twice a week for two months now, making this the longest relationship Skeeter has ever been in. She considers the offer and thinks about losing her virginity to Stuart. It surprises her that she would even consider sleeping with him since most Jackson women fiercely hold onto their virginity until marriage. Skeeter declines, but before Stuart leaves, he invites her and her parents over for dinner to meet his family. She agrees and they plan to have the dinner in three weeks.

At breakfast a few days later, Skeeter thanks her maid Pascagoula sincerely for the first time. When Skeeter’s mother is out of earshot, Pascagoula whispers to Skeeter that Hilly’s maid, Yule May, has agreed to be interviewed for the book.

A few days later, Skeeter gets a letter from Yule May. She writes that she didn’t have enough money to send both her twins to college and couldn’t face picking one over the other so she decided to steal an ugly ring from Hilly, one she never wore, to pay for the last part of the tuition. When Hilly found out, she pressed charges. Yule May lost the case and the court fines wiped out all their savings. Now neither of her boys can go to college. Yule May writes that she can’t help with the interviews any longer. The letter is signed from the Mississippi State Petitionary.

That night, Skeeter goes to Aibileen’s where her church has gathered to pray for Yule May. They have started a fund to put both of her boys through college. Aibileen tells Skeeter how Yule May first asked Hilly for a loan but she refused, saying charity shouldn’t go to those “well and able.” When Hilly found out that Yule May stole from her, she used her social influence and connections to get Yule May thrown in jail over night. For the small crime of stealing a ring, Yule May is serving a four-year prison sentence. Now seeing the dire need to change Jackson’s racist society, eleven maids from the community come up to Skeeter and commit to telling their stories.

Over the next few days, Skeeter interviews the women at Aibileen’s. Aibileen sits beside the women while they talk, giving them the confidence to tell their stories. Skeeter notices how the women tell stories mixed with undisguised hatred and inexplicable love. Hatred for the way the men would try to touch them, the terrible pay, and the indignities of the work, but also love for the children they raised. Some women tell stories of having babies die in their arms and of wearing their maid uniforms to the children’s weddings.

One woman named Gretchen comes but refuses to contribute her stories. She accuses Skeeter of profiting from the black women’s stories even though Skeeter has already agreed to split any profits evenly with all the maids. When Gretchen says that Skeeter thinks of black women as nothing but “niggers,” Aibileen stands up and demands that Gretchen leave. Taken aback by Gretchen’s accusations, Skeeter sits in silence until Aibileen apologizes for Gretchen, saying that she wouldn’t have let Gretchen come if she knew Gretchen would say what she did. Skeeter says that it’s not Aibileen’s fault and they move on to the next interview. After the interviews are over for the night, Skeeter thinks about how all the women except Gretchen agreed to contribute whatever money they make from the book’s publication to the college fund.