Aibileen: The African-American maid who struggles with the death of her son and the discrimination she gets at work everyday from the Leefolts, but is still able to love the Leefolt's toddler Mae Mobley, and her best friend Minny.
Minny: A spunky maid who can't be controlled by anyone, other than her drunken husband who routinely beats her. After living with a drunk father and now having to take care of her drunk husband, Minny has developed a shield around her heart that, at first, seems impenetrable. However, the more you read, the more you see that her stubbornness and pride can only be matched in intensity with her love for her friends and children.
Eugenia Phelan, AKA Skeeter: a lost, white woman who can't seem to get away from her mother badgering her about men and is one of the only white women who is sympathetic to the maids. She ends up risking her life to write a book about the maids' trying lives.
Miss Hilly: the kind of haughty, self-centered person you just want to strangle. The daughter of Miss Walters, Hilly takes it into her own hands to fire Minny and tell the whole town that Minny stole from her, ruining Minny's chances of ever finding a job again. She ruins practically everybody's lives by the end of he book.
Miss Leefolt: Aibileen's mistress who can't seem to love her daughter and completely follows Miss Hilly's footsteps.
Miss Celia: The Air-brained woman that secretly becomes Minny's mistress. The set up is perfect for both of them: Minny doesn't want Miss Hilly fiding out about her new job, and Miss Celia doesn't want her husband to know she has a maid. Having grown up in Sugar Ditch, Mississippi, sometimes Miss Celia cannot put her white-trash past behind her, but she is a caring woman who just wants to be excepted by Miss Hilly and have kids.
The plot is just as powerful as the characters. The narrators change every few chapters from Aibileen to Minny to Skeeter. Because of this, you get a true feeling of what life would have been like for both the African-Americans and the whites of that time. Skeeter is the only woman in her town who is sympathetic towards the maids, and she ends up writing a book on Aibileen, Minny and many other maids' lives. This brings her life, and the lives of all the maids' in danger, especially when the book ends up on the bed side table of every mistress in the state. All the maids' soon see their lives spiraling out of control.
I would have given this book five stars if it wasn't for Skeeter. She is an irritating woman who can only think of the negative pars of her life, and doesn't appreciate how much her mother loves her until she needs her. She spends most of the book hole up in her bedroom, and then she complains of not having any friends. I understand that Skeeter was an essential character in The Help, but the book would have been much better if she wasn't one of the narrators.
Read The Help. I assure, you you will love it!
