Happiness Can Be ‘Maid’ by Anybody
“Some pursue happiness— others create it.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
The novel The Help by Kathryn Stockett, tells the story of African American maids working in white Southern homes in Jackson, Mississippi, during the 1960s. This novel also tells the story of Miss Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, a 22 year-old graduate from Ole Miss who returns to her family's cotton plantation, Longleaf, to find that her childhood maid and nanny, Constantine, has left and nobody will tell her why. Skeeter tries to behave like a proper Southern lady by playing bridge with the young married women, listening to her mother’s advice on how to find a husband, and editing the newsletter the Junior league, but her true dream is to become a writer. The only job Skeeter can find that will help her pursue her dream is with the Jackson Journal writing a housekeeping advice column called "Miss Myrna." Skeeter knows little about housekeeping, so she turns to her friend's maid, Aibileen, for answers. Eventually her small advice column gets her a letter from a New York publisher who is interested in Skeeter’s idea of writing true stories from maids in Jackson. She ends up writing a book of narratives on the lives of 12 maids, called The Help and publishes it anonymously. Her novel becomes a national bestseller, and the book becomes a powerful force in giving a voice to the black maids and causes the community of Jackson to reconsider the carefully drawn lines between white and black. Throughout the novel there are many examples of how there are those who are able to create their own happiness and others who spend their life pursuing happiness.
There is one character in particular who is truly able to create happiness even through the hardest of times: Aibileen. Aibileen’s heart is so big, she would try and fit the whole world in it if she could. She even has a prayer book in which she makes a list of everyone who needs God’s help. She prays every night for the people on the list, hoping that God will help them. At the very start of the novel, Aibileen explains that she lost her son Treelore. His death occurred around two years before the action of the novel was written and Aibileen describes the cause of his death,
One night he working late at the Scanlon-Taylor Mill, lugging two-by-fours, splinters slicing all the way through the glove. He too small for that kind of work, too skinny, but he needed that job. He was tired. It was raining. He slip off the loading dock, fell down on the drive. Tractor trailer didn't see him and crushed his lungs fore he could move. By the time I found out, he was dead (Stockett 3).
Treelore’s death had a tremendous impact on Aibileen’s life, causing her to stay in bed for months without motivation to find a new job, but eventually she finds the will to pass on her motherly love to another child because she can no longer show that affection to her son. Rather than pursuing happiness like many do after a death, such as finding another person or item to “replace” the happiness that that person gave them, or even giving up their job in order to live the life that their loved one would have been happy with, she begins to work as a maid for the Leefolt family and moves on to raising her eighteenth child named Mae Mobley. Although some may say that Aibileen is in fact trying to find someone else to give her the happiness that Treelore one gave her, she knows that is there is nobody like Treelore. Therefore she knows that there is no one who can compare to the joy that Treelore did, so she is not trying to replace the happiness he gave her, but rather she is trying to find other things in life that she can create happiness from in order to help take her mind off of how much she misses her son. By passing on her love to another child Aibileen is able to create not only her own happiness, but the happiness of Mae Mobley who loves Aibileen more than anything else. Aibileen represents the true “Emersonian” character because she is able to create her own happiness and the happiness of Mae Mobley, despite the recent loss of her son.
Aibileen adores the Leefolt’s child Mae Mobley and she does everything humanly possible to make her feel loved and give her a sense of self-worth. Miss Leefolt is always ranting about how Mae Mobley does not live up to society’s standard because she feels as though her child is “too fat” or “too stupid,” when in reality Mae Mobley is an adorable little two year old who is perfectly healthy and smart. When Mae Mobley responds to her mother's yelling by telling Aibileen, "Mae Mo bad,” it occurs to Aibileen to try a bold new experiment of telling Mae Mobley something good every single day (Stockett 107). At the very end of the novel there is one thing that Aibileen wants Mae Mobley to remember, and for their last interaction together before Aibileen gets fired, they say together, “ You is kind, you is smart, you is important” (Stockett 521). This quote is repeated multiple times throughout the novel, and it is effective in teaching Mae Mobley that she is exactly the way she is supposed to be and even though her mother and father do not embrace her for who she is, Aibileen truly loves her. The quote also represents Aibileen’s love for creating Mae Mobley’s happiness by teaching her that she should be happy with the way she is, rather than teaching Mae Mobley to listen to her parents and pursue happiness by being what society wants her to be, which is a skinny, smart, well mannered lady.
At the end of the novel Skeeter tells Minny and Aibileen that she was offered a job as a copy editor in New York City at Harper's Magazine. She does not want to go because she feels as though she cannot leave because of the trouble she feels has started in Jackson when her novel The Help is published. Minny and Aibileen convince her to go to New York City because she will not be able to create her own happiness in Jackson. This is another example of how Skeeter creates her own by happiness doing what she loves, rather than pursuing what her mother and friends want, which is to go to college to find a husband and get married. The importance of creating her own happiness, along with the happiness of others is one of the main lessons that Skeeter learns throughout the novel. One day Skeeter is at the drugstore when she sees one of her friends named Lou Anne. She tells Skeeter that Hilly tried to get her to fire her maid Louvenia because of Skeeter’s novel The Help. With great fear that her book would cause the loss of a job for a kind maid, she is relieved when Lou Anne says that she would never fire Louvenia. Lou Anne proceeds to tell Skeeter about how Louvenia is able to help her create happiness for her despite her depression when she says, “Skeeter, Louvenia is the bravest person I know. Even with all her own troubles, she sits down and talks to me. She helps me get through my days. When I read what she wrote about me, about helping her with her grandson, I’ve never been so grateful in my life. It was the best I’d felt in months” (Stockett 491). Lou Anne shows the importance of creating happiness for not only oneself, but others. When Skeeter wrote her book and created happiness, she had the ability to create happiness for others as well, teaching Skeeter the lesson that it is important to be happy and do what she loves and pursuing her mother’s dreams will allow her to create happiness.
The Help covers many topics, ranging from race, society and class, love, violence, gender, education, and judgement, but by far the most important is to be happy. Throughout the novel all of the southern, white ladies who have everything they could ever ask for, spend their lives chasing happiness, whether it be by the possession of materialistic items, popularity, or simply who has the most money. Everyone seems to find happiness in items that do not have any meaning. On the other hand the maids in the novel, including Aibileen and Minny who may not have as many materialistic items, seem to appreciate the more valuable aspects of life, including family, love, happiness, and the gift of life itself. The African American maids who do not pursue happiness by simply looking for the materialistic items like cars, silverware, and televisions, are able to find happiness in the simple everyday acts such as Minny who is happy by just coming home from work and being able to see her family, or Aibileen who creates happiness for both herself and others by being able to say her prayers each night. It can be seen that happiness is not something that can be purchased or owned, but rather it is a state of being and each person can chose whether they want to pursue happiness and take the risk of never actually finding happiness, or creating happiness out of what they have and finding the true value of each and every moment in life, and remembering to never take any minute for granted.
The novel The Help by Kathryn Stockett, tells the story of African American maids working in white Southern homes in Jackson, Mississippi, during the 1960s. This novel also tells the story of Miss Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, a 22 year-old graduate from Ole Miss who returns to her family's cotton plantation, Longleaf, to find that her childhood maid and nanny, Constantine, has left and nobody will tell her why. Skeeter tries to behave like a proper Southern lady by playing bridge with the young married women, listening to her mother’s advice on how to find a husband, and editing the newsletter the Junior league, but her true dream is to become a writer. The only job Skeeter can find that will help her pursue her dream is with the Jackson Journal writing a housekeeping advice column called "Miss Myrna." Skeeter knows little about housekeeping, so she turns to her friend's maid, Aibileen, for answers. Eventually her small advice column gets her a letter from a New York publisher who is interested in Skeeter’s idea of writing true stories from maids in Jackson. She ends up writing a book of narratives on the lives of 12 maids, called The Help and publishes it anonymously. Her novel becomes a national bestseller, and the book becomes a powerful force in giving a voice to the black maids and causes the community of Jackson to reconsider the carefully drawn lines between white and black. Throughout the novel there are many examples of how there are those who are able to create their own happiness and others who spend their life pursuing happiness.
There is one character in particular who is truly able to create happiness even through the hardest of times: Aibileen. Aibileen’s heart is so big, she would try and fit the whole world in it if she could. She even has a prayer book in which she makes a list of everyone who needs God’s help. She prays every night for the people on the list, hoping that God will help them. At the very start of the novel, Aibileen explains that she lost her son Treelore. His death occurred around two years before the action of the novel was written and Aibileen describes the cause of his death,
One night he working late at the Scanlon-Taylor Mill, lugging two-by-fours, splinters slicing all the way through the glove. He too small for that kind of work, too skinny, but he needed that job. He was tired. It was raining. He slip off the loading dock, fell down on the drive. Tractor trailer didn't see him and crushed his lungs fore he could move. By the time I found out, he was dead (Stockett 3).
Treelore’s death had a tremendous impact on Aibileen’s life, causing her to stay in bed for months without motivation to find a new job, but eventually she finds the will to pass on her motherly love to another child because she can no longer show that affection to her son. Rather than pursuing happiness like many do after a death, such as finding another person or item to “replace” the happiness that that person gave them, or even giving up their job in order to live the life that their loved one would have been happy with, she begins to work as a maid for the Leefolt family and moves on to raising her eighteenth child named Mae Mobley. Although some may say that Aibileen is in fact trying to find someone else to give her the happiness that Treelore one gave her, she knows that is there is nobody like Treelore. Therefore she knows that there is no one who can compare to the joy that Treelore did, so she is not trying to replace the happiness he gave her, but rather she is trying to find other things in life that she can create happiness from in order to help take her mind off of how much she misses her son. By passing on her love to another child Aibileen is able to create not only her own happiness, but the happiness of Mae Mobley who loves Aibileen more than anything else. Aibileen represents the true “Emersonian” character because she is able to create her own happiness and the happiness of Mae Mobley, despite the recent loss of her son.
Aibileen adores the Leefolt’s child Mae Mobley and she does everything humanly possible to make her feel loved and give her a sense of self-worth. Miss Leefolt is always ranting about how Mae Mobley does not live up to society’s standard because she feels as though her child is “too fat” or “too stupid,” when in reality Mae Mobley is an adorable little two year old who is perfectly healthy and smart. When Mae Mobley responds to her mother's yelling by telling Aibileen, "Mae Mo bad,” it occurs to Aibileen to try a bold new experiment of telling Mae Mobley something good every single day (Stockett 107). At the very end of the novel there is one thing that Aibileen wants Mae Mobley to remember, and for their last interaction together before Aibileen gets fired, they say together, “ You is kind, you is smart, you is important” (Stockett 521). This quote is repeated multiple times throughout the novel, and it is effective in teaching Mae Mobley that she is exactly the way she is supposed to be and even though her mother and father do not embrace her for who she is, Aibileen truly loves her. The quote also represents Aibileen’s love for creating Mae Mobley’s happiness by teaching her that she should be happy with the way she is, rather than teaching Mae Mobley to listen to her parents and pursue happiness by being what society wants her to be, which is a skinny, smart, well mannered lady.
At the end of the novel Skeeter tells Minny and Aibileen that she was offered a job as a copy editor in New York City at Harper's Magazine. She does not want to go because she feels as though she cannot leave because of the trouble she feels has started in Jackson when her novel The Help is published. Minny and Aibileen convince her to go to New York City because she will not be able to create her own happiness in Jackson. This is another example of how Skeeter creates her own by happiness doing what she loves, rather than pursuing what her mother and friends want, which is to go to college to find a husband and get married. The importance of creating her own happiness, along with the happiness of others is one of the main lessons that Skeeter learns throughout the novel. One day Skeeter is at the drugstore when she sees one of her friends named Lou Anne. She tells Skeeter that Hilly tried to get her to fire her maid Louvenia because of Skeeter’s novel The Help. With great fear that her book would cause the loss of a job for a kind maid, she is relieved when Lou Anne says that she would never fire Louvenia. Lou Anne proceeds to tell Skeeter about how Louvenia is able to help her create happiness for her despite her depression when she says, “Skeeter, Louvenia is the bravest person I know. Even with all her own troubles, she sits down and talks to me. She helps me get through my days. When I read what she wrote about me, about helping her with her grandson, I’ve never been so grateful in my life. It was the best I’d felt in months” (Stockett 491). Lou Anne shows the importance of creating happiness for not only oneself, but others. When Skeeter wrote her book and created happiness, she had the ability to create happiness for others as well, teaching Skeeter the lesson that it is important to be happy and do what she loves and pursuing her mother’s dreams will allow her to create happiness.
The Help covers many topics, ranging from race, society and class, love, violence, gender, education, and judgement, but by far the most important is to be happy. Throughout the novel all of the southern, white ladies who have everything they could ever ask for, spend their lives chasing happiness, whether it be by the possession of materialistic items, popularity, or simply who has the most money. Everyone seems to find happiness in items that do not have any meaning. On the other hand the maids in the novel, including Aibileen and Minny who may not have as many materialistic items, seem to appreciate the more valuable aspects of life, including family, love, happiness, and the gift of life itself. The African American maids who do not pursue happiness by simply looking for the materialistic items like cars, silverware, and televisions, are able to find happiness in the simple everyday acts such as Minny who is happy by just coming home from work and being able to see her family, or Aibileen who creates happiness for both herself and others by being able to say her prayers each night. It can be seen that happiness is not something that can be purchased or owned, but rather it is a state of being and each person can chose whether they want to pursue happiness and take the risk of never actually finding happiness, or creating happiness out of what they have and finding the true value of each and every moment in life, and remembering to never take any minute for granted.