Kim Lichauer

Catholic Social Teaching, Period 1

Ms. Cardone
12/6/17
“Analyzing Catholic Social Teaching in Stories” Assignment
Movie I’ve Chosen: The Help (2011)
Major Events that Relate to Justice/Injustice:
 Hilly wanting the Home Sanitation Initiative to install new toilets for the help
 Charlotte firing her lifelong maid to avoid embarrassment from fellow upper-class
women
 Yule May being arrested for pawning a discarded ring because of Hilly
 General mistreatment and rudeness to Minny and Aibileen by Hilly and other rich white
women
 Actual publication of the expository novel
 Skeeter defending the book and its stories when Hilly threatens legal prosecution
The Help Synopsis
The story takes place in 1963 Jackson, Mississippi. African-American maid Aibileen
Clark tells her life story to Eugenia “Skeeter”, a hopeful writer and graduate of college. Skeeter
is a “friend” of Aibileen’s employer, a woman named Elizabeth. Both women are part of the
women’s socialite group in Jackson. Aibileen’s best friend is Minny Jackson, another maid who
works for Mrs. Walters, who happens to be the mother of the woman (Hilly Holbrook) who leads
the socialite group.
Skeeter is entirely uncomfortable with the way that all of her friends treat the help. She is
angry when Hilly sends a letter to the Home Sanitation Initiative to force the help to use separate
bathrooms. Skeeter also discovers that her mother fired the childhood maid who raised her,
Constantine, but cannot pry enough to understand why. At Mrs. Walters house, Minny uses their
guest bathroom during an extreme storm, causing Hilly to fire her. While looking for work,
Minny gets a job with Celia, the wife of Hilly’s former love interest, Johnny Foote.
Minny and Celia become friends when Minnie agrees to give Hilly cooking lessons,
breaking barriers about how an employer should treat her housemaid. Later, Minnie walks in on
Skeeter’s interview with Aibileen and decides to add her story to the book. Skeeter is still at a
loss, though, because her publisher tells her that two maids’ stories are not enough. But other
maids are scared that they will be recognized and lose their jobs or be arrested. Aibileen tells
Skeeter that she hopes telling her story will help her find closure for the death of her son.
One of Hilly’s maids, Yule May finds a discarded ring and pawns it so that she can help
afford to send her two sons to college. Hilly discovers that she does this, and has Yule May
publically and viciously arrested for the “theft”, right in front of Aibileen. This prompts many
other maids to come forward and tell their stories, in hopes that this kind of violence and
injustice ends. Soon, Minny tells Skeeter of the “terrible awful” that she did to Hilly. After Hilly
fired her, Minnie baked one of her infamous chocolate pies for her. After Hilly eats several bites,
Minnie tells Hilly that her own excrement is baked into the pie. The addition of this story in the
book would definitely reveal that the book was, in fact, about the town of Jackson.
Later, Skeeter again prompts her mother to tell her how Constantine was fired. Her
mother, Charlotte, tells her that during a meeting of the Daughters of America at her house,
Constantine’s daughter, Rachel, comes asking for her mother. Charlotte asks her to enter through
the kitchen, which Rachel promptly disobeys and comes in to greet her elderly mother. This is a
huge embarrassment to Charlotte and to save her reputation, she fires Constantine right in front
of everyone. Rachel becomes incredibly angry and takes her mother to Chicago, where she later
dies, even though Charlotte had the intention to bring Constantine back. Skeeter is furious at her
mother and depressed because she could not even say goodbye to her childhood caretaker.
Skeeter publishes the book, and it becomes immensely popular. Everyone in Jackson and
beyond is reading it. Celia finds out about Minny’s “terrible awful” and lets Hilly know subtly.
Hilly, is furious and wants to have Skeeter punished in court, but is constantly reminded by
Skeeter of the “terrible awful” in chapter 12. Eventually, Skeeter and her mother make up when
her mother tells her how proud she is of her daughter’s daring publication. To get revenge, Hilly
commands that Elizabeth fire Aibileen, framing her for theft. Aibileen stands up and ridicules
Hilly to her face, calling her a godless woman, before saying an emotional last goodbye to
Elizabeth’s infant daughter and walking out on the women. Aibileen finally finds her closure and
even considers her future of becoming a writer.
Character’s View of Justice (Skeeter):
Eugenia “Skeeter” is one of the main narrators and a protagonist of The Help who seeks

to help the African American maids in her town of Jackson, Mississippi by publishing a book

that details their stories. I have chosen to examine Skeeter’s view of justice because of her

courageousness in publishing a expository novel (that she knew would receive backlash) to assist

the African Americans in her community and beyond. I also chose her because of the equality

with which she treats all people, regardless of race. It is effortless for her, and she treats them

simply as human beings. In The Help, Skeeter is a dauntless and independent character who

exemplifies the Catholic views of justice.

Skeeter’s view of justice is that everyone starts with equal dignity and respect and that

their actions should be the sole judge of their character. While she did have her mother around, it

was predominantly Constantine who raised her and taught her to be the way she is. Since
Constantine knew how it felt to be marginalized, so she most likely wanted Skeeter to act

without judgement. Other than that, Skeeter has remained a strong-willed and independent

woman throughout the course of the story. She stands up for her opinions and lets no one tell her

how to act or behave. Her view is shown by the principles of human dignity, solidarity, and

preferential option for the oppressed (poor). She defends human dignity somewhat through

humor. In addition to just generally defending the dignity of the black people in her life, Skeeter

is totally appalled by Hilly’s initiative to attain separate outdoor toilets for the help. After Hilly

suggested a segregated bathroom outside, Skeeter responds with “Maybe we should just build

you a bathroom outside Hilly.” She didn’t have to defend Aibileen and other colored people, but

she did anyway. Later, when Hilly wants Eugenia to publish her initiative in the newsletter about

donating used coats to her, Eugenia avenges her maids by writing “commodes” instead of

“coats”, and laughs with them when Hilly discovers countless toilets on her front lawn. Human

dignity is the inherent dignity of every person because every person is made in the image and

likeness of God. Eugenia shows solidarity with the maids by not standing down to Hilly when

confronted about her book. She turns the tables on Hilly and reminds her of the “terrible awful”

in Chapter 12, defending the maids. Solidarity is the principle of unity in a society that extends

beyond mere self-interest. She could have admitted to the book and left the maids to flounder in

Hilly’s backlash. Instead she used her power as an upper-class white woman to defend the

women, when she just as easily could have ratted them out and been successful on her own with

her new writing career. Skeeter also shows preferential option for the oppressed (poor) by setting

aside her social duties with the women’s socialite group and spending time with several maids to

help their conditions and taking down their stories. Preferential option for the poor is Jesus’s call

to put the needs of the poor and the vulnerable first. In this case, the vulnerable are the African
Americans generally, but more specifically maids like Minny and Aibileen. Unlike all of the

other women, Skeeter regards these maids as people, regardless of race. She feels completely

comfortable with them, and they feel no need to tiptoe around her.

Skeeter’s view of justice is similar to Christ’s view of justice because like, Jesus, she

judges people based on character and not on their race, gender, or general lot in life. She also

enjoys spending her time with the people that a majority of her society rejects, just as Jesus did.

Also when dealing with Hilly, a relative enemy, coming after her, she does nothing more than

defend the dignity of the help. She is not vindictive and does not go back after Hilly in turn, just

as Jesus was not vindictive and didn’t pursue his enemies or punish them. While comparisons

between her and Jesus Christ are not perfectly comparable, and while Skeeter is not perfect, she

does a fairly good job of defending and respecting the people who need it the most.