The Help

E*ugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan: Do you ever dream of being somethin’ else?
 * [first lines]
 * Aibileen Clark: I was born nineteen eleven, Chickasaw county, Piedmont Plantation.
 * Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan: And did you know as a girl growing up, that one day you’d be a maid?
 * Aibileen Clark: Yes, ma’am. I did.
 * Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan: And you knew that, because?
 * Aibileen Clark: My mama was a maid. My grandmamma was a house slave.
 * [referring to Aibileen being a maid]
 * [Aibileen nods her head to confirm yes]
 * Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan: What does it feel like to raise a white child, when you’re own child’s at home being looked after by somebody else?
 * Aibileen Clark: It feel…
 * [she doesn’t finish her words but sadly looks over at the graduation photo of her son]
 * Aibileen Clark: [voice over] I done raise seventeen kids in my life. Looking after white babies, that’s what I do. I know how to get them babies asleeps, start crying and going to toilet bowl before their mamma’s even get out of bed in the mornin’. Babies are like fattie. They like big fat ladies too, that I know. I work for the Leefolt’s from eight to four, six days a week. I make ninety five cent an hour. That come to a hundred eighty two dollar every month. I do all the cooking, cleaning, washing, ironing and grocery shopping. But mostly, I take care of baby girl and lord I worry she gonna be fat. Ain’t gonna be no beauty queen either. Miss Leefolt still don’t baby girl up but once a day. Birthin’ blues got hold of Miss Leefolt pretty hard. I didn’t seen her happy plenty of times, once babies start havin’ their own babies. And the young white ladies of Jackson, oh lord, was they havin’ babies! But not Miss Skeeter, no man and no babies.
 * [at her interview at a newspapers office, after reading her impressive resume]
 * Mr. Blackly: Damn, girl! Don’t you have fun?
 * Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan: Is that important?
 * Mr. Blackly: Do you have any references?
 * Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan: Yes.
 * [she gets a letter from her bag and gives it to him]
 * Mr. Blackly: Well! This…this is a rejection letter.
 * Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan: Uh…Uh…not exactly. See uh…Miss Stein…
 * Mr. Blackly: Stein?
 * Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan: Elain Stein, from Harper & Row Publishing in New York.
 * Mr. Blackly: Oh, lord!
 * Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan: I’m gonna be a serious writer, Mr. Blackly. But, I applied for a job with Mrs. Stein…
 * Mr. Blackly: She said, no!
 * Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan: Well, until I gain some experience. See…
 * [referring to her letter]
 * Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan: It says right there. ‘Great potential. Gain some experience and please apply again.’
 * Mr. Blackly: Oh, Christ! I guess you’ll do. Do you clean?
 * Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan: I’m sorry, clean?
 * Mr. Blackly: Clean! Grab that basket.
 * [Skeeter comes over to help him grab the basket full of letters]
 * Mr. Blackly: Miss Myrna has gone shit house crazy on us. She dropped hairspray or somethin’. I want you to read her past columns. And read these letters and you answer ’em just like she would. Nobody is gonna know the damn difference. You know who Miss Myrna is?
 * Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan: I read her articles all the time.
 * Mr. Blackly: Articles? Miss Phelan, it’s a cleaning advice column. Eight bucks a week, copy is due on Thursday.
 * Aibileen Clark: [voice over] Miss Hilly was the first of the babies to have a baby. And it must have come out of her like the eleventh commandment, cause once Miss Hilly had the baby, every girl at the bridge table had to have one too.