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The Help Timeline
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Skeeter Asks AIbileen Questions
After a Bridge Club Meeting, Aibileen was in the kitchen cleaning dishes and Skeeter comes in. Aibileen asks her what she needs since Aibileen is the maid and that is her job. Instead Skeeter asks her if she wishes things could change. Skeeter thinks all the segregation between African Americans and Whites is ridiculous. -
Skeeter Gets Letter from Publishing Company
After a couple years from applying for a job for a publishing company in New York, Skeeter finally gets a letter back from the Senior Editor of the Adult Book Division, Elaine Stein. Elaine Stein said that they didn't offer her the job since she had no experience. She told her to get an entry level job and to write her if she has any ideas to write a book about. Skeeter immediately writes down some of her best ideas she thinks she will like and mails them off, then starts looking for a job. -
Skeeter Gets Job
Skeeter gets a job at her local newspaper, The Jackson Journal. She has to write a weekly housekeeping column, which she knows nothing about housekeeping. the column is called Miss Myrna. -
Skeeter Asks Aibileen for Help
Since Skeeter knows nothing about housekeeping for the Miss Myrna column she has to write, she decides to ask a maid for help. She chooses her friend Elizabeth's maid, Aibileen, since she seems to have a lot of experiance. Her friend agrees as long as it doesn't effect Aibileen's work. Aibileen agrees as well to be nice. Skeeter meets up with Aibileen every week who helps Skeeter. They start to become friends. -
Skeeter's Ideas are Rejected
Skeeter gets a letter back from Elaine Stein. Elaine doesn't likes her ideas, she says they are boring. She wants something different and when she thinks of a unique idea write her back. Skeeter thinks for a while and decides on an idea. What its like to be a maid from a maids point of veiw. She writes down the idea and sends it back. -
Elaine Stein Likes Skeeter's Idea
Elaine Stein calls Skeeter and says that she likes her idea, but it is just too risky. She could get maids in trouble or the maids will be too scared to help her. Skeeter lies and says that she already asked a maid and the maid is eager to tell her story. Elaine Stein tells her to go ahead and interveiw the maid and write about her. The next time Skeeter and Aibileen meet up to write the column, Skeeter asks Aibileen about the interveiw and her book idea. -
Aibileen Agrees
After first thinking that Skeeter's idea was foolish, Aibileen starts to change her mind. The way African Americans are treated is really starting to show since Skeeter told her about the idea. Many incidents of African Americans getting killed for pointless resons or their houses getting burnt down have been heard about. Aibileen wants to write this book now because she feels useless just sitting back and watching this terrible things happen to her friends and others she knows. So she agrees. -
Elaine Stein Likes Section
After Aibileen agrees to write her article, they meet up everyday in secret. Eventually they finish her story; they send it off to Elaine Stein. Elaine calls back and says that she likes it but in order for this to be a book there needs to be at least twelve more articles from other maids. So Skeeter and Aibileen go around asking other maids. At first no one agrees, but more unfair things keep happening and eventually they all agree. They meet up with each of them and finish the book. -
Elaine Stein Will Publish It
Elaine Stein likes the book and they are going to publish it. The book becomes very popular once it is published. They hear everyone talking about it, it is sold out in stores, it is reveiwed on t.v. and at the libraries there are 2 month waiting lists for the book. Some maids say that the white people that they work for go up to them and ask them if they treat them that bad. The book is really starting to raise awarness on how bad the African Americans are treated. -
Skeeter Gets a Real Job
Skeeter gets a job offering for a publishing company in New York, her dream. At first she doesn't want to be selfish and leave Mississippi, her dying mother with cancer, and all her new maid friends she has made, but Aibileen tells her to go and its ok. So before she leaves she goes around and gives all the money she has made from the book to each of the maids who helped and tells them goodbye.