"The Help"

1. Who was your favorite character? Why?
2. What do you think motivated Hilly? She is cruel to Aibileen and Skeeter once she realizes that she can’t control her. Yet she’s a wonderful mother.
• Do you think that one can be a good mother but, at the same time, a deeply flawed person?
3. Like Hilly, Skeeter’s mother is deeply flawed yet sympathetic. She seems to care for Skeeter— and she also seems to have very real feelings for Constantine. Yet she gives Constantine a unmakable choice; and her interaction with Skeeter is critical.
4. Do you think Skeeter’s mother is a sympathetic or unsympathetic character? Why?
5. How much of a person’s character is shaped by the times in which they live?
6. Did it bother you that Skeeter is willing to overlook so many of Stuart’s faults so that she can get married ?
7. Do you believe that Minny was justified in her distrust of white people?
8. Do you think that had Aibileen stayed working for Miss Elizabeth, that Mae Mobley would have grown up to be racist like her mother?
9. Do you think racism is inherent, or taught?
10. The author manages to paint Aibileen with a quiet grace and an aura of wisdom about her. How do you think she does this?
11. What did you think about Minny’s pie for Miss Hilly? Would you have gone as far as Minny did for revenge?
12. Which characters did you find most likable and sympathetic?
13. To what extent do you think a person's flaws, such as racist attitudes and behaviors, can be forgiven because it is the norm in the surrounding culture?
14. How much do you think the dynamics of relationships between black people and white people have changed?