Movies Like The Help

Frequently asked about The Help

Common questions people search for, with answers written by us at MoviesPack.

• What is the 'Terrible Awful' thing Minny did to Hilly?▾

  After Hilly fires Minny and spreads lies that get her blacklisted, Minny bakes a chocolate pie and serves it to Hilly, who eats two slices before Minny reveals she baked her own feces into it. Minny uses this secret as insurance, telling Hilly that if she retaliates against the maids who contributed to the book, the story of the pie will become public. It is the leverage that ultimately protects the women involved in Skeeter's project.

• Why does Aibileen keep telling Mae Mobley 'You is kind, you is smart, you is important'?▾

  Aibileen repeats the mantra because Mae Mobley's mother Elizabeth is emotionally neglectful and openly dismissive of her daughter, leaving Aibileen to provide the affection and validation the child is missing. It also reflects Aibileen's grief over her own son Treelore, who died after a workplace accident where his white supervisors left him to die. The phrase is her way of breaking the cycle of inherited racism and self-loathing she sees being passed down to the next generation.

• Why does Skeeter decide to write the book in the first place?▾

  Skeeter returns from college wanting to be a serious writer and is given a domestic advice column she's unqualified for, which forces her to ask Aibileen for help. Through those conversations, and her growing awareness that her beloved childhood maid Constantine was mysteriously dismissed, she becomes determined to document the maids' real experiences. Hilly's push for a 'Home Help Sanitation Initiative' requiring separate bathrooms for Black maids is the moral trigger that convinces Skeeter the stories must be told.

• What really happened to Constantine, Skeeter's childhood maid?▾

  While Skeeter was away at college, Constantine's daughter Rachel visited the Phelan home during a Daughters of the American Revolution meeting hosted by Skeeter's mother Charlotte. Charlotte, humiliated in front of the DAR women, ordered Rachel to leave and then fired Constantine on the spot to save face. Constantine moved to Chicago to be with Rachel and died shortly after, heartbroken — a fact Charlotte hid from Skeeter out of shame.

• Why does Aibileen leave at the end of the film, and what does her walk symbolize?▾

  After Hilly pressures Elizabeth into firing Aibileen on a false accusation of stealing silver, Aibileen confronts Hilly, calls her a godless woman, and says goodbye to a sobbing Mae Mobley. Her decision to walk away rather than seek another maid job marks her choice to become a writer like Treelore wanted to be, inspired by her contribution to Skeeter's book. The long final walk down the street represents her stepping out of a life defined by service into self-determination.