The Help
Detailed Summary & Analysis
Chapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 6Chapter 7Chapter 8Chapter 9Chapter 10Chapter 11Chapter 12Chapter 13Chapter 14Chapter 15Chapter 16Chapter 17Chapter 18Chapter 19Chapter 20Chapter 21Chapter 22Chapter 23Chapter 24Chapter 25Chapter 26Chapter 27Chapter 28Chapter 29Chapter 30Chapter 31Chapter 32Chapter 33Chapter 34
Themes
Characters
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The Help
byKathryn Stockett
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Minny is famous for her chocolate-custard pies, and many people have hired her just to get their hands on her cooking. Minny’s food is so good that her employers will tolerate her “sass” and outspoken personality just so they can continue eating her food. Minny takes pride in her baking skills, and the pies are her signature dish, the outward manifestation of her unique talents and the guarantee that her employers won’t fire her for expressing herself in the otherwise repressive environment of the white household. But Minny also uses pies to subvert the power dynamics in the home. After Miss Hilly jeopardizes Minny’s chances of ever finding work again, Minny makes a chocolate custard pie including the “special ingredient” of her own feces, and watches Hilly savor two slices of it before telling her the truth. Minny humiliates and degrades Hilly as an act of revenge, but also gains a kind power over her. Now Minny has something to hold over Hilly’s head, a secret she can reveal if Hilly continues to spread rumors about her. This act of subversion also targets Hilly’s racist belief that black people carry diseases. In essence, by feeding Hilly two slices of excrement pie without her getting sick, Minny illustrates in a decidedly extreme way the simple truth that black people do not carry racially-specific diseases.
Minny’s “Special Ingredient” Pie Quotes in The Help
The The Help quotes below all refer to the symbol of Minny’s “Special Ingredient” Pie. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 34Quotes
I walk out the back door, to the terrible sound a Mae Mobley crying again. I start down the driveway, crying too, knowing how much I’m on miss Mae Mobley, praying her mama can show her more love. But at the same time feeling, in a way, that I’m free…Freer than Miss Leefolt, who so locked up in her own head she don’t even recognize herself when she read it. And freer than Miss Hilly. That woman gone spend the rest a her life trying to convince people she didn’t eat that pie. I think about Yule May setting in jail. Cause Miss Hilly, she in her own jail, but with a lifelong term.
Related Characters:Aibileen Clark (speaker), Hilly Holbrook, Elizabeth Leefolt, Mae Mobley Leefolt, Yule May
Related Symbols:Minny’s “Special Ingredient” Pie
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:521
Explanation and Analysis:
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Minny’s “Special Ingredient” Pie Symbol Timeline in The Help
The timeline below shows where the symbol Minny’s “Special Ingredient” Pie appears in The Help. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2
...tell Aibileen what she did, Minny just says it had something to do with a pie.(full context)
Chapter 25
...silent auction for the Poor Starving Children of Africa fund, Hilly wins Minny’s famous chocolate-custard pie. For some reason, Hilly seems distressed that she won the pie, thinking that someone must...(full context)
...completely ignores Celia’s attempt at friendship and accuses Celia of signing her up for the pie, but Celia, confused, says she didn’t sign anyone up for any pie. Hilly calls her...(full context)
...mother, Miss Walters, comes over and says she was the one who bid on the pie. Walters says she may be forgetting a lot in her old age, but she will...(full context)
Chapter 26
...worst thing about the night of the Benefit was being called a liar about the pie in front of everyone. She doesn’t even know what Hilly was talking about.(full context)
Minny decides to tell Celia about what happened with Hilly and the pie, hoping it will make Celia see that Hilly is a cruel person not worth getting...(full context)
Minny goes home, bakes a chocolate pie, and then returns to the house and gives it to Hilly, who thinks it’s a...(full context)
Chapter 27
...is about them. Minny decides to tell Skeeter and Aibileen about what happened with the pie so that they can put the story in for “protection.” That would mean Hilly would...(full context)
Chapter 30
...think when she gets to the last chapter – the one about her and the pie. When Minny arrives at work the next day, Mister Johnny and Celia are in the...(full context)
Chapter 33
...if Hilly ever tells her to fire Louvenia again, she’ll respond that Hilly deserved that pie. Skeeter thinks to herself that the pie secret is out and that the maids will...(full context)
Chapter 34
...is living a lifelong jail sentence trying to convince people that she didn’t eat that pie. Aibileen thinks that she might write a book about her life. Last night, Aibileen thought...(full context)
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