Chapter 5-6: Skeeter

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 5

Chapter 5: Skeeter

1. Writing style Skeeter

• more formal than the sections written in the voices of Minny and Aibileen
• Minny, Aibileen: dialect, phonetic, and informal language
  <-> Skeeter: grammatical rules, fewer contractions/figurative language 

Skeeter’s voice than they do in those narrated by Minny and Aibileen. The formality of

the syntax and a more sophisticated word choice and vocabulary also serve to distinguish

between the diction of Skeeter’s sections and other sections of the novel. 

2. background info Skeeter/Hilly

• college roommates
• Hilly left  to get married
• Skeeter stayed on to finish her degree. 
• => very close friends for quite some time.

3. Eugenia/Skeeter

• On the day she was born: Skeeter’s older brother Carlton saw his newborn sister and said she was not a baby, but a “skeeter.” 
• =>  “long and leggy and mosquito-thin” 

4. a. Skeeter/her mom/their maid

• difficult relationship with her mom (impatience)
• -> Her mom is concerned that Skeeter will never find a husband (spinsterhood would be  tragic) + berates her
• positive relationship and a close-knit bond with Constantine 

4.b. Constantine - Demetrie?

• youngest child, left out of the activities of her older siblings.
• Constantine/Demetrie: confidante + friend
• Constantine:   first person to compliment Skeeter + tell her she was pretty; supported her and built her up. 

5. letter by Constantine

• When Skeeter returns from college after skipping her own graduation ceremony, Constantine is gone. 
• Skeeter’s mother refuses to explain: Constantine has gone to live with her people in Chicago

7. Skeeter as outcast

• physical appearance (ugly)
• not accepted or included by her peers
• her height and frizzy hair 
• does not feel at home; feels lost in Jackson 

6. irony?

• "I had to accept that Constantine, my one true alley, had left me to fend for myself with these people."
• these people = Skeeter's family
• => feels a better connection with Constantine

Chapter 6: Skeeter

1. Summarize the letter Elaine Stein sends to Skeeter. Include the advice that Stein offers to her.

• Elaine Stein: before applying at Harper & Row or a similar publisher in New York, Skeeter has to: 
• -> have min. 5 years experience
• -> get an entry-level job at a local newspaper + practice writing.
  
• => Skeeter should write about what disturbs her, especially if it does not bother anyone else

2. response

• Elaine Stein’s letter is both encouraging and grounding:
• -> Skeeter: list of ideas of items that disturb her + sends it
• -> asks for a job at a local paper -> writing the Miss Myrna columns, answering domestic help questions

3. irony?

•  job requires domestic experience + expertise, which Skeeter doesn't have at all

4. Skeeter's mom

• Skeeter's mom worries that the job will not help Skeeter find a husband 
• + she asks her if she is attracted to men or women

5. help for the Miss Myrna columns

•  does not know her own maid well enough to ask her for help 
• => Aibileen

6. Elizabeth's response

• Elizabeth reluctantly agrees, but insists that Aibileen not spend very much time helping Skeeter; it cannot interferewith her work in the house. ( Aibileen: proprietary)

7. Treelore's project

• Treelore: wanted to write a book about his ownexperiences working for a white man in Jackson, Mississippi.
• -> wrote the first 50 pages of the book before his death

8. info about Constantine

• Aibileen: Constantine did not quit—she was fired
• +  reveals that Constantine has a daughter
• -> was born with pale skin described as “high yellow,” (mixed race)