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

6. irony?

"I had to accept that Constantine, my one true ally, had left me to fend for myself with these people."

these people = Skeeter's family

=> feels a better connection with Constantine

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 

Chapter 6: Skeeter

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

Elaine Stein: before Skeeter applying at Harper & Row or a similar publisher in New York:

-> minimum 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 interfere

with her work in the house. ( Aibileen: proprietary)

7. Treelore's project

Treelore: wanted to write a book about his own

experiences 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)