The Help: Chapter 13 Summary & Analysis

Skeeter is in her room typing up some of Minny’s day-to-day experiences when Charlotte knocks on her door and tells her that Stuart Whitworth is downstairs. Dressed nicely, he apologizes for the date three months ago, saying that he was still getting over a bad break-up with his fiancée, Patricia. Stuart compliments Skeeter, saying she’s different from the other women he knows because she speaks her mind. Skeeter agrees to get a drink with him.

At the restaurant, Stuart is quiet at first and Skeeter fears he’s going to start drinking again. But he soon asks what she wants from life. She says she wants to be a writer. He tells her she is smart and pretty and hopes that she writes about something she cares about. They talk for a while and suddenly he leans over the table and kisses her softly on the mouth. She feels her insides fill with light.

A few weeks later, Skeeter goes to the library to look for books on race relations in the South. She finds a copy of The Narrative of Frederick Douglass, but its pages are ripped out and replaced with the words “nigger book” scribbled in purple crayon. What disturbs her the most is that it looks like a child wrote the slur.

At the library, Skeeter finds a book on Jim Crow laws and is shocked by all the laws that are on the books to separate whites from blacks. Skeeter realizes that there is no real difference between official laws and Hilly’s racist attitude about separate bathrooms. She steals the book because she can’t check it out without the women working at the library gossiping to everyone about it.

At a League meeting, Skeeter brings a satchel that contains the stolen book and her notes from the interviews. Hilly is telling the other women to donate canned goods for the “Poor Starving Children of Africa” fund. When one woman asks why can’t they just send them a check, Hilly rolls her eyes and says you can’t give “tribal people” money because they’d just spend it on “voodoo” and “satanic tattoos.” The women nod along and Skeeter notices how easy it is for Hilly to convince these women of anything.

When Skeeter joins the group of women surrounding Hilly, the women suddenly bombard Skeeter with questions about if the rumors are true that she’s seeing the handsome Stuart Whitworth. Skeeter confirms the rumors, thinking to herself how Stuart has made a routine of coming by her house to talk with her late into the night. Skeeter affectionately remembers how Stuart sometimes brushes her hair away from her face.

That day when Skeeter arrives home, Hilly calls to tell her that she left her satchel at the meeting but that it’s safe with her now. Terrified that Hilly will snoop through the bag, Skeeter asks her mother Charlotte to drive her to Hilly’s. Charlotte agrees, saying she’ll drop Skeeter off on the way to the doctor for some “routine” tests for her ulcers. Skeeter doesn’t remember her mother ever having ulcers before. They get in the car and drive.

When Hilly opens the door Skeeter can tell by her friend’s expression that she’s already peeked through the documents. Hilly gives her back the satchel and Skeeter sees that Aibileen and Minny’s notes are safely tucked away in a side pocket but that the law book is gone. As Skeeter is about to leave, Hilly casually says that Senator Whitworth is very pro-segregation.