Character Study: Miss Skeeter

             Miss Skeeter, actually named Eugenia Phelan, is young woman and main character in the novel.  Instead of getting married like her friends, she decides to finish her studies at Ole Miss and obtains her degree. After finishing college, she comes back to live with her mother and father on their cotton plantation. Miss Skeeter is eager to become a writer and sends in her résumé to Elaine Stein, a female editor at Harper & Row, Publishers. But since Eugenia lacked work experience, she had to get a job as Miss Myrna for the Jackson Journal first. By taking the job as Miss Myrna, Miss Skeeter is able to meet and get closer to Miss Leefolt’s maid Aibileen, and after talking for some time she gets the idea to write a book about what it is like for black maids to work for white families. This is how the development of her book Help begins.

           Miss Skeeter hair “is kinky, more public than cranial, and whitish blond, breaking off easily, like hay. My skin is fair and while some call this creamy, it can look downright deathly when [she’s] serious, which is all the time. Also, there’s a slight bump of cartilage along the top of [her] nose. But [her] eyes are cornflower blue…” (Stockett 66). She is also extremely tall for a woman at that time.

                Miss Skeeter is an persistence young woman who wants to do more with her life than just get married and have children, and much of her personality was influenced my her maid Constantine, whom she especially bonded. Whenever she felt down, Constantine was always there to make her feel at home. But when Constantine seems to have disappeared out of her life one day, Miss Skeeter can’t help but wonder why.