The Help Blog Chapters 15-18: Where do we draw our lines?

             Throughout chapters 15 through 18, a larger message was presented about struggling with where we need to draw lines in life and our responsibilities to lines we didn’t know were drawn. When Aibileen takes care of Mae Mobley, we see a line often stepped over by Aibileen. She constantly tells Mae Mobley “you kind, you smart, you important” (199). She does this as much as possible because Mae Mobley’s own mother doesn’t. Then Aibileen realizes that Mae Mobley’s “growing up and [she] know, soon, them few words ain’t gone be enough” (199). This is where we see Aibileen begin to struggle as she does not want to overstep her boundaries as she only is the help, but also does not want to forget that she has a responsibility to Mae Mobley to be the mother she doesn’t have.

            Another place where we see Aibileen struggle with her responsibility is during the meetings with Miss Skeeter. She has a very strong responsibility as help, and it makes her worry to think what could happen to her and her family if people found out how far out of line she was stepping. Her job is to be the help and do solely that; not tell the truth about what goes on behind closed doors. However, Aibileen has a responsibility to the other help and to many other blacks who have been treated wrongfully in the past. She realizes this when she says “we telling stories that need to be told” (208). Aibileen has committed to stepping out of line for her responsibility to her people and to herself. She knows that if she is not strong enough to do so, who will be? So, these chapters teach us that sometimes we have to step out of line to see where the true line is drawn based on our responsibilities.