The Help

The Help is told in the first person, with three narrators: Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter. All three narratives are quite plainspoken. The novel's style aims to emulate the natural speaking voices of three different women in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi. As a result, dialect is a major part of the novel's style. Minny and Aibileen both speak in African American Vernacular English with heavy southern accents. Their dialect is depicted to be slightly different: for example, when taking God's name in vain, Minny always says "Lord" while Aibileen says "Law." Skeeter, like the other White people in the novel, also has a strong southern accent. But while Stockett changes spellings of words to depict Minny and Aibileen's accents, the spelling in Skeeter's chapters is mostly standard.