Journal Two Minny Jackson

Character Name: Minny Jackson
Description (brief), relation to protagonist: Minny is another maid for a white family in Jackson, however she and Aibileen are very different.  Minny is vivacious and not afraid to speak her mind even if it may cause her trouble.  Because of this fact, she has lost many maid jobs in her career, and every time this happens, as well as on other occasions, her husband Leroy, who is an alcoholic, beats her.  When Minny receives a job with a new arrival in town, she becomes determined to keep to her best behaviour to keep it.  She and Aibileen are best friends and have helped each other through various difficulties in each other’s lives.
What they say (key dialogue): “Tuck it in Minny. Tuck in whatever might fly out my mouth and tuck in my behind to. Look like a maid who does what she's told.” pg. 36.  This demonstrates the thought of the time that the black maids were never to talk back and if they were to do so, they would undoubtedly lose their jobs and in turn, they and their families would suffer.

“What am I doing? I must be crazy, giving a white woman the sworn secrets of the colored race to a white lady. Feel like I'm talking behind my own back" pg.253.  Minny, as well as the other maids, are cautious as to telling their perspective, in the fears of the repercussions that they may face, and must break through that barrier.   

“What you think I am? A chauffeur? I ain’t driving you to no country club in the pouring rain.”  Pg.17.  Again, this shows the sass that Minny has and the fact that she speaks her mind regardless of the consequences.

What they do (key actions): A key action that Minny does, is she makes a pie made out of her own fecal matter and gives it to her former employer, Hilly Holbrook, who treated her awfully.  This action is incredibly important because it shows her defiance and it also proves to be beneficial to the other maids when she writes it in Ms. Skeeter’s book because it can be used as blackmail against Hilly from treating the maids as horribly as she used to. 

“Minny made us put that pie story in to protect us. Not to protect herself but to protect me and the other maids. She knew it would only make it worse for herself with Hilly. But she did it anyway for everybody else. She didn't want us to see how scared she is.” Pg 505

Another key action Minny does in the novel, is that she ends up being a deciding contributor to convincing the other maid’s to participate in the novel that Ms. Skeeter is writing.  She is crucial to recruiting the other 10 women, without which, there would be no book.

Overall impressions of how they help develop the THEME(s): Minny is an extremely important character in the demonstration of the themes throughout the novel.  Her relationships with the various white women she has and does work for demonstrates the social lines and rules that appear to exist.  Her struggles with Mrs. Celia Foote, her new employer, with regards to what is socially acceptable for a maid and the white woman to interact with one another clearly expresses that the lines between black and white are simply in one’s mind and are set in by society, and not by nature.  Also, her experiences with Hilly Holbrook depicts the racial hate that many at the time had, and the grudges held towards black women and the vindictive nature many of the white women held towards them simply because of their ignorance.