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Aibileen Clark is a fictional character featured in Kathryn Stockett's historical fiction novel, The Help. She is an African-American maid who has spent her life working for seventeen white families with the story taking place whilst she is under the employment of her eighteenth family, the Leefolt's. Stockett introduces her as a maternal figure to the Leefolt's daughter, Mae Mobley, as she is the one who is seemingly bringing up the young girl who has been neglected by her mother. After the death of her son, which took place almost three years before the novel, Aibileen struggles to accept the ways of the time in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960s as it was a place that was highly racially segregated.

The novel centres around Aibileen and Minny's, Aibileen's best friend and fellow maid, life as maids and Aibileen's friendship with Elizabeth Leefolt's friend, Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan; it tells the perspective of both the maid's life and the life of a white woman in Jackson in the 1960s. Skeeter is keen to write a novel about what it is like to work as a maid, and both Aibileen and Minny agree after refusing for some time, and enlist the help of other maids, each telling Skeeter their experiences. The book is then published towards the end of the story, gaining the attention of many in Jackson, particularly Hilly Holbrook, a woman who believes in racial segregation. The novel ends with Hilly persuading Elizabeth that Aibileen stole her silver, resulting in her being fired and pursuing a writing career. Aibileen is portrayed by actress Viola Davis in the film adaptation.

Creation
According to Stockett, the character of Aibileen is based on her childhood maid, Demetrie. She explained in an interview with The Guardian that 'I started writing in her voice because it felt really soothing. It was like talking directly to her' and later adding, 'that voice became the character of Aibileen.' She did not have a name to the character when she began writing, just that she was writing in the voice of her previous maid. She claimed she was writing in the voice of Demetrie as she was 'showing her that I was trying to understand, even though I would never claim to know what that experience was like.'

There was, however, a controversy surrounding the creation of the character of Aibileen. The longtime maid for Stockett's brother, Ablene Cooper, filed a lawsuit against the author claiming that Aibileen is based off of her without her consent and asked for damages. Cooper argued that both herself and Aibileen had children who had passed away, and was offended by a passage where Aibileen compares her own skin to that of a cockroach. Despite this, Stockett won the lawsuit, with the judge declaring that Aibileen was in fact based on Stockett's previous maid.

Portrayal
Aibileen is portrayed by actress Viola Davis, who received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won a Screen Actors Guild Award for her role in the movie. Despite the actresses success for her role in the film, she was asked in an interview with The New York Times if there were any roles that she has played that she has come to regret. In response to this, Davis admitted that she regretted her part in the adaptation: "'I just felt that at the end of the day that it wasn’t the voices of the maids that were heard. I know Aibileen. I know Minny. They’re my grandma. They’re my mom. And I know that if you do a movie where the whole premise is, I want to know what it feels like to work for white people and to bring up children in 1963, I want to hear how you really feel about it. I never heard that in the course of the movie.'"

Davis then later revealed in a separate interview that '"there’s a part of me that feels like I betrayed myself, and my people, because I was in a movie that wasn’t ready to [tell the whole truth].”'

However, prior to this, at the time the film adaptation was released, Davis had nothing but positive things to say about the story and character. In an interview she stated, '"I saw her [Aibileen] going on a journey," she says. "I saw her having humor and heart and intelligence. I saw her as having duality. And that's what I look for above anything else. Because usually, that is what's missing."' She later goes on to mention what she loved about playing the character of Aibileen, saying: "And that is the case with many memories of women that lived in that time period, that you just sucked it in. It's part of our history as African-Americans. It's one of the reasons why I loved Aibileen because I saw all of that life in her, all those repressed memories that she couldn't verbalize or - she couldn't put into words, but they were there, you know, they just sat on her."

Davis also went on to speak about the fact that she imagined a life for Aibileen beyond what was written in the story, imagining that she wanted to be a writer. She delved deeper into the role and added her own parts to the character.

Family
Aibileen had a twenty-four-year old son, Treelore, who died almost three years earlier. At the beginning of the novel, Aibileen discusses his death and the impact it had on her at the time. She says that '"He slip off the loading dock, fell down on the drive. Tractor trailer didn't see him and crushed his lungs fore he could move."' Treelore's accident happened on November eighth, 1959; Aibileen acknowledges the three year anniversary of his death. She raised Treelore on her own as her husband left her twenty years before the novel for another woman. It was the death of Treelore that made Aibileen begin to question the ways of Jackson, with a ' bitter seed' being planted inside of her. After his death, she says 'That was the day my whole world went black.' Minny visited her everyday since it happened to make sure she was okay and she only got out of bed five months after his funeral, which is when she began working for the Leefolt family. She became so distraught to the point where she contemplated suicide: 'I already had the rope tied when Minny found it.'

Aibileen also mentions her two sisters, Inez and Mable, both of whom live in Port Gibson with eighteen children between them. However, this is all we discover about them.

She also mentions her mother whilst she reminisces about when she first became a maid. Whilst in the seventh-grade, Aibileen was required to leave school to become a maid in order to support her family alongside her mother, much to her teacher's disappointment. Whilst growing up, Aibileen knew that she was to become a maid, despite dreaming of being something else; her grandmother was a house slave and her mother was also a maid, so she knew she would always have to follow the same career.

Aibileen and Mae Mobley
Aibileen began working for the Leefolt's in 1960, five months after the death of Treelore. She is paid little by the family, ninety-five cents an hour, which means she struggles with paying her rent and being able to afford things. However, she was required to take the job after Treelore's death as she was beginning to struggle to pay her rent. She is introduced as a maternal figure to the Leefolt's daughter, Mae Mobley, referring to her as 'Baby Girl'. Elizabeth pays little attention to her daughter due to her not being a beautiful child, and she relies heavily on Aibileen to keep her out of her way and deal with her. She is deeply influenced by her friend, Hilly Holbrook, who convinces her to build a separate bathroom for Aibileen outside, which angers Aibileen. Mae Mobley becomes confused between the two bathrooms after seeing Aibileen go in hers and goes in Aibileen's in front of Elizabeth, rather than the one in the house. Elizabeth is furious at this and slaps Mae Mobley, saying she will get diseases from that bathroom. This causes the 'bitter seed' to grow again and Aibileen wants 'to yell so loud that Baby Girl can hear me that dirty ain't a color.' Mae Mobley means a great deal to Aibileen and for her to view her as different because of the colour of her skin is something that deeply upsets her.

One of Aibileen's greatest fears is that Mae Mobley will begin to see the difference between the two of them, and Aibileen says 'I can't keep [her] from turning out like her mama.' She treats every one of the children she looks after like her own and teaches them that the colour of someone's skin is irrelevant; love and kindness is what matters. She gives Mae Mobley the love and affection that Elizabeth denies her, teaching her self-love, telling her to remember  '"You is kind, you is smart, you is important."'  Looking after these children helps Aibileen find solace in this maternal role after the death of her own son. To teach Mae Mobley that skin colour doesn't mean anything, Aibileen devises stories encouraging equality and being non-judgemental, for example, she tells a story about a green martian who is named Martin Luther King and that people judge him due to his green colour. She does this in the hope that Mae Mobley will remember this when she is out in the real world; she does not want her to be influenced by those around her. However, Aibileen is taking another risk by telling Mae Mobley these stories, she could be fired, but more than likely face physical penalties for this transgression.

Mae Mobley listens to what Aibileen has to say about racial equality and it influences her outside of the home as well. Whilst in pre-school, Miss Taylor, Mae Mobley's teacher, tells Mae Mobley that coloured people can't attend her school because they aren't smart enough, to which Aibileen questions if Mae Mobley thinks she isn't smart, and when she says no, they both agree that Miss Taylor isn't smart. Aibileen manages to influence Mae Mobley and put the idea of racial equality back into Mae Mobley's head. Mae Mobley then returns home from pre-school one day telling Aibileen she coloured herself black as Miss Taylor asked them to draw what they like most about themselves. However, Miss Taylor said '"black means I got a dirty, bad face.'" This infuriates Aibileen as she does not want her fear to come true and for Mae Mobley to begin to notice the differences between the two. She has spent all this time driving Mae Mobley away from these ideas, however she cannot protect her from them whilst she is out in the real world; the stories she tells her are countered by the racist views of many in Jackson.

Once Aibileen is fired, Mae Mobley is greatly affected. Elizabeth tells her and she runs out crying, begging Aibileen not to leave. For one last time, Aibileen takes care of the little girl, giving her medicine for her temperature and cough. Mae Mobley thinks it is because Aibileen doesn't want to see her anymore, to which Aibileen says that she is the last baby she will be looking after; she will no longer be a maid and will be pursuing her writing career. Before she leaves, Aibileen reminds Mae Mobley of their saying: she is kind, smart and important; she never wants her to forget it as she knows that Mae Mobley gets little affection from her mother. Once Aibileen leaves, she begins crying as well, knowing how much she will miss Mae Mobley and hopes that Elizabeth can show her more love and affection. Despite being different colours, Aibileen treats Mae Mobley like her own and teaches her more than her mother ever will as she neglects her daughter, focusing on herself and her commitments. Once she leaves the Leefolt's home, she feels a newfound freedom in the wake of her new career.

Aibileen and Skeeter
The relationship between Aibileen and Skeeter is one of the most prominent within the novel. Their friendship develops throughout, to the point where Aibileen thinks, 'I feel like we family.' Their friendship begins to form when Skeeter asks Aibileen, 'Do you ever wish you could...change things?', which was not something that was typically discussed between a domestic worker and a white woman at the time the novel was set; 1962. This question sets Skeeter apart from the other white women featured in the story.

Skeeter then begins to work on a cleaning article called 'Miss Myrna', in which she enlists Aibileen's help to answer the questions as she has no previous cleaning experience. In one of these sessions, Aibileen opens up to Skeeter about the death of Treelore and the fact that he was writing a book about '"what it was like to be colored working for a white man in Mississippi"' before he died. This is a subject which would have normally been closed off between a maid and a white woman, which shows the difference in this friendship between Skeeter and Aibileen.

It is after this encounter that Skeeter gets the idea of creating the book that is based off of the maids' experiences of working for a white family in Mississippi in the 1960s. Aibileen returns home one night to find Skeeter sitting on her front porch; she is there to ask her to participate in the book. Aibileen is horrified at first and refuses as she understands the consequences of what could happen if they were caught; '"I do this with you, I might as well burn my own house down."' She understands the ways of the times and is aware of the Jim Crow laws, which stated that 'Any person in Mississippi "who shall be guilty of printing, publishing, or circulating printed, typewritten or written matter urging" or favoring "social equality"[...]faced a fine of up to $500 or imprisonment for up to six months "or both"'.

After eventually agreeing to do the book, Skeeter visits Aibileen's house, however, during the first visit, she becomes unwell due to the extreme fear that she feels about getting caught. Skeeter acknowledges this, saying, 'I see open, honest fear on Aibileen's face.' They are both aware of the consequences of their meeting as people 'despise the whites that meet with coloreds to help with the civil right movements.' This meeting is out of Aibileen's comfort zone and she is struggling with this change. It is after this meeting that Aibileen writes down her stories, which is a better alternative to Skeeter asking questions. Skeeter even tries to come up with ways to make Aibileen feel more comfortable during the meetings, mainly by trying to not make Aibileen feel she is serving her in her own home, so she brought her own Co-Cola for them to drink together.

Their friendship begins to develop further after this, to the point where Aibileen feels comfortable enough to ask Skeeter to get her books from the library for white people as there was two different libraries due to the Jim Crow laws; there were separate facilities for coloured and white people to enforce racial segregation. Through her stories, Aibileen begins to open up to Skeeter more, telling her the whole truth about her experiences as a maid and also about Treelore's death, which is something that significantly affected her. The more she helps Skeeter with the book, the more Aibileen's confidence grows; she realises that by helping to write this book, she is triumphing in the face of adversity.

Aibileen manages to find many other maids to help Skeeter with her book and when it is finished, both are acknowledged by members of Aibileen's church for their hard work and for giving the maids their own voice. They both receive a copy of the published book with everyone in the church having signed it with Aibileen being told '"she's [Skeeter] our own family."' Due to the success of the book, Skeeter is offered a job in New York, but she is reluctant to leave because she doesn't want to leave Aibileen alone in the messy aftermath of the book, but Aibileen and Minny persuade her to take the job. The two meet before Skeeter leaves and the closeness between the two is highlighted as they both hug when they meet and thank each other for what they've done. Before leaving, Skeeter tells Aibileen that she got her the job of writing the 'Miss Myrna' articles meaning that both of their lives have changed significantly since the beginning of the novel and have ended it with new jobs and seeing each other as family. This is a drastic change from the beginning of the story; they have gone from sweeping conversations between a maid and a white woman, to becoming close friends.

Aibileen and Minny
Aibileen and Minny are best friends; they are both loyal and there for each other during the other's time of need. Minny was there for Aibileen after the death of her son, making sure that she was still eating, and even throwing out the rope that Aibileen was planning to use for her suicide without comment. Aibileen manages to get Minny her job working for Celia Foote after having been fired, and also informs Minny of the rumours that Hilly has been spreading about her not feeding Miss Walters, Hilly's mother, enough. On the three year anniversary of Treelore's death, Minny checks up on Aibileen to make sure that she is okay and promises to bring her notorious caramel cake, telling her '"to do nothing but set in your kitchen and eat the whole thing for supper."'

Despite their close friendship, Minny and Aibileen are very different people and lead very different lives. Minny is straight-talking and known for her outspoken ways, which is the cause of her having been fired multiple times, whereas Aibileen hides her anger and criticises society in her mind. Minny is also married with five children, but Aibileen lives alone with no family.

It appears that Aibileen is one of the few people that Minny listens to as she is the one who persuaded her to take part in Skeeter's book, however, not without difficulty. When Aibileen first tells her that she is interested in talking to Skeeter and asks Minny if she would be, Minny responds with '"Ain't no way I'm gonna do something as crazy as that."' After eventually agreeing, Minny informs Aibileen that she has certain rules for Skeeter if she is to do it. This highlights a key difference between the two women; Aibileen is more trusting than Minny.

Despite being headstrong and outspoken, Minny becomes vulnerable around her husband, Leroy; he is abusive and commits acts of violence against Minny. Towards the end of the novel, Leroy has been fired as Hilly's husband has ordered it on Hilly's instructions. After this, Leroy throws the children out and threatens to burn the house down on Minny. She rings Aibileen, begging her to remain on the phone with her; she breaks down 'crying into the phone.', which Aibileen has never heard before. There is a role reversal taking place here with Aibileen being the one to support Minny and helping her through this traumatic event; showing how they are both there for each other through the good and bad times.