The Help: Imagery 4 key examples

The bathroom is too hot, and Minny "feel[s] like [her] head's on fire." The intoxicating scent of melting butter turns into too-strong hand soap. The quick swap in sensory imagery from kitchen to bathroom helps to show the equally quick transition from "reverie" to fear. First, Minny's total enjoyment of the peach and butter represents the safety and peace she feels with Celia. But the fear, heat, and discomfort in the bathroom represent in turn the fear Minny feels toward Johnny. Thus, the total switch in sensory imagery, while only going from room to room in the same house, shows the range of emotions that Minny feels in that house. Celia's requirement that Minny remain secret means that she feels as much peace in the aromatic kitchen as she does fear in the stuffy bathroom.

Minny compares "truth" to "water washing over my sticky-hot body." Through this simile, Minny connects the racism and oppression in Mississippi with its hot, humid climate. Just as Minny sweats through the muggy southern weather—though this scene takes place in December, it is still hot outside—so too does she struggle through the cruelty and rudeness of White bosses. Minny often complains in the novel about the heat and how she sweats worse than anyone else; this is consistent with Minny's constant desire for truth and fairness, often to her own detriment.  In contrast, "truth," the real stories of the experience of Black housekeepers, feels like cool water, in contrast to this hot oppression. The pleasurable, cleansing experience of the truth will prove to be so enticing to Minny that it will eventually cause her to agree to participate in the book.

First, Skeeter describes her feelings as heat. She feels "singed and hurt," as if her relationship with Stuart was a fire that burned her. Because of this, Skeeter craves the cool air from the air conditioner. To the characters in the novel, this is a newfangled and unfamiliar device, installed to aid Charlotte's health in the wake of her cancer diagnosis. Skeeter craves the cool air because she wants to be "frozen inside." If heat and fire represented overwhelming emotions, Skeeter longs to feel no emotions, to be frozen cold. But this is only a fleeting balm for Skeeter's emotions, as the power blows out immediately.

Blistering heat is a common image in the novel. Typically, it is used to represent the omnipresent effects of racism and oppression, like hot, sticky hair draped over the entire city. Here, though, heat as imagery applies more specifically to Skeeter's emotions. 

Aibileen's reaction to Mae's sadness is full of powerful pathos: "I feel like my heart's gone bleed to death." Aibileen and Mae's relationship formed the first few sentences of the book, and now the moving pain of their separation forms the final few sentences. Aibileen's hyperbolic statement about her heart bleeding "to death" recalls Christian imagery, particularly of the Virgin Mary, who is often depicted with her heart pierced by seven swords. The bleeding heart is often a symbol of great sadness, as it is for Aibileen here.

The entire scene is also very physical, making use of tactile imagery. Aibileen feels her pain as a physical wound in her heart. She then feels Mae's face, with its "scary heat" from her fever. Their final interaction takes place in this pose, Aibileen holding Mae's face. This interaction frames their relationship as something innate to them, something held in their body.