Oscars Recipe: 'The Help' Chocolate Pie (2024)

FAQs

What did Minny put in the pie in the help? ›

The infamous poop-pie scene in 2011's The Help involved some movie magic. In the scene, Minny (Octavia Spencer), a maid in the civil-rights-era deep South, exacts her revenge for being unjustly fired from Hilly's (Bryce Dallas Howard) home by serving her former boss a poop-filled version of her famous chocolate pie.

Once Minny learned that Hilly started rumors about Minny being a thief, Minny told her to “eat [her] sh*t.” Minny then made a pie that contained her feces and delivered it to Hilly, who ate two slices. Although Minny feared Hilly's retribution, the pie symbolizes how Minny was able to gain power over Hilly.

Hilly Holbrook: [about the pie] What do you put in here that makes it taste so good? Minny Jackson: That good vanilla from Mexico and something else real special.

Minny reveals the "terrible awful" as a form of insurance: after her termination, Minny brought Hilly her famous chocolate pie but explains – after Hilly had finished two slices – that she had baked her own excrement into it; Hilly later forced her mother into a nursing home for laughing at her during the incident.

Hilly, Elizabeth Leefolt, and the rest of the white Jackson housewives shun her because of her lower class status. Internalizing society's expectations of her as a woman, Celia feels shame that she cannot give her husband, Johnny Foote, a baby.

In one of the final scenes, Hilly's upper lip was plagued with a large cold sore. While drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette, she sped toward Skeeter's home to inform Charlotte of her daughter's blatant disregard of the community ideals. The lip lesion stood in stark contrast to her pale skin.

Celia is wealthy but feels empty without a child even though Johnny continues to be devoted to her. Johnny expresses his gratitude to Minny and says Celia wouldn't be alive today if Minny hadn't nursed her through the miscarriages and called the doctor.

Thinking she might be unconsciousness from drinking too much, Minny opens the door to find Celia covered in blood. There is a dead fetus in the toilet bowl. Minny realizes that Celia had a miscarriage.

But Minny also uses pies to subvert the power dynamics in the home. After Miss Hilly jeopardizes Minny's chances of ever finding work again, Minny makes a chocolate custard pie including the “special ingredient” of her own feces, and watches Hilly savor two slices of it before telling her the truth.

We Love Them and They Love Us. Skeeter: "I was raised by a colored woman. We love them and they love us - but they can't even use the toilets in our houses." Skeeter sums up the crux of 'The Help' nicely in this one, simple quote.

Who was the person who was behind Hilly's winning of Minny's pie? ›

Minny hasn't told anyone what really happened for fear of Hilly's wrath. After the party Hilly throws the pie in the trash, but then she finds out it was her own mother, Missus Walter, who signed her up for the raffle.

When her mother begins showing signs of senility, Hilly invites her and her black maid, Minny Jackson to stay in her house, firing her own maid. Her real motive, it turns out, was to have Minny and her superior cooking for herself.

Hilly, who's gained weight and developed a cold sore on her lip, marches up to the porch with a letter accusing Skeeter of writing the book. She plans to give the letter to Charlotte, which worries Skeeter because this info will be a shock to her ailing mother.

No, The Help is not based on a true story. The characters and premise of the novel are both fictional. However, it is based on actual circ*mstances faced by African American maids during the 1960s.

But Minny also uses pies to subvert the power dynamics in the home. After Miss Hilly jeopardizes Minny's chances of ever finding work again, Minny makes a chocolate custard pie including the “special ingredient” of her own feces, and watches Hilly savor two slices of it before telling her the truth.

While she is talking it is announced that Hilly has won the prize of Minny's chocolate pie; she tries to pull away from Celia's grasp, but Hilly's sleeve rips apart. Hilly accuses Celia of trying to humiliate her, but Celia does not know what actually happened between Hilly and Minny regarding the chocolate pie.

Minny decides to tell Celia about what happened with Hilly and the pie, hoping it will make Celia see that Hilly is a cruel person not worth getting upset about. Minny explains how she lost her job working for Miss Walters (Hilly's mother) after Hilly put her mother into a nursing home.