Tear Jerker / The Help

• It is unbearable to witness a woman as strong as Minny be a Love Martyr and human punching bag for her abusive husband. She even gets a black eye for her troubles.
• We have a painfully sobering moment when Minny tells Skeeter how terrific being a house maid is, listing off all the cons that come with it, before she bitterly mentions her favorite "perk": sooner or later, the very children they raise "turn out just like their mamas". If it's any indication, she and Aibileen are no strangers to this pattern.
• Aibileen's story about how her son died.
• A nasty Kick the Dog moment from Hilly when she has Yule May arrested for stealing an almost totally worthless heirloom — when Yule May panics and resists arrest, one of the policemen responds by bashing her over the head with his truncheon.
  • Aibileen desperately trying to advise Yule May not to run, struggle or do anything that will provoke the policemen. Understandably, Yule May is too scared to listen and it doesn't end well for her.
• A small one, but during Skeeter's interview with the other maids, we have this rather sobering story: when Cora's employer passed away, she had willed Cora's services to one of her daughters Jolene, who is unfortunately the meaner of the two. She wanted to go work for the nicer sister, or somebody else in the least. But nobody would take her. In their minds, Jolene's family alone "owned" her. And Cora feels disturbed that she's viewed as property, rather than a person for hire.
• When Skeeter finds out what happened to Constantine.
  Skeeter: (sobbing) You broke her heart!
  • Sadder is Constantines reaction. She seems old and sad and lost all at once as her daughter draws her away. We're shown her packing up her things to leave with Rachel, then running her hand over the door of her house, where the measurements of the growth of Rachel and Skeeter are marked.
  • The book version is very sad as well. Constantine has a daughter who is extremely fair skinned and with blonde hair. This made Constantine and her child an outcast in both communities and Constantine ends up having to giving her daughter up for adoption. When her daughter comes in to see Constantine for the first time since her adoption, Skeeter's mother Charlotte assumes she is a white woman who has come to join the event which is underway. When Charlotte realizes who she is, she becomes furious, feeling like the daughter tricked her, as she assumed she was white and Constantines daughter was socializing with all the white people at the event. Charlotte tells Constantine's daughter to get out and that Constantine can never have contact with her again if she stays. Unwilling to give up her daughter again, Constantine leaves.
• Celia's miscarriage.

  Celia: (crying) Why is there so much blood?

  • When Celia is burying her miscarried baby in a shoebox in the backyard, with a rosebush to plant over it... and the camera pulls back, revealing three other rosebushes.
    • "He doesn't know about the baby. Or the two before..."
• The Charity Event scene with Hilly and Celia. When an inebriated Celia tries to congratulate her for winning the chocolate pie, Hilly thinks she knows about the "Terrible Awful". What follows is an intense drama between the two, with one unaware of how she unwittingly she hit a raw nerve for the other. It's clear Celia is just trying to smooth things over with Hilly, but she quickly learns Hilly is not interested in peace, and more interested in threatening retaliation on Millie if she tells anyone.
• Celia's isolation in general. Celia married Hilly's former boyfriend and Hilly has led the other women of Jackson in shunning her (and the men, the husbands, see her as a sex object). Minny is the only interaction Celia has outside of her husband and the closest thing Celia has to a friend.
  • After the disastrous charity event, Celia sadly believes she wasn't made for this life.
  • If not for Minnie explaining the "Terrible Awful" to her, Celia would've gone through with leaving Johnny, even though he loves her so much.
  • The scene where poor Celia shows up to Hilly's house with a pie, and then leaves saddened by everyone hiding from her.
• The second half of the "Commode" scene. Mae Mobley mistakenly "goes potty" in one of the commodes. Instead of gently telling her daughter it's not appropriate to "go potty" on someone's yard, Elizabeth takes her aside and soundly spanks her, quickly sucking away the humor in the scene. Aibileen can only stand on the side and watch, pained at seeing her surrogate daughter suffer such abuse.
  • Earlier, Aibileen changing Mae Mobley's diaper in the morning and learning second hand that Elizabeth doesn't even bother to change her daughter's diaper herself. What sells it is the ashamed look on Mae Mobley's face when Aibileen opens her diaper. It's no wonder Aibileen tells Skeeter this sobering line:
    Aibileen: Mrs. Leefolt should not be having babies...
• Stewart breaking up with Skeeter when he learns of her involvement writing "The Help". Sure he's a jerk for not seeing things from Skeeter's side and she's better off without him. But Skeeter is nonetheless heart-broken, probably because she really believed he was a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who would stand by her no matter what.
  • It's worse in the book where it is clear he hasn't let go of his previous girlfriend and he assumes Skeeter will take him back after he has finally gotten over it.
• The very end, as Mae Mobley cries and begs Aibileen not to go.