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Society and Class Quotes in The Help

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

But I know I'll have to rewrite everything [Aibileen's] written, wasting even more time. (11.82)

At first, Skeeter unwittingly buys into the false stereotype that black women are uneducated and illiterate. She soon learns that Aibileen is a formidable and practiced writer, even though she was forced to leave school in junior high.

Quote #5

"Shame ain't black, like dirt, like I always thought it was. Shame be the color of a new white uniform your mother ironed all night to pay for, white without a smudge or speck a work-dirt on it." (11.99)

Aibileen remembers the shame she feels when she was fired on the first day of her first job as a maid – for forgetting to inventory the silver she polished.

Quote #6

"Good. Then get going. Before this civil rights thing blows over." (12.82)

Elaine Stein might be a hip New York City editor, but she doesn't foresee that the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s is no passing fancy.