How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
But it wasn't too long before I seen something in me had changed. A bitter seed was planted inside a me. And I just didn't feel so accepting anymore. (1.10)
The senseless death of Aibileen's son Treelore causes Aibileen to focus on the injustices around her and want to do something to create change. Truth-telling becomes the vehicle she uses to do so.
Quote #2
Miss Skeeter, she frowning at Miss Hilly. She set her cards down face up and say real matter-a-fact, "Maybe we ought to just build you a bathroom outside, Hilly" (1.69)
The Skeeter-Hilly toilet wars have just begun. Here, Skeeter takes a minor stand for justice, and Hilly instantly responds with a threat to fire Skeeter from her post as editor of the Junior League.
Quote #3
"She telling everybody in town I'm stealing! That's why I can't get no work! That witch done turned me into the Smart-Mouthed Criminal Maid a Hide County!" (2.111)
All Hilly has to do is say Minny is a thief for the other women to judge her as such. It's unthinkable that the word of a proper southern lady like Hilly be called into question. We love how Minny uses humor to express this bitter injustice.
Quote #4
Constantine's the only woman I've ever had to look up to, to look her straight in the eye. (5.105)
Skeeter and Constantine are both very tall women, and this is important to Skeeter. But, she also seems to be referring to Constantine's straightforwardness and honesty, and Skeeter's feelings of pride and equality when in Constantine's presence. This influences Skeeter's ability to empathize with injustices faced by the black community.
Quote #5
No. I couldn't. That would be… crossing the line. (6.230)
Skeeter feels she's being judged harshly for bringing to light the stories of the help. She decides to be her own judge of what's right and what's wrong and act accordingly.
Quote #6
Truth
It feels cool, like water washing over my sticky-hot body. Cooling a heat that's been burning me up all my life. (10.77, 10.78)
Aibileen is seduced into Skeeter's plan by the sudden hope of truth, which can be an important part of justice. These lines suggest that she feels like she's been speaking and living a lie for all her life by not talking about the injustices she sees and experiences.
Quote #7
"Look, […] don't say anything about meeting me. I'm going to let her tell me when she's ready." (10.210)
When Johnny and Minny finally meet, Johnny doesn't judge Celia for keeping Minny a secret. His main priority is his wife's comfort and he figures that keeping his knowledge of Minny a secret is one way to do this.
Quote #8
But then I realize, like a shell cracking open in my head, there's no difference between those government laws and Hilly building Aibileen a bathroom in the garage, except ten minutes' worth of signatures in the state capitol. (13.92)
Skeeter is so right. The Jim Crow laws Skeeter is talking about likely began as bills by people very much like Hilly. Skeeter is becoming a better judge of the world she lives in.
Quote #9
The tears roll down. It's all them white peoples that breaks me, standing around the colored neighborhood. White peoples with guns, pointed at colored peoples. Cause who gone protect our peoples? Ain't no colored policeman. (14.163)
The white policemen with guns are in Aibileen's neighborhood because Medgar Evers, a black civil rights leader, was assassinated blocks away and the authorities are afraid the black community will turn violent as a result. Some bitter irony, isn't it?
Quote #10
"But everybody saying the judge wife be good friends with Miss Holbrook and a how regular sentence be six months for petty stealing, but Miss Holbrook, she get it pushed up to four years." (19.151)
Hilly has the legal justice system at her disposal and she uses it to punish the black people who offend her.
Quote #11
My breath feel like fire. "Time to write to every person in Jackson the truth about you." (34.195)
Aibileen dishes out her own justice here by daring to get busy spreading the story printed in Help – the story of Hilly eating Minny's poo-laced chocolate pie. In doing so, Aibileen manages to (rather cleverly, we might add) avoid the prison sentence Hilly was trying to set her up for.