Unseen extract 7 - The Help - Explore the significance of discrimination in this extract

Oct 20, 2026

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Unseen extract 7 from Kathryn Stockett’s The Help (first published in 2009) centers on Aibileen, a Black maid working in the Leefolt household in early 1960s Jackson, Mississippi. While caring for Mae Mobley, she overhears white women discussing weekly bridge meetings and a proposed “Home Help Sanitation Initiative” requiring separate guest bathroom access for the help. The passage foregrounds discrimination through coded speech, moral justification, and social control.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages3

Reading Time5 min

AccessFree to download

Extract

Context and narration

Bridge meeting discussion

The Home Help Sanitation Initiative

Unseen extract 7: The Help Read the extract carefully. It is taken from The Help by Kathryn Stockett which was first published in 2009. The novel tells the story of African-American maids working in white Southern households in Jackson, Mississippi during the early 1960s. This extract is narrated by Aibileen who works as a maid for the Leefolt household, cleaning and caring for their toddler Mae Mobley. Here she overhears a discussion of the white women who attend the weekly bridge meeting held atthe Leefolt house, which includes Hilly Holbrook, a wealthy Jackson socialite. Sample question Explore the significance of discrimination in this extract. Remember to include in your answer relevant detailed analysis of the ways that Stockett shapes meanings. Extract ‘Oh Hilly, I wish you’d use the guest bathroom,’ say Miss Leefolt, rearranging her cards. ‘Aibileen doesn’t clean in the back until after lunch.’ Hilly raise her chin up. Then she give one a her ‘ah-hem’s.’ She got this way a clearing her throat real delicate-like that gets everybody’s attention without they even knowing she made em do it. ‘But the guest bathroom’s where the help goes.’ Miss Hilly say. Nobody says anything for a second. Then Miss Walter nod, like she explaining it all. ‘She’s upset cause the Nigra uses the inside bathroom and so do we.’ Law not this mess again. They all look over at me straightening the silver drawerin the sideboard and I know it’s time for me to leave. But before I can get the last spoon in there, Miss Leefolt give me the look, say, ‘Go get some more tea, Aibileen.’ I go like she tell me to, even though they cups is full to the rim. I stand around the kitchen a minute but I ain’t got nothing left to do in there. I need to be in the dining room so I can finish my silver straightening. And I still got the napkin cabinet to sort through today but it’s in the hall, right outside where they setting. I don’t want a stay late just cause Miss Leefolt playing cards. I wait a few minutes, wipe a counter. Give Baby Girl more ham and she gobble it up. Finally, I slip out to the hall, pray nobody see me. All four of em got a cigarette in one hand, they cards in the other. ‘Elizabeth, if you had the choice,’ I hear Miss Hilly say, ‘wouldn’t you rather them take their business outside?’ Real quiet, I open the napkin drawer, more concerned about Miss Leefolt seeing me than what they saying. This talk ain’t news to me. Everywhere in town they got a colored bathroom, and most the houses do too. But I look over and Miss Skeeter’s watching me and I freeze, thinking I’m about to get into trouble. ‘I bid one heart,’Miss Walter say. ‘I don’t know,’Miss Leefolt say, frowning at her cards. ‘With Raleigh starting his own business and tax season not for six months…things are real tight for us now.’ Miss Hilly talk slow, like she spreading icing on a cake. ‘You just tell Raleigh every penny he spends on that bathroom he’ll get back when y’all sell this house.’ She nod like she agreeing with herself. ’All these houses they’re building without maid’s quarters? It’s just plain dangerous. Everybody knows they carry different kinds of diseases than we do. I double.’ I pick up a stack a napkins. I don’t know why, but all a sudden I want a hear what Miss Leefolt gone say to this. She my boss. I guess everybody wonder what they boss think a them. ‘It would be nice,’ Miss Leefolt say, taking a little puff a her cigarette, ‘not having her use the one in the house. I bid three spades.’ ‘That’s exactly why I’ve designed the Home Help Sanitation Initiative,’ Miss Hilly say. ‘As a disease preventative measure.’ I’m surprised by how tight my throat get. It’s a shame I learned to keep down along time ago. Miss Skeeter look real confused. ‘The Home…the what?’ A bill that requires every white home to have a separate bathroom for the colored help. I’ve even notified the surgeon general of Mississippi to see if he’ll endorse the idea. I

FAQs

Who narrates this extract and what is her role in the household?

Aibileen narrates. She works as a maid for the Leefolt household, cleaning and caring for their toddler Mae Mobley.

What issue do the white women debate during the bridge meeting?

They discuss a “Home Help Sanitation Initiative,” described as a disease-prevention measure requiring separate bathroom access for the colored help.

How does the extract present discrimination beyond open statements?

Discrimination is embedded in euphemistic language and supposedly rational justifications. The women frame segregation as protection for the town while treating the help’s needs as subordinate and manageable through control.

Oct 20, 2026

Upload by dhado