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Minny’s “Special Ingredient” Pie
Aibileen often refers to the “bitter seed” that began growing inside of her after the death of her son Treelore. The seed makes Aibileen less accepting of the white women who treat her like a lesser human being, and she often feels the seed growing every time a white woman humiliates or degrades her. The seed represents how racism can make even the most gentle and compassionate people justifiably bitter. Aibileen uses this bitterness in a productive way, however. The seed gives her the motivation to get back at the white housewives by helping Skeeter reveal their private lives in the book. If Aibileen stayed the timid, forgiving woman she was before her son’s death, then she would never have had the internal impetus to fight back against oppression and racism in her society. In this way, the bitter seed is a painful but politically beneficial reminder of all that Aibileen has endured in Jackson.
The Bitter Seed Quotes in The Help
The The Help quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Bitter Seed. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2
Quotes
I put the iron down real slow, feel that bitter seed grow in my chest, the one planted after Treelore died. My face goes hot, my tongue twitchy. I don’t know what to say to her. All I know is, I ain’t saying it. And I know she ain’t saying what she want a say either and it’s a strange thing happening here cause nobody saying nothing and we still managing to have us a conversation.
Related Characters:
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Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Help LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Bitter Seed Symbol Timeline in The Help
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Bitter Seed appears in The Help. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...newborn Mae Mobley. The death of her son makes Aibileen feel as if a “ bitter seed ” is growing inside of her, making her less accepting of the people around her.
(full context)
Chapter 2
The bathroom is ready by the next afternoon. Miss Leefolt tells Aibileen, who feels the bitter seed growing in her chest, that she should be happy that she has a bathroom of...
(full context)
Chapter 7
...catch diseases if she uses the “colored bathroom.” On the way home, Aibileen feels the bitter seed growing inside her when she thinks about how Miss Leefolt is teaching her daughter to...
(full context)
