God Help The Child

“Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not (LUKE 18:16).”

This scripture from the New Testament is generally taken to be Jesus’s declaration that children were worthy of attention and God’s love during a time and in a place where children were frequently treated as property. Morrison’s novel is effectively a pun on the word “suffer.” While suffering in the scripture means to put up with or allow without complaint, the suffering the children experience in the novel includes verbal, physical, and sexual abuse. Morrison’s inclusion of this epigraph signals her focus on demythologizing childhood.

“It’s not my fault. So you can’t blame me. I didn’t do it and have no idea how it happened […] She was so black she scared me. Midnight black, Sudanese black. I’m light-skinned, with good hair, what we call high yellow, and so is Lula Ann’s father. Ain’t nobody in my family anywhere near that color. Tar is the closest I can think of.”

Sweetness’s disavowal of all responsibility for her mistreatment of her daughter is classic gas lighting, whereby an abuser denies responsibility for cruelty or even tries to convince observers or victims that there was no wrongdoing in his or her behavior. Sweetness’s internalization of racism, made apparent in the negative meanings she attaches to Bride’s physical features, explains in large part why she was unable to love her daughter.

“‘You not the woman I want.’”

With these words, Booker walks out of Bride’s life. His perspective about her womanhood is rooted in idealization of Bride as the archetypal black woman, while Bride’s reaction to Booker (agreement and then hurt) show the hollowness underneath her confident exterior.