“What you do to children matters”: motherhood in Toni Morrison’s god help the child

Abstract

Motherhood is again at the core of Toni Morrison’s last novel, God Help the Child. Morrison deals with one typical African American family, a single mother, Sweetness, with a daughter, Lula Ann. Sweetness is a mixed woman who can pass for white, but becomes exposed as a result of the birth of her blue-black daughter. Sweetness’s internalization of the racist views of a race-conscious America during the 1950s leads her to self-loathing and low self-esteem. Thus, she resorts to authoritarian parenting practices so as, she seems to believe, to protect her child from getting hurt, however, her toxic mothering has dramatic consequences. Lula Ann’s struggle to achieve self-definition requires assuming responsibility for her actions and Sweetness comes to realize that what you do to your child matters.