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Part 1, Chapter 1: Sweetness
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in God Help the Child, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Inherited Trauma
Racism and Colorism
Child Abuse and Healing
Arrested Development and Unconditional Love
Summary
Analysis
Bride is afraid that something is happening to her. She doesn’t know what it is, but she knows it started when her boyfriend of six months, Booker Starbern, said to her, "You not the woman I want." Bride responded, “Neither am I.” Now that their relationship is over, it doesn’t matter, Bride thinks—their relationship wasn't anything special. Bride works at a company called Sylvia, Inc. and is in charge of a cosmetics line that is about to launch, “YOU, GIRL: Cosmetics for your personal millennium.” The line is for girls and women of all skin tones from “ebony to lemonade to milk.” Bride changed her name from “dumb, countryfied” Lula Ann when she left high school.
When Booker leaves Bride and tells her she is not the person he wants, Bride agrees. She is not the person she wants to be, either. Bride’s shame stems from how Sweetness treated her as a child. To try and accept herself and overcome that shame, Bride must psychologically return to childhood.
Themes
The break-up came at the perfect time, Bride thinks. Now she can concentrate on the launch of YOU, GIRL and keep a promise she made to herself a long time ago. Booker had never understood why the promise was so important to her, and he left the night they fought about it. Bride gets dressed so that she can be ready to keep her promise, which will involve a drive to a prison in a nearby town. As she’s getting dressed, Bride realizes something strange is happening to her; all of her pubic hair is gone—not as in “shaved or waxed, but gone as in erased.”
After Booker leaves, Bride notices the first concrete sign that her body is transforming into that of a child when she sees that her pubic hair has been “erased.” At this point, the novel conceals the reason that Bride and Booker have fought, mirroring Bride’s denial about the depth of her pain related to both their breakup and the reason for their fight. Instead of acknowledging that pain or attempting to address, Bride tries to push it out of her mind.
Themes
Bride arrives at the Decagon Women’s Correctional Center. She is going to see Sofia Huxley, whom people call “the lady monster.” Sofia will be released from prison today—and Bride thinks she’s responsible for putting her there. In the parking lot, Bride thinks her Jaguar stands out against the old Toyotas and well-worn trucks. Fifteen years ago, nobody doubted that Sofia had done the things she was accused of, Bride thinks—the signs of evil had been in Sofia’s eyes for everyone to see. Now, though, when Sofia comes out of the prison, her eyes look more like a “rabbit’s than a snake’s.” Bride asks Sofia if she needs a ride, and Sofia, who doesn't recognize Bride, says no. A cab pulls up, and Sofia gets inside. Bride slams on the taxi’s window, yelling, “Wait! Wait!” but the car pulls away too fast.
Bride’s motivation for visiting Sofia the moment she is released from prison remains ambiguous, as does the reason Sofia was incarcerated to begin with. That ambiguity again highlights the pain related to that period in Bride’s life, when Bride first encountered Sofia, though Bride does acknowledge that she feels responsible for putting Sofia in prison. Many years later, what Bride did to help put Sofia in prison remains so painful to Bride that she does not want to acknowledge, even to herself, exactly what happened. Even when Bride decides to visit Sofia, she tries to push the specifics of what happened between them out of her mind.
Themes
Bride follows Sofia’s taxi until it stops at Eva Dean’s Motel and Restaurant. Bride watches from her car as Sofia devours her meal at the restaurant. Bride follows Sofia to the motel and then knocks on the door. “We need to talk,” Bride says when Sofia opens the door. In the hotel room, Bride gives Sofia a gift package of YOU, GIRL cosmetics and two envelopes, one holding an airline gift certificate, and the other containing $5,000 in cash. Bride tells Sofia she’s giving it to her to help her get a new start. She then reminds Sofia who she is and says she was one of the children at the trial. Sofia responds by hitting Bride before throwing Bride—and the gifts Bride brought—out of the hotel room. Bride doesn’t go to the police but calls her friend Brooklyn—the one person she can trust completely.
While Bride may be earnestly trying to help Sofia get a new start in life, her gesture also suggests that she thinks the answers to life’s most difficult questions come in the form of material goods and wealth. Material wealth has been one of the primary methods Bride has used to insulate herself from the pain of her childhood trauma, so it is not surprising that she tries to use that method to make amends with Sofia. When the possibility of mending the relationship with Sofia vanishes, though, Bride must then find different methods to accept and forgive herself (though the novel hasn’t yet made it clear why, exactly, Bride might feel guilty about Sofia’s incarceration or why she feels like she might owe something to Sofia).
Themes
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