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Part 1, Chapter 4: Bride
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
Sweetness sometimes feels bad for how she treated Lula Ann. But she did it to protect her—if she hadn’t raised Lula Ann the way she did, then Bride wouldn’t know to cross the street when she saw white boys approaching. Lula Ann made Sweetness proud during the trial of the “gang of pervert teachers.” Lula Ann got on the stand and acted just like an adult to help send “those evil whites” to prison. Sweetness says she only did hurtful things to Bride because of “skin privileges.” But, Sweetness thinks, the last time she saw Lula Ann, it taught her a lesson: the things you do to children impact them, and they might not forget what happened.
Sweetness justifies her abuse and neglect of Bride by saying that she did what she did to protect Bride from the racism Bride would inevitably experience in the world. Sweetness’s obfuscations show how difficult Bride’s path to healing is. Sweetness lacks the self-awareness or honesty to acknowledge the impact of her own colorism. Since Sweetness will not take responsibility for her past actions, Bride remains estranged from her in the present, leaving Bride on her own once more to try and navigate the difficult path to healing.
Themes
