Racial Passing in Toni Morrison’sGod Help the Child
Date
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Central Department of English
Abstract
This thesis examines the racial passing in Toni Morrison’sGod Help theChild.The
centralobjective of this thesis is to observe the stories of five characters who turn to be
narratorsthemselves. Theirstories revolve around the process of veiling and unveiling their
racial identity. Sweetness herself is a daughter of black parents but she considers herself white
because she has got lighter skin, whichgives her confidence to reject her owndaughter, Bride
who is very black.Including these kinds of stories regarding racial minority and color as sense
of insecurity,Morrison gives pictorial view of the modern American society. To analyzeissue of
racial passinginMorrison’sGod Help The Child,theoretical ideasaretaken from Richard
Alba’sBlurring The Color Line, Gayle Wald’sCrossing the Line, Allyson Hobb’s A Chosen
Exile, Henry Louis Gates’sThe SignifyingMonkey,and Steven J. Belluscio’sTo be Suddenly
White. Thoughthetext begins with the sense of being black is a curse,it ends with the theme of
blackness is beautiful.To be black is not to be marginalized and minorizedanymore.
Keywords:Colorism, Racial passing,Materialism, Commodification