Racial Passing in Toni Morrison’sGod Help the Child

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