Women as the Other in Toni Morrison’s God Help the Child

Abstract

This paper explores how women particularly black women are presented as the ‘other’ through the experiences of the characters in Morrison’s novel, God Help the Child. The research studies how women characters like Bride and her mother Sweetness are othered according to class, gender, and race oppression applying key idea of Gayatri Chakravorty Spiak ‘subaltern representation’ and supporting idea of Bell Hooks ‘female agency’ to elaborate on the concept of othering. Their opinions present women have been historically relegated to the status of other, defined in opposition to men, and how female characters exemplify societal marginalization and oppression in patriarchal society. Novel’s female characters Bride and her mother Sweetness face intersecting factors including emotional, gender, racial, religious, sexual suppression and societal expectations from the patriarchal authorities in the white society. Bride’s black skin symbolizes her alienation to affecting identity and relationships in the society. Whereas, Sweetness is Bride’s mother is rejected and dejected by her husband name of Louis for giving birth a black skinned child. Bride’s denial, from her boyfriend Booker because of her physical appearance, andhe exemplifies patriarchal attitudes through his abusive behaviour towards her. So, the novel’s explores how women defined multifaceted ways as marginalized in society according to their identity. Keywords: Black Woman, Female Agency, and Subaltern Representation.