Toni Morrison God Help The Child Essay

Death is only the beginning. While that statement is a terribly boring cliché, it can occasionally have some truth behind it. Toni Morrison, author of God Help the Child, toys with this concept without directly using death. She instead hides it beneath her writing, leaving subtle clues to lead readers towards the truth of what is really going on. In God Help the Child, Morrison’s protagonist Bride dies in a car crash midway through the book and comes back to life once she learns to be an adult. While Morrison does not directly write, that Bride died, the mysteriousness of Bride’s surroundings and saviors, the strange convenience of Whiskey, and the lessons Bride learns all hint towards the possibility that Bride was in heaven for a short time.

When Bride first crashes, Morrison writes, “’Oh, God’ Bride whispered. Was she hallucinating?” Here, Morrison shows Bride questioning the reality of the event because Bride recognizes how something about her location feels out of the ordinary. Bride’s exclamation towards God is also a subtle hint to her questioning if she is still alive. The man who saves Bride, Steve, is said to be “bearded, long blonde hair with silt black eyes.” (Morrison, 84). Steve’s appearance can be seen to resemble that of Jesus Christ, who’s long hair and bearded face are known to many. While stuck in her Jaguar, Bride also notices that Steve seems to defy time as he goes to grab a wrench and crowbar, as it feels like he’s gone for hours but comes back in mere minutes. Rain, Steve’s adopted daughter, “resembled no one Bride had ever seen - milk-white skin, ebony hair, neon eyes and undetermined age.” (Morrison, 86). Rain’s unnatural appearance is just like an angel’s, which Bride had never seen before because angels only reside in heaven. The concept of time seems off once again with the idea of Rain’s age, which is revealed to be a mystery to everyone later in the chapter. Bride is befuddled by her rescuers because they are all angels appearing to her in heaven, which Bride is not supposed to realize. In heaven, it is known that there is no concept of

Bride lives lavishly as head of a make-up line for a large company, so she is very used to feeling high and mighty with her expensive lifestyle. The trip to Whiskey (or in this case, heaven) showed Bride how the rest of the world lives, and helped her be more down-to-earth and accepting. Bride’s snobbish spirit can be seen slowly deteriorating when she states she enjoyed when Evelyn “poured pail after pail of hot water into the zinc tub.” (Morrison, 92). This was a step in the right direction for Bride, as she at first despised the outdoor toilet and bathtub situation. The conversation between Bride, Evelyn, and Steve was also a large catalyst for Bride’s levelheadedness. Through the happily-married couple questioning the worth of wealth, Bride realized that she knew “nothing about good for its own sake, or love without things.” (Morrison, 92). With that in mind, Bride understood that she needed to drop being so materialistic, as it is more powerful to find real love than value possessions. Bride also learns the true horrors of bad parenting through her conversation with Rain about how she was adopted. Rain explains to Bride that she was sold off to men as a prostitute by her mother, showing Bride that as terrible a parent as Sweetness was, there are horrors in the world far greater than hers. With all the lessons taken to