God Help the Child

by

Toni Morrison

Brooklyn Character Analysis

Brooklyn is a white woman with dreadlocks. Bride describes Brooklyn as her closest friend and the one person she can trust completely. Morrison portrays Brooklyn, though, as an untrustworthy person, willing to betray Bride at a moment’s notice for her own gain. When Bride is recovering after being beaten by Sofia, Brooklyn is excited that she might be given a more important role at work while Bride is out of the office. And earlier, before the story’s present, Brooklyn attempted to seduce Bride’s boyfriend at the time, Booker, just for the fun of it. While Brooklyn’s duplicity never leads to a full-scale confrontation between Bride and Brooklyn, as Bride moves closer toward self-actualization, she drifts away from Brooklyn both physically and emotionally.

Brooklyn Quotes in God Help the Child

The God Help the Child quotes below are all either spoken by Brooklyn or refer to Brooklyn. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Inherited Trauma Theme Icon
).
Part 1, Chapter 3: Brooklyn Quotes

How can she persuade women to improve their looks with products that can’t improve her own? There isn’t enough YOU, GIRL foundation in the world to hide eye scars, a broken nose and facial skin scraped down to pink hypodermis. Assuming much of the damage fades, she will still need plastic surgery, which means weeks and weeks of idleness, hiding behind glasses and floppy hats. I might be asked to take over. Temporarily, of course.

Related Characters: Brooklyn (speaker), Lula Ann “Bride” Bridewell, Sofia Huxley
Page Number: 26
Explanation and Analysis:
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Brooklyn Quotes in God Help the Child

The God Help the Child quotes below are all either spoken by Brooklyn or refer to Brooklyn. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Inherited Trauma Theme Icon
).
Part 1, Chapter 3: Brooklyn Quotes

How can she persuade women to improve their looks with products that can’t improve her own? There isn’t enough YOU, GIRL foundation in the world to hide eye scars, a broken nose and facial skin scraped down to pink hypodermis. Assuming much of the damage fades, she will still need plastic surgery, which means weeks and weeks of idleness, hiding behind glasses and floppy hats. I might be asked to take over. Temporarily, of course.

Related Characters: Brooklyn (speaker), Lula Ann “Bride” Bridewell, Sofia Huxley
Page Number: 26
Explanation and Analysis: