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Booker Starbern
Sweetness is Bride’s mother. She neglected Bride while raising her because Bride had darker skin than Sweetness or her husband, Louis. Sweetness justifies her neglect of Bride by saying that she had to harden Bride to prepare her for the racism she would inevitably experience as a Black woman with darker skin. But Sweetness also expresses and embraces colorist ideas when she claims that discrimination based on a person’s skin color helps people like her (people with lighter skin) maintain dignity. Sweetness’s colorism causes profound damage and trauma for Bride. Throughout the novel, Bride attempts to overcome this trauma. While Sweetness feels some level of remorse over how she treated Bride, she ultimately believes that, given the problems of the world, she did what she had to do to ensure Bride’s safety and success later in life. Sweetness’s primary regret instead is that Bride remains angry with her. The novel portrays Sweetness as someone who lacks the insight to take full responsibility for her past mistakes; she remains convinced that she did the right thing by neglecting Bride, which makes reconciliation between Bride and Sweetness nearly impossible.
Sweetness Quotes in God Help the Child
The God Help the Child quotes below are all either spoken by Sweetness or refer to Sweetness. 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:
).
Part 1, Chapter 1: Sweetness
Quotes
It’s not my fault. So you can’t blame me. I didn’t do it and have no idea how it happened.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1, Chapter 4: Bride
Quotes
As we walked down the courthouse steps she held my hand, my hand. She never did that before and it surprised me as much as it pleased me because I always knew she didn’t like touching me. I could tell. Distaste was all over her face when I was little and she had to bathe me. Rinse me, actually, after a halfhearted rub with a soapy washcloth. I used to pray she would slap my face or spank me just to feel her touch.
Part 1, Chapter 5: Sweetness
Quotes
Oh, yeah, I feel bad sometimes about how I treated Lula Ann when she was little. But you have to understand: I had to protect her. She didn’t know the world. There was no point in being tough or sassy even when you were right. Not in a world where you could be sent to a juvenile lockup for talking back or fighting in school, a world where you’d be the last one hired and the first one fired. She could know any of that or how her black skin would scare people or make them laugh or trick her.
Part 1, Chapter 6: Bride
Quotes
“Come on, baby, you’re not responsible for other folks’ evil.”
Part 4, Chapter 2
Quotes
“I’m not sure I should, now.” Bride shook her head. She had counted on her looks for so long—how well her beauty worked. She had not known its shallowness or her own cowardice—the vital lesson Sweetness taught and nailed to her spine to curve it.
Having confessed, Lula Ann’s sins she felt newly born. No longer forced to relive, no, outlive the disdain of her mother and the abandonment of her father.
Get the entire God Help the Child LitChart as a printable PDF.
Sweetness Quotes in God Help the Child
The God Help the Child quotes below are all either spoken by Sweetness or refer to Sweetness. 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:
).
Part 1, Chapter 1: Sweetness
Quotes
It’s not my fault. So you can’t blame me. I didn’t do it and have no idea how it happened.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1, Chapter 4: Bride
Quotes
As we walked down the courthouse steps she held my hand, my hand. She never did that before and it surprised me as much as it pleased me because I always knew she didn’t like touching me. I could tell. Distaste was all over her face when I was little and she had to bathe me. Rinse me, actually, after a halfhearted rub with a soapy washcloth. I used to pray she would slap my face or spank me just to feel her touch.
Part 1, Chapter 5: Sweetness
Quotes
Oh, yeah, I feel bad sometimes about how I treated Lula Ann when she was little. But you have to understand: I had to protect her. She didn’t know the world. There was no point in being tough or sassy even when you were right. Not in a world where you could be sent to a juvenile lockup for talking back or fighting in school, a world where you’d be the last one hired and the first one fired. She could know any of that or how her black skin would scare people or make them laugh or trick her.
Part 1, Chapter 6: Bride
Quotes
“Come on, baby, you’re not responsible for other folks’ evil.”
Part 4, Chapter 2
Quotes
“I’m not sure I should, now.” Bride shook her head. She had counted on her looks for so long—how well her beauty worked. She had not known its shallowness or her own cowardice—the vital lesson Sweetness taught and nailed to her spine to curve it.
Having confessed, Lula Ann’s sins she felt newly born. No longer forced to relive, no, outlive the disdain of her mother and the abandonment of her father.
