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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in God Help the Child, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Inherited Trauma
Racism and Colorism
Child Abuse and Healing
Arrested Development and Unconditional Love
Summary
Analysis
As a graduate student, Booker is on the way to a lecture when he sees a man with his pants down, watching children on the playground. Blood splatters over Booker’s fists as he beats the man. He then leaves the man lying on the ground, unconscious, with his jeans still unzipped, and heads to the lecture. There, Booker listens to the professor intone about Adam Smith. Four years before, as an undergraduate, Booker dabbled across disciplines but began to suspect that the real answers concerning the oppression of Black people all had to do with money. So, he decided to study economics in graduate school.
Booker, still reeling from the murder of his brother at the hands of a child molester, reacts with violence when he sees a sexual predator. The novel doesn’t seem to judge that violence as right or wrong so much as it positions Booker’s impulse toward violence within the context of his persistent pain and trauma. The novel suggests, then, that if Booker could heal from the trauma of his brother’s murder, his first response might not be violence.
Themes
Booker reflects on his childhood. His family doesn’t have TV, internet, or video games. Each Saturday, his parents hold a conference with their children where they ask them two questions: what have you learned that is true, and what problem do you have? The conferences only stop when Booker’s older brother Adam goes missing. Booker’s parents call the police to help find Adam, but the police only check to see if Booker’s father had a police record. When they find out that he doesn’t, they give up looking for Adam.
In a profoundly vulnerable moment, Booker’s family calls the police, who seem to respond with racism instead of genuine usefulness or concern. That racism and lack of concern highlight the way so many figures of authority treat children in the novel. The people who are supposed to care for children often abandon their duties and resort to negligence or abuse instead, showing the novel’s contention that children are delivered to a world rife with evil and wrongdoing and are helpless to avoid the problems of the world.
Themes
Then, in the spring, Adam is found in a culvert. Booker goes with his father to identify Adam’s body. At the funeral, the crowds only make Booker feel lonelier. In the days after, only an aunt, Queen, traveled from California to attend Adam’s funeral, seems to understand Booker’s pain and tries to comfort him.
In the wake of Adam’s death, Booker consistently feels isolated and alone. When his parents can't support his emotional needs, he turns to his aunt Queen. Booker’s relationship with Queen foreshadows his decision to go to Whiskey, California, after he and Bride break up. That relationship also hints at the kind of connection Booker is looking for with Bride, one where he feels comfortable expressing his true feelings without being ignored or rejected.
Themes
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When Adam went missing, Booker’s father stopped playing music in the house. After Adam’s funeral, Booker worries that another tragedy could take away music again, so he asks his father if he can take trumpet lessons. Six years later, Booker is a decent trumpet player, and the man who murdered Adam is caught and charged with the “sexually stimulated slaughter” of Adam and five other boys. Everyone describes the man as the “nicest man in the world.” When police search his house, they find a mattress with dried blood on it and a candy tin with “carefully wrapped pieces of dried flesh.” The man, a retired auto mechanic who repaired appliances at people’s homes, would tie up the children while he molested them. He also tortured them and amputated body parts.
After Adam’s death, Booker uses music and the trumpet to navigate his overwhelming emotions. Notably, before Adam’s killer is caught, people think of his murderer as the “nicest man in the world.” That conception shows how supposedly trustworthy people throughout the novel regularly abuse children, leading them to be traumatized or murdered, reinforcing one of the novel’s main arguments that children are fated to inherit the trauma of those around them, no matter how trustworthy those people might seem.
Themes
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When Adam’s killer is found, the public seems like it won’t be satisfied unless the man is beheaded. In the clamor, Booker struggles to “individualize his feelings”—to separate his pain from the anger of other families and the public in general. Going to college helps distract Booker. But by his junior year, he becomes depressed. He applies to graduate school to try and learn something worthwhile in a place that might “accommodate his despair.” After he receives his master’s degree, Booker goes home to celebrate. At home, the room he once shared with Adam is completely different, and Booker’s skateboard, identical to the one Adam had with him when he went missing, is gone. Booker picks a fight with his family, asking them why they want to forget Adam. His father says that people grieve in different ways, and that Booker can either be civil—or he can leave. Booker leaves.
The trauma that Booker experienced upon losing his brother Adam—the family member he was closest to—leads Booker to become estranged from the rest of his family. The inability to forge meaningful connections with people closest to him is one of the main symptoms of Booker’s childhood trauma and becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The path to healing for Booker lies in forming relationships that are as meaningful to him as his relationship with Adam was, but Adam’s death has made it extremely difficult for Booker to trust people and form those kinds of relationships. When he experiences friction in relationships—whether with his father or with Bride—he leaves, preferring the familiarity of his isolation than the risk of another devastating loss.
Themes
After this, Booker moves in with his girlfriend, Felicity. One night, they are out watching live music, and Booker goes backstage to ask the band if he can play with them sometime. The band initially dismisses him, but then they invite him to a Friday set, when it will matter less if he messes up. Booker auditions and then plays with the band every Friday. When the band breaks up, Booker and a few of the other members start to play on the streets. Booker’s relationship with Felicity starts to fray, and the last straw comes when Booker is arrested. The arrest happens after Booker sees a man and a woman smoking crack in a car—and a two-year-old child in the car with them. Booker then pulls the man out of the car and beats him. Felicity pays the fine to get Booker out of jail.
Booker’s emotions surrounding Adam’s death remain so overwhelming that he seems unable to avoid lashing out when those emotions are triggered. When he sees the couple mistreating a child, he reacts violently, an action which, in the context of the novel, becomes an instance of self-destructive behavior, as it leads Booker to be arrested and to lose his relationship with Felicity. Again, Booker’s trauma intercedes when he has the opportunity to form a relationship based on mutual connection, leading Booker to retreat again to isolation.
Themes
After Booker and Felicity break up, Booker inherits money from his grandfather at just the right time. The money allows him to rent his own apartment. Then, his life changes the moment he sees Bride. The music he plays after he sees her is unlike anything he has ever played before. He sees her again a few weeks later when both of them are standing in line at a concert. Booker makes sure to be close to Bride, and during the concert, he wraps his arms around her waist and dances with her. After that, their relationship is flawless. Bride is “knock-down beautiful,” and he especially likes that she doesn’t ask about his personal life. Every so often, Bride loses her cool business façade and tells Booker a meaningful memory from childhood. Six months in, though, the “fairy-tale castle collapse[s],” and Booker leaves.
When Booker meets Bride, he feels the possibility of joy and happiness again. But, from the beginning, their relationship seems to be built on a faulty premise, particularly in how Booker finds comfort in withholding information about himself. That lack of vulnerability provides Booker with an easy out once things prove—as they inevitably will—not to be a fairy tale. Again, when he has the chance to forge a meaningful connection based on mutual intimacy, love, and vulnerability, Booker chooses to leave, preferring the low-stakes nature of his isolation to the risk that deep relationships entail.
Themes
