Representation of Child Abuse in African American Fiction: A Study of Toni Morrison’s God Help the Child and Alice Walker’s The Color Purple

Abstract

The present research has undertaken an analysis and investigation of the depiction of childhood abuse and the ensuing trauma in God Help the Child by Toni Morrison and The Color Purple by Alice Walker by drawing focus to the characters’ horrible past, distress and anguish and their repercussions on their present. It has focused on the analysis of various forms of childhood violence and abuse such as incest, rape, pedophilia, child molestation and other physical, emotional and psychological forms of torture which many characters in the texts go through in their lives. The current study has highlighted the child abuse in the African American society and also shown how the menace of abuse is affecting the children in our setting too. The study has brought to light an important issue of child abuse and how this curse should be averted in order to nourish our children in a healthy way. Qualitative research design has been employed and the texts are analyzed using the content analysis technique. Ideas of child abuse and trauma theorists like Alice Miller, Judith Herman and James Kincaid are used to interpret the texts under investigation. The notions such as the narcissistic disorder and false self by Alice Miller and post-traumatic stress disorder, intrusion and constriction by Judith Herman are some of the concepts which the texts are seen through.