Bride’s Quest for Identity in Toni Morrison’s God Help the Child and Closeted Identities in Pakistan

Abstract

This research has been conducted on Bride’s character from Toni Morrison’s novel God Help the Child (2015) and closeted identities in Pakistan. Moreover, a comparison is established between Bride and closeted identities in Pakistan to show how it is impossible for the closeted person to come out of the closet and face the society. In this regard, Bride’s quest for identity being affected by the racism, motherhood and patriarchy is studied through textual analysis of the novel with the help of extra-textual knowledge of the theories related to closetedness, subjectivity, motherhood, racism, social mobility. In the first instant, God Help the Child gives an expression that it merely describes the racism and the child abuse in the society but this research reveals that it also advocates the problems which a child can face in the racist and the sexist society to be socially accepted and how closeted affects the society economically and psychologically. Moreover, this research also reveals that Pakistani homosexuals are suppressed by the religion, constitution and family in the country where a large number of Homosexual minority exist.