Investigating through Feminist Lens; the struggle of empowerment in Toni Morrison’s Novel God Help the Child (2015)

Abstract

This study is a thorough investigation of Toni Morrison’s feminist approach in the novel God Help the Child (2015). This essay studies the sexist and racist oppression of the female characters applying the lens of Radical feminism. Radical feminism considers that patriarchy is the main cause of female oppression. It is a comprehensive survey of the struggle of the female characters to empower themselves from the position of powerlessness and mobilize their socio-political actions and experience a psychological change. In order to study the cyclical process of empowerment of the female characters in the novel, the feminist empowerment theory of E.Summerson Carr (2003) has been applied which advocates that empowerment originates from a position of oppression and powerlessness through self-knowledge and Conscientization. This essay aspires to explore the oppression of the female characters due to patriarchy and their struggle to empower themselves despite the liability of belonging to a particular gender, class, race, and nationality. The technique of textual analysis is employed in this qualitative study to explore the feminist oppression and the process and struggle of their empowerment.