Summary of Toni Morrison's God Help the Child is a dramatic novel that focuses on how adults are affected by what happened to them when they were children. Bride, a successful, young, black woman, becomes who she is because her lighter-skinned mother had trouble accepting and loving her. Bride remakes herself in order to leave behind her past.

When Lula Ann Bridewell is born, her mother is ashamed of her because her skin is such a dark black. Lula Ann's mother and father are both lighter-skinned. Her mother is so upset that she temporarily considers smothering Lula Ann or giving her to an orphanage. In the end, she keeps her, but teaches her to call her by the name Sweetness instead of Mama.

When Lula Ann grows up, she begins calling herself Bride and wearing all white clothing because someone told her it would accentuate her dark skin...