God Help The Child Literary Analysis

An author may choose to leave the ending of a book open to stimulate thought in the reader. The author will give a situation and then leave that dispute unanswered. Even though in an open ending story, each reader has their own way of how they want the story to end, you never actually find out. In “Recitatif”, “Song of Solomon”, and “God Help the Child” by Toni Morrison, she does a successful job with leaving all these stories with open endings. Morrison leaves these books with open endings because she wants the reader to paint their own picture of what happens next. With a good close ending, readers tend to zoom in on the themes and important symbols. In the ending of “Recitatif,” Roberta and Twyla meet after many years later after St. Bonny’s at a small diner. After not seeing each other for some time, Roberta wanted to tell Twyla about St. Bonny’s and Maggie. Roberta had told herself that if the two of them were to ever meet again, she needed to tell Twyla what really happened to get it off her chest. Roberta tells Twyla that she really thought that Maggie was black, but now wasn’t so sure of it. She instead thought Maggie was crazy since she was old and couldn’t talk. The most important …show more content…
Bride did not include a return address with the letter, which leads to the question of why? Bride also doesn’t tell her who the father, leaving it a mystery for Sweetness. However, as the reader you already know who the father is. Even though there is a slim chance Sweetness will ever meet the child, she is still able to find joy in it all. “You are about to find out what it takes, how the world is, how it works and how it changes when you are a parent.” This quote is interesting because, Bride is now in Sweetness’ shoes having a child. Even though Sweetness was not the best mother, she is still talking from