Jordan Journal of Modern Languages and Literatures Vol.13, No. 3, 2021, pp 401-412 401 JJMLL Ne * Childhood is “not a story to pass on”: Trauma and Memory Paradox in Toni Morrison’s God Help the Child * Soumaya Bouacida* Department. of English, Skikda University, Algeria Received on: 11-5-2020 Accepted on: 20-9-2020 Abstract This paper examines how Toni Morrison’s God Help the Child is structured around the paradox of memory; that is, the need to remember and to disremember the past. On the one hand, Bride has to relive her memory in order to confess her lies and in order to find her authentic self. On the other hand, Booker has to forget the past in order to conduct an active life. Memory centralizes Booker as the African voice when he relates the story of his brother’s abuse, that is to say, the abuse of the African culture. But, at the same time, it decentralizes him from the future projects he desires to achieve since he spends most of his time lamenting the loss of his brother. Bride, at first, believes that memory is the worst thing about healing, but, then, she realizes the reverse. By remembering the past, Bride reaches recovery. She becomes the mother figure of her Black community who wears the earrings of wisdom, spirituality and culture. Keywords: Toni Morrison, God Help the Child, the paradox of memory, childhood and trauma. 1-Introduction Historically, Blacks have been inhumanly enslaved, raped and tortured, and even after breaking the shackles of slavery, stereotypes continue to corrosively influence the construction of their identity. In her works, Toni Morrison highlights the issue of racism and its destructive effects on African American community. She plays the role of the mother figure that passionately embraces her children and teaches them how to survive in a white racist society. Morrison preludes her God help the Child with an extract from the Bible stating that: “Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not” (LUKE 18:16). Jesus, the preacher of the human soul, is no longer appropriated by whites. He addresses children, blacks and whites, to come unto him, the symbol of love, help and sacrifice, in order to espouse his own virtues and forbid the racist materialist society from perverting their own innocent souls. Morrison wonders how African American community can attain solidarity if children are not encircled by a functional family that is founded on love and conviction. In fact, issues of race, inferiority and legacies of slavery continue to shape the Afro-American society, which deepens the psychological wound of black people. Like the colonized people who are left  2021 JJMLL Publishers/Yarmouk University. All Rights Reserved, * Doi: https://doi.org/ 10.47012/jjmll.13.3.2 * Corresponding Author: soumayabouacida@gmail.com