“Sweetness,” a short story by Toni Morrison, was published in The New Yorker in 2015. It is about a light-skinned woman who gives birth to a dark-skinned daughter. The mother tells the story of how she struggles to love her daughter. The mother insists the daughter call her Sweetness, instead of mother or mom, to distance herself. Even though Sweetness is harsh to her child, Lula Ann grows up to be a bold, vibrant woman once she leaves Sweetness behind.
The story is an excerpt from Morrison’s novel God Help the Child, which was also published in 2015. In the novel, Morrison recounts the events from the daughter’s perspective and tells the story of how Lula Ann comes to embrace herself....
