God Help The Child

Much like Charles Dickens, Morrison uses names and name changes as a part of characterization in the novel. Some characters maintain their birth names and grown into them. Booker, raised in a family of critical thinkers, has a name that begins with “B” because the Stabern parents named their children in alphabetical order and thus reinforce the supremacy of family over individual identity. When Booker loses Adam, he feels out of place and eventually assumes a new identity as an intellectual who uses words as weapons and as instruments of critique. Sofia, whose name is a variant of “Sophia” and means “wisdom” in Greek, is one of the few characters who engages in enough self-reflection about her life to learn and make changes.

Names and naming are also emblematic of changes in identity, some for the good and some for the bad. Lula Ann—given an old-fashioned name that is appropriate for the unsophisticated girl who fumbled her first interview at Sylvia, Inc.—first renames herself Ann Bride, and then—after a complete makeover—renames herself Bride, a name that reflects her new identity as the archetype of the sexually potent black woman. Assuming the power to rename herself is a first step in Bride’s assumption of control over her own life.