Sweetness Essay Questions

What is ironic about Sweetness's reaction to her daughter's skin?

Sweetness's negative reaction to Lula Ann's blue-black skin involves two instances of situational irony. On one hand, Lula Ann's dark skin undermines Sweetness's expectations because she and her husband are both light-skinned; on the other, it is ironic that Sweetness is so disgusted and frightened by her daughter's blackness because Sweetness is black herself but has grown used to the privileges of having light skin and so Sweetness sees Lula Ann's skin as nothing but a burden and a "cross to bear." By combining these two ironies, Toni Morrison highlights the absurdity and insidious violence of colorism, a prejudice against dark skin tones that makes it impossible for Sweetness to love and embrace her daughter or her own black identity.

Why is it significant that Lula Ann doesn't include a return address on the letter she sends Sweetness?

Sweetness takes Lula Ann's decision to neglect to include a return address on the letter that announces her pregnancy to be a sign that Lula Ann is still punishing Sweetness for the cruel way Sweetness raised her. In this way, Lula Ann's reluctance to include a return address is a symbol of her rejection of Sweetness. However, the complicated bond Sweetness and Lula Ann share despite their differences means that Lula Ann cannot cut Sweetness out of her life completely. Lula Ann shares the news of her pregnancy in enthusiastic terms, but cannot bring herself to let her mother know where she lives, thereby cutting off the possibility of Sweetness sending her own letter in response. Lula Ann's rejection of her mother is significant because it represents an instance of situational irony: While Sweetness has struggled her entire life to accept Lula Ann and embrace her for who she is, Sweetness is hurt when the daughter she always tried to keep at a distance is now keeping Sweetness at a distance by rarely visiting and neglecting to include a return address in her letter.

What does Lula Ann's "blue-black" skin symbolize?

Sweetness's daughter Lula Ann's skin symbolizes the black identity that Sweetness and her light-skinned family have ceased to identify with and that Lula Ann learns to embrace. While Lula Ann's ancestors used the privileges of their lighter skin to pass as white to escape abuse and humiliation during the Jim Crow era of racial segregation, Lula Ann herself is born with skin so dark that her mother is disgusted and frightened. Sweetness's colorism towards her own daughter leads Sweetness raise Lula Ann with a sense of inferiority, trying to instill in her daughter a fear of white people and authority figures. Despite these lessons, Lula Ann grows up to embrace the beauty of her black skin, which she highlights rather than conceals by wearing contrasting white clothing. Lula Ann's striking appearance does not go unnoticed by Sweetness, who finds herself proud of her daughter displaying confidence in the skin Sweetness had assumed would be an unbearable burden. In this way, Lula Ann subverts her mother's colorism by showing that it is possible to embrace the black identity her skin denotes and that the rest of her family had learned to fear.