God Don T Like Ugly By Annette Goode: An Analysis

God Don't Like Ugly is a story narrated by Annette Goode. Annette was a shy, overweight, dark-skinned young girl who's seen a lot of life at a very young age and yet she maintained a child naiveté. Having left Florida in the 1950s, Annette and her mother set up housekeeping in Ohio on the advice of a family friend, Scary Mary. In an effort of trying to make the ends meet, Annette's mother moves in a border, Mr. Boatwright. Mr. Boatwright, in the first year, becomes Annette pseudo-father and parent. In the second year of boarding with Annette and her mother, Boatwright starts sexually abusing the 7 year old Annette. The abuse continues for the next 10 years. After moving to a new house, Annette meets and befriends Rhoda Nelson, the beautiful daughter of the Negro undertaker.

Rhoda lives in a house where her mother is a hypochondriac; her white grandmother, Granny Goose, is suffering from senility; along her white Uncle Johnny and her brother Jock and her father with the movie star looks. In Rhoda, Annette sees everything she is not and the end of the sexual abuse. This book follows the relationship of Annette and Rhoda through the turbulent times of the 1960s and 70s. Annette Goode is a young African American girl growing up in Florida in the 1950's. When Annette's father leaves the family for another woman, his desertion sparks her mother's decision to leave Florida for Richland, Ohio. In Richland, Mrs. Goode feels that she can make a better life for herself and her child. In order to supplement her income, Mrs. Goode brings a boarder to live with the family, a one legged man named Mr. Boatwright. Unbeknownst to Mrs. Goode, Mr. Boatwright begins to molest Annette, threatening her with reprisal if she tells anyone about his actions. Although Annette pleads with Mr. Boatwright to stop molesting her, Mr. Boatwright threatens her with a gun and warns her that he knows how to use