Peoples’ Rolls In Sula In the novel Sula all the characters have their roles that they’re molded into just like everyone does in life. Based in the time that it takes place in and the fact that the vast majority of the characters are African-American their roles are pretty much forced for them to live by a predominately White- male society. The introduction to the novel starts off towards the end of slave times (the late 1800’s). A good white farmer promised freedom and a piece of bottom land to his slave if he would perform some very difficult chores (pg. 5). The slave performs the chores and the White farmer tricks the slave into wanting the hilly land, which he gets. The hilly land is the worst land possible to have. Where Planting was backbreaking, where the soil slid down and washed away the seeds, and where the wind lingered all through the winter (pg. 5). Getting the worst land possible fit the slave’s role perfectly. Because he was a slave he always got the worst end of everything and by getting the so-called “bottom land” he got the worst end of the deal. Throughout the next few years the town of Medallion was formed. It was a poor town but the people who lived there made the best of it. Their roles in life in
Medallion all seem to fit the poor town or poor neighborhood lifestyle perfectly almost as if we’d expect it too. The town of Medallion is a predominately black town, located in Ohio during the early 1900’s. Blacks weren’t expected to do much. No one really cared about them in a White-ran society. White people looked down on them and in society’s eye they were at the very bottom of the social ladder. Almost all of the characters roles are roles that people would assume in their societies position. Shadrack’s role in Medallion is that the community thinks he’s kind of crazy. They just leave him to do his own thing. He is a World War One veteran and witnessed something horrible happen during one of the battles. Because of what he witnessed he realizes how much death is random and unpredictable, therefore he institutes a holiday every January 3rd. This holiday is called National Suicide Day. “This was their only chance to kill themselves or each other.”(Pg. 14). The first year the townspeople were kind-of scared and thought Shadrack was crazy for doing it. But in the following years after the town accepted it and went along with it. This is the way the town saw Shadrack. This is the role he assumed. Eva’s role is being the head of the Peace household, which consists of many people. It consists of her children, “Hannah, the eldest, and Eva, whom she named after herself but called Pearl, and a son named Ralph, whom she called Plum.”
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