1. Sula
"Sula" by Tony Morrison is the story of a friendship between Nel Wright and Sula Peace, who are opposites in the way of relating to other people, to the world around them, and to themselves. Nel is rational and balanced; she gets married and gives in to conformity and the town's expectations. Sula is an irrational and transient character. She follows her immediate passions, completely unaware of the feelings other people might have. However, Nel and Sula are able to function well only when they are together because they complete each other as opposites. However, as separate entities, Sula and Nel are vulnerable and isolated from the rest of world; Sula because she is impulsive and disregards the feelings of other people, and Nel because she overlooks her own. .
The personalities of Nel and Sula form as a result of their childhood family atmosphere. Sula's unusual exorbitance results from an eccentric upbringing that openly accepts and welcomes transience. The narrator describes Sula's house as a "throbbing disorder constantly awry with things, people, voices and the slamming of doors . . ." (52), which suggests a family accustomed to spontaneous disruptions and fleeting alliances. Sula decides that "sex is pleasant and frequent, but otherwise insignificant." (44) Sula grows up in the atmosphere of an emotional separation between mothers and daughters in her family. .
The mothers provide only the physical maternal support but lack in the emotional attachment to their children. Sula overhears her mother, Hannah, say, "I love her [Sula]. I just don't like her, that's the thing." (57) Hannah's words act as a determiner of Sula's defiance. Hannah and Eva, her mother, are also alienated. "Under Eva's distant eye, and prey to her idiosyncrasies, her own children grew up steadily." (41) This dissatisfaction causes Hannah to ask Eva, "Did you ever love us?" (67) "I know you fed us and all.
Sula by Toni Morrison Toni Morrison's Sula is a novel that has a theme about the nature of evil. ... She is especially offended by Sula's behavior, because Sula sleeps with her husband. ... Nel's outrage at Sula's actions is similar to the town's anger at Sula and we see the personal hurt that Sula's inconsiderate actions have caused. ... Nel had just gotten married, while Sula left for the city. ... Ignoring her opinion about Sula's actions with Jude, she longs for the Sula saying, "We was girls together. ...
Nel and Sula as a Dual Self In her novel, Sula, Toni Morrison uses the archetype of the dual self through the friendship of Sula and Nel: the two characters are a part of each other. ... Sula blamed herself fully for Chicken Little's accident and Nel made no attempt to change Sula's thinking. ... Sula's motive for sleeping with Jude can be explained because Nel was Sula's other half. ... Sula is very attached to Nel. ... After Sula's death, in a sense, Nel "woke up". ...
In "Sula," Toni Morrison gives us two such individuals, Nel and Sula. ... (p.29) Nel is confined, Sula is free. ... Nel was as wild and excited as Sula was. ... Nel and Sula would not speak again until three years later when Sula was on her deathbed. ... Nel and Sula gain a b...
The novel Sula written by Toni Morrison is structured around the development of friendship. ... Sula grows up feeling very excluded, guilty and very much unloved. ... Sula in the novel, only cross this line two different time. ... After encountering all the episodes Sula had in the community and having her friendship with Nel fail; the single most important person in her life, Sula feels totally isolated. ... Nel on the other hand is the very direct opposite of Sula. ...
Sula Peace is one of Nel's good friends. ... Nel assures Sula that it was just an accident, but Sula feels terrible. ... Nel is Sula's opposite in many respects. ... Sula grows up feeling guilty and unloved. ... Sula is a novel about ambiguity. ...
This is the meaning of friendship, a theme central to Sula. ... From Sula, the book, we learn the importance of friendship, the pain of betrayal, and the pain of loss. ... From Sula, we watch the girls, Nel and Sula throughout their friendship. ... Take sleeping with your best friend's husband for example, that one act, committed out of ignorance on Sula's part of Nel's feelings. Sula did not realize how she would hurt Nel, by sleeping with Jude. ...
Toni Morrison's Sula chronicles the unlikely friendship of two very different women. ... Like 1965, Sula represents anti-conservativism. ... For Sula, the marriage vow is not sacred. ... Sula refuses society's interpellation of her. ... In very much the same sense, Sula does the same thing. ...
In the end, Sula dies alone in her bed. ... A perfect example is Sula's grandmother Eva. ... Sula acted like anyone would expect. ... Sula may have thrown him, but Nel's apathy was far more evil than Sula's accident. ... (Sula)" "Did he see?...