Sula And Nele Character Analysis

289 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Sexism in a&p by john updike

The main female characters in the novel lack support and affection from their mothers which lowers their self-esteem and therefore, the two main female characters look for the support in their friendship. Nel is determined to rebel against her mother and to find her own identity; Nel is also determined to discover life outside her mother’s control which she consequently does in her friendship with Sula. When Sula does not find the sense of belonging in her relationships with her family members, she looks for it somewhere else and consequently, she finds her sense of belonging and her center in her friendship with Nel. The friendship which Sula and Nel share in their childhood is highly beneficial for both girls. Sula and Nel meet at the time

Show More
Related

  • Leaving The Iron Lung Summary

    1401 Words  | 3 Pages

    When Marie tries to ask the protagonist to take a walk, this action shows that she is trying to achieve Pauline’s dream by getting her outside of the house. Therefore, she could finally feel the true meaning of freedom. Nevertheless, Pauline’s mother’s response demonstrates that she wants her daughter’s safety more than anything. The mother tries to keep Pauline away from the danger, so the protagonist can at last have a healthier life. However, Agathe’s reply shows that her mother is willing to sacrifice Pauline’s dream to keep her secure. Therefore, the author uses contrasting characters to mention that safety is more valuable. Furthermore, the protagonist starts to describe Tante Marie and reveals that she always has her hair “around her shoulder” (85). When Pauline describes Marie, Pauline shows how her Tante is open-minded. In fact, Marie helps Pauline to let go of her limitations and to get a taste of her dream. Therefore, Marie always wants Pauline to go outside and play hockey or even to take a walk. These actions that Pauline’s Tante takes show how she is determinate to make Pauline’s dream come true. Thus, the author

    Read More

  • Suttree Character Analysis

    1488 Words  | 3 Pages

    The novel Suttree is centered on Cornelius “Buddy” Suttree, a college educated man who has decided to forsake his former life and live in a houseboat on the Tennessee River outside of Knoxville, Tennessee in a fairly destitute area known as McAnally Flats in 1951. He leaves his wife and child, a son, giving up the comfortable life to live as a river rat of sorts. He seems to be searching for something, unbeknownst to him or the reader. Possibly the meaning of life, but more than likely it’s a way to deal with death that seems to follow Suttree around throughout the novel. He’s not one for social norms, coming off as being an anarchist. He runs from his responsibilities, rebels against authority, and refuses to be bound by social convention. His everyday life is a hodge podge of drunken adventures, be it brawls or waking up in the morning in the local lockup hungover and confused. He associates with the

    Read More

  • Sula: Character Analysis Of Nel

    462 Words  | 1 Pages

    The novel Sula, is a work which contrasts the lives of its two main characters Nel and Sula. They appear, on the surface, to be the epidemy of binary opposites but this is in actuality their underlying bond. The differences in their personalities complement one another in a way that forges an almost unbreakable alliance. Sula is compulsive and uncontrollable while her counterpart, Nel, is sensible and principled. To prove Nel human by subscribing to the theory that a human is one who possess both good and bad traits, one must only look at how she interacts with Sula, here both negative and positive traits are evident.Nel’s "good" traits obviously come to the forefront when looking at her character. One might say this is a result of how she was raised and that she was simply a pr...

    Read More

  • Non-Traditional Relationships in The Storm and A Doll´s House

    1731 Words  | 4 Pages

    Finally, even though, for a long time, the roles of woman in a relationship have been established to be what I already explained, we see that these two protagonists broke that conception and established new ways of behaving in them. One did it by having an affair with another man and expressing freely her sexuality and the other by breaking free from the prison her marriage represented and discovering her true self. The idea that unites the both is that, in their own way, they defied many beliefs and started a new way of thinking and a new perception of life, love and relationships.

    Read More

  • The Oppression Of Women In The Scarlet Song, By Andrea Canara

    1211 Words  | 3 Pages

    Soukeyna, the elder of Yaye Khadi’s two daughters, had adopted Mireille as a sister and friend (Scarlet Song 152). Mireille and Soukeyna, her sister-in-law bonds together because of the gender and racial bias going on in the text. Soukeyna is the kind of woman described by Andrea Canaan as “the kind of friend that allows you to wallow in self-pity for just as long and then gives you a swift kick. The kind of friend that close or far apart, she will always be there for you…” (Making Face 303). Her action is a sharp contrast to patriarchal notion that women are overly emotional in relationships, and do not tell each other the truth, for example, McNelles and Connolly, in their article in the Journal of Research on Adolescence, opine that, “women are likely to emphasize talking and emotional sharing as the basis for friendship” (Andersen 93). “Female friendship serves 'as a balm over the wounds, of marital abuse and betrayal for woman. It also opens up new vistas of life for the brutalized women whose narrow vision in the domestic hearth had benefit her of any meaningful communication and growth outside home (Okereke 99). Mireille experiences respite and moments of happiness whenever she is with her friends. According to Rebecca

    Read More

  • Mother-Daughter Relationships In Toni Morrison's Sula And Nel Wright

    791 Words  | 2 Pages

    Helene was raised by her grandmother because she mother was a prostitute in the New Orleans. When Helene has a family of her own, she refuses to make her background be known. Helene raises Nel with fear because she doesn’t want her to have the lifestyle she grew up in. Helene controls Nel’s life and makes her see the world how it is. Nel and her mother go on a train to New Orleans to attend the funeral for her great grandmother. On the train, Nel witnessed racial situation between her mother and the white conductor. “Pulling Nel by the arm, she pressed herself and her daughter into the foot space in front of a wooden seat… at least no reason that anyone could understand, certainly no reason that Nel understood,” (21). Nel was very uncomfortable throughout the trip and wasn’t able to communicate with her mother because she never learned how to since her mother was not supportive of her. Nel views her mother very negatively for the way she raised her. Nel starts to determine her life and great her identity when she became friends with Sula. The effect of negative maternal interactions on an individual is explained by Diane Gillespie and Missy Dehn Kubitschek as they discuss

    Read More

  • Evolving Relationships in the Novel, Sula by Toni Morrison

    646 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the first part of the novel, Nel is constricted to little communication with anyone other than her mother. Her mother, Helene, is very strict, and Nel is under constant supervision and direction. Her identity is not able to grow because her mother is constantly guiding her down the path she wants her daughter to go. When Nel and Sula become friends, she is able to be herself. Helene is not as strict when Sula is around, so Nel is more comfortable in her own house and is able to develop an identity that is not her mother's idea. Sula lives in a much different environment. Her household does not hold much structure. Her mother is always with a different man, and new people are in and out every week. The two friends are raised in opposite backgrounds when it comes to family life, but that is what helps them contribute to each other's identity.

    Read More

  • Social Immobility Essay

    2660 Words  | 6 Pages

    In conclusion, through these two characters Janie and Estrella, it is shown that social immobility is something that causes people to lose their innocence and become restricted. Through these two characters, the readers are able to women going through many instances of trouble, and overcoming the boundaries and restrictions. Janie shows the readers that materialistic marriages are bound to be inevitably unhappy in the end, and women can achieve happiness in a marriage through love and choice. Estrella in her own way shows how social immobility causes many problems for people in the migrant working social class but hope is something needed to overcome the demons and hardships in life.

    Read More

  • A Dream Deferred

    1100 Words  | 3 Pages

    Compromising her individuality, her emotional stability, and her dreams mark Nel's banal and unfulfilling life.Early in Nel's life during a trip to New Orleans, she watches as her mother is humiliated by a train's white, racist conductor; she watches the indignity of her mother's having to squat in an open field to urinate while white train passengers gaze; and she watches her mother's shame at her own Creole mother's libidinous lifestyle. Her mother's submissiveness and humiliation evokes a fear, an anger, and an energy in Nel. Her emotions intensify as she makes a declaration to never be her mother, to never compromise her individuality, "I'm me. I'm not their daughter. I'm not Nel. I'm me.

    Read More

  • Relationship Between Nel And Sula in Toni Morrison's Sula

    1227 Words  | 3 Pages

    The relationship between Nel and Sula begins during their adolescent years. Though they are complete opposites, they seem to work well with each other, depending on one another for comfort and support. The two spend almost all of their time together, learning from one another and growing as a result. They take solace in the presence of one another, finding comfort in what the other finds bothersome and using the lifestyle of the one another to compensate for their shortcomings. When Sula first visits Nel's home, "Nel, who regarded the oppressive neatness of her home with dread, felt comf...

    Read More

  • What Are The Stereotypes In The House On Mango Street

    684 Words  | 2 Pages

    Where many novels focus on the men and how they are the dominant figure in the society, Sula has the entire focus on the women, with men coming in only as sexual objects. Throughout the novel, the two main girls did not have male figures in their lives. Nel had a father but he was often away on trips, leaving her mother to raise her. Sula did not even have a father. The men she saw in the house were often there to have sex with her mother, Hannah, or exchange in flirtatious conversation with her grandmother, Eva. The man in this story is not the type to stay with his wife or to be faithful. Sula’s grandfather left, her father died, Nel’s father is never around. Hannah often slept with recently married men, and Sula sleeps with Nel’s husband, Jude, causing him to leave

    Read More

  • The Significance Of Friendship In Sulla And Nel's Friendship

    708 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sula and Nel’s friendship in their childhood was beneficial for both of them. Sula’s meeting of Nel was fortunate, because they find a soul mate within each other. They are both the daughters of “distant mothers and incomprehensible fathers” (Morrison, 50). Both girls lack affection in their relationships with their mothers. They can’t find this affection in their relationships with their fathers either, because Sula’s father is dead while Nel’s father is away at sea. They find the affection they need with each other. Their friendship was a way to mother each other. Since they can’ find the support they need from their families with their families they began to support each other and figure out what each other need in their life. The significance

    Read More

  • Persuasion Written by Jane Austen

    1271 Words  | 3 Pages

    The persuasive attempts in both literary works produce different results. The effectiveness of the mother’s guidance to her daughter is questioned since the girl cannot recognize the essence of her mother’s lesson. Despite that, the mother’s beneficial instruction serves as a standard for the daughter to reflect her future behaviors in order to live up to the community’s expectations. On the other hand, Anne’s value of candid expression and lasting relationship dissuades her from obliging to her family’s meaningless duty to place her love and interest above to experience fulfillment in life.

    Read More

  • The Strength Of Friendship And Humans In Need Of Each Other

    329 Words  | 1 Pages

    “The Strength of Friendship”, is an essay that allows readers an inside perspective of a real life tragedy. The author begins by telling readers about discovering that her

    Read More

  • The novel Reef by Romesh Gunesekera

    711 Words  | 2 Pages

    In my first paragraph I will be talking about the relationship of Mister Salgado and Nili. Mister Salgado and Nili’s relationship went across or broke boundaries at the social context, because they were from different religion which was unaccepted at that time. Nili was a Christian it is indicated when she says” a Christmas party” this indicate that she is a Christian because it is only Christians who celebrate Christmas. Mister Salgado is a Buddhist. When the fell in love mister Salgado becomes more relaxed and calm he even forgets about the Carol Reef project. The moving in of Nili in the house brought joy and happiness even in Mister Slagado’s life. Their relationship in some way involved Triton, because now Nili and Triton were getting along. That is why Triton felt like they were a family. However later on mister Salgado and Nili’s separate, because mister Salgado suspects that Nili is cheating on him with Robert. This is in context with the country been colonized by the Americans. This follows their intense quarrel, were mister Salgado is subjected to Nili’s whispering swearing when they were coming back from the party. This period is similar to the political turmoil which surrounds them. It indicates a spoilt paradise. Where people of different religion do not see eye to eye, due to a fail...

    Read More

More about Sula And Nele Character Analysis

Open Document