When Two Make One in Sula by Toni Morrison Toni Morrison's novel Sula is about two young black girls that become close friends, but eventually split up and take different paths through life. Sula decides to go against social conventions and live a more independent, reckless life, while Nel on the other hand decides to marry and settle down. In the end both girls are nearly the same, even though they lived their lives very differently. Both girls grew up in a majority black neighborhood known as the Bottom. This neighborhood is located up in the hills of Ohio, looking down on the wealthier white town of Medallion. The Bottom got its name from a time when a slave owner, disliking the land, persuaded one of his slaves that it was "the bottom of heaven- best land there is"(5). Ever since then more people chose to live in the Bottom and it became a thriving community. Sula and Nel came from very contrasted families. Sula's mother was widowed, and "had a steady sequence of lovers, mostly the husbands of her friends and neighbors"(42). She did not have many woman friends, because most of them disliked her for her attitude towards her relationships. Growing up in an environment where her mother had so many different men taught Sula that "sex was pleasant and frequent, but otherwise unremarkable"(44). Nel's mother on the other hand, strived to be the pillar of the black community. She was a woman who "won all social battles with persistence and a conviction of the legitimacy of her authority"(18). She was a woman who tried her hardest to fit into an ideal social mold, and she taught her daughter the 'right' way to live. The two girls became friends while they were in primary school, and they preferred the other's home life. Sula liked the "oppressive neatness"(29) while Nel "preferred Sula's wooly house"(29). They became inseparable, understanding the other's thoughts and actions, one completing the other. "They found relief in each other's personality"(53). Nel was always the calm one, in control, while Sula was uncontrollable. To save Nel from harassing boys, Sula once cut the tip of her finger off to scare them away, and when Sula accidentally threw a neighborhood boy into the water, Nel remained calm after they watched him drown.
The first type, Eva, the preserver of traditional community spirit, just follows the old custom without any particular criticism. The second type, Sula represents the new value of the New Negro, while her grandmother Eva does the established value of traditional community based on the white supremacy, and another character, Shadrack stands in the middle of these two, the awakening of the black identity. Sula notices the miserable status of her race in the society and practices her new value in daily life but her arrogant intelligence makes people turn their backs on her, so she dies alone being
Sula by Toni Morrison is a very complex novel with many underlying themes. Some of the themes that exist are good and evil, friendship and love, survival and community, and death. In Marie Nigro's article, "In Search of Self: Frustration and Denial in Toni Morrison's Sula" Nigro deals with the themes of survival and community. According to Nigro, "Sula celebrates many lives: It is the story of the friendship of two African-American women; it is the story of growing up black and female; but most of all, it is the story of a community" (1). Sula contains so many important themes that it is hard to say which one is the most important. I agree with Marie Nigro when she says that Sula is a story about community. I believe that community and how the community of Bottom survives is an important theme of the story. But I do not believe that it is a central theme of the story. When I think back on the novel Sula in twenty years, I will remember the relationship and friendship between Nel and Sula. I will not remember the dynamics of the community.
“He expected his story to dovetail into milkwarm commiseration, but before Nel could excrete it, Sula said she didn’t know about that” (Morrison 103). Jude assumes Nel will just feel sorry for him automatically. Her expected response is described as milky, warm, and able to be excreted, like a mother nursing a baby. Women are expected to be the caretakers, never stating their real opinions. “In a novel populated by mothers, maternal imagery abounds: the image of Nel ‘excret[ing]’, ‘milk-warm commiseration’ for her husband” (Morrison and Lister 246). Women are expected to be maternal beings at the mercy of their husband and children and are not given the option of taking another route. This imagery highlights that black women do not have the power to choose a different path easily and are merely looked at as only having the power to be potential mothers, nothing
Her mother ruling with an iron fist, rules and structure. But that was all Nel knew. Then she left for New Orleans, and everything was different. “Me...I’m Me.”(28) She was Nel, away from The Bottom. She was Nel, away from Helene who drove “her imagination underground”(20). It is because of this that she is drawn to Sula, their shared loneliness that made them need each other. Sula, who was constantly left unattended who felt smothered by the noise and uncertainty of her house as a child. Nel, who loved the “wooly” feel of Sula’s house, found comfort in the chaos. They belonged to each other. Two halves of a whole that only truly worked in tandem. They find their home in each other. Then Sula left, and Nel fit so perfectly into the community that rejected Sula. Nel was never exiled, she had her house with her kids and her husband and it worked. Worked so well. Even though Sula walked straight out of Bottom, and then into the arms death, and that's when Nel was finally alone.
Nel is able to express her feelings and emotions when she is with Sula, which is good because she can’t do that at home because she has to be the obedient one. They understand each other completely, they never argue or compete with each other. Their relationship is invaluable; they met each other at the time where they both needed it the most. Their friendship is not dependent on obligation, compassion, or love, but on their conjuction of sameness and autonomy. At this point they are together because they want to, not because they have to or need to be. When Sula and Nel meet it’s the time when they realize that their spot in society is disadvantage, “because each had discovered years before that they were neither white nor male, and that all freedom and triumph was forbidden to them, they had set about creating something else to be” (Morrison, 50). They are best friends mainly because they grew up in the same neighborhood, they are the same race, gender, and age. They understand the needs of each other and each other’s problems. They experience the intimacy they were looking for in each
In the novel it states, “ Still it was lovely up in the bottom.” (Morrison, 5) It was ironic that the bottom was really on top of a hill. Although, there was a much deeper meaning to the bottom being on top of the hill. The Bottom could be looked upon as an unexpected place. But the bottom became their home. The bottom had a deeper meaning because the African Americans believed the town was the “bottom of heaven”. The community as a whole grew together from the strength of one another. The bottom was thought of as the place the black people lived, although it was the place in which they found
There are many aspects of story that come together to create a complete narrative. A lot of the tools used by writers are intentional and serve the purpose of driving home certain aspects of the story or creating and engaging, and entertaining narrative. Toni Morrison—the author of Sula—is no different. Morrison employs many writing techniques and tools in her narrative Sula. It is important for the reader to be aware of and understand some of these narrative tools that the author uses because it allows the reader to gain a better understanding and appreciation for the narrative. In Sula a few narrative techniques that allow for the argument of women experiences to shine through are the use of a third person narrator, and gaps; throughout the story these tools allow the reader to become interested in and focus in on women experiences.
Nel is Sula's connection to other people, while Sula is Nel's connection to herself. Neither has a firm footing without the other. Without Nel, Sula becomes alienated from other people by acting extremely eccentric, and Nel looses her individuality and does what is expected of her without Sula. "Because each had discovered years before that they were neither white nor male they had set out about creating something else to be." (52) In "Sula," Toni Morrison dwells on the dream of a new, strong, African American woman. She challenges conformity and traditional rules of society. If old restrictions are never defied, new and better rules would never come. In this book, this image is contained in Sula and Nel together; each of them is a part of the image. By splitting the qualities of a whole and complete personality into two, Toni Morrison stresses how necessary both components are to the image of the new, strong African American woman.
Nigro continues on describing the women of Sula. The struggles of Eva after Boy-Boy leaves, unable to get a decent paying job because she was a black woman. Finding herself sacrificing her leg for the love of her children. How Eva shaped the lives of her ...
"And Pecola. She hid behind hers. (Ugliness) Concealed, veiled, eclipsed--peeping out from behind the shroud very seldom, and then only to yearn for the return of her mask" (Morrison 39). In the novel The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, the main character, Pecola, comes to see herself as ugly. This idea she creates results from her isolation from friends, the community, and ever her family. There are three stages that lead up to Pecola portraying herself as an ugly human being. The three stages that lead to Pecola's realization are her family's outlook toward her, the community members telling her she is ugly, and her actually accepting what the other say or think about her. Each stage progresses into the other to finally reach the last stage and the end of the novel when Pecola eventually has to rely on herself as an imaginary friend so she will have someone to talk to.
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...
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
In November of 1973 Toni Morrison published Sula. This writing was written during the era of the Contemporary Literary Period, Black Aesthetic Movement, and the Women 's Era. The Black Aesthetic Movement happened during 1965 through 1976. Currently the Contemporary Period and the Women’s Era began in the 1970s and is still going on today. During the Contemporary Literary Period some of the themes focused on are race, gender, the complexity of the black race, and a new entrance in black history. The Black Aesthetic Movement mainly focused on the love of blackness.Smith, David, and "Black Arts Movement." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. 2008. "Black Arts Movement." Encyclopedia.com. HighBeam Research, 01 Jan. 2006. Web.
Racism and sexism are both themes that are developed throughout the novel Sula, by Toni Morrison. The book is based around the black community of "The Bottom," which itself was established on a racist act. Later the characters in this town become racist as well. This internalized racism that develops may well be a survival tactic developed by the people over years, which still exists even at the end of the novel. The two main characters of this novel are Nel Wright and Sula Peace. They are both female characters and are often disadvantaged due to their gender. Nel and Sula are depicted as complete opposites that come together to almost complete one another through their once balanced friendship. Nel is shown to be a good character because she plays a socially acceptable role as a woman, submissive wife and mother, while Sula conforms to no social stereotypes and lets almost nothing hold her back, thus she is viewed as evil by the people in her community. Both women are judged by how well they fit into the preconceived social conventions and stereotypes that exist in "the Bottom."
First there is the presence of the old stereotypical woman character, a woman split between the conventional and nontraditional roles of women. No differences are apparent initially between Morrison's Sula and any other women's literature in the past. Women are depicted either as docile servants to men, like Nel, or ball-busting feminist monsters like Sula. The hidden aspect of the novel lies underneath these stereotypical surface roles, in the incomprehensible and almost inappropriate bond of the two women. In the final scene of Sula, Nel comes to the realization that the emptiness inside her is due to the loss of Sula, not Jude (Morrison 174). Her friendship with Sula is all that matters.