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The portrayal of women in literature
The portrayal of women in literature
The portrayal of women in literature
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From the novel Sula written by Toni Morrison, Morrison discusses the main character of the novel, Sula, and describes the type of women she is and how she breaks free from stereotypes of black women. Morrison portrays Sula in this way to emphasize the fact that she is the encompassment of fierce feminism. Morrison uses her impression of Sula to highlight Sula’s unwavering fight against society and the necessity of this fight for all women. Although her character was hated by many, because of their fear of difference, her “…town thrived because of her” (lecture notes), and she remained faithful to the life that she wanted. Sula did not let her gender or race hold her back. She exemplifies that making advancing changes for women is a tough fight that can lead to controversy, but if women remain confident and “uncontainable”, change is inevitable. In this novel the reader meets …show more content…
Both Nel and Sula share a love for one another that is stronger than infidelity and death. From childhood into adulthood, they are protective of each other. The comparisons shared between Nel and Sula are seen through their black female friendship. These two characters experienced much of the same life altering events from their childhood. It was the events such as; watching Chicken Little drown, and standing up for each other when being bullied, which solidified the unbreakable bond between the two women. Although once grown their friendship is tested, it is in the end reestablished for the reader through Sula thinking of Nel just moments after death, and Nel’s realization that she did not miss her husband she had left due to adultery, but it was Sula she missed. Throughout their friendship Nel and Sula complemented each other, Nel had the understanding of right and wrong within their community’s expectations and Sula contained self-confidence, two elements of feminism that need to coexist. Nel and Sula completed each
Toni Morrison’s novel Sula is rich with paradox and contradiction from the name of a community on top of a hill called "Bottom" to a family full of discord named "Peace." There are no clear distinctions in the novel, and this is most apparent in the meaning of the relationship between the two main characters, Sula and Nel. Although they are characterized differently, they also have many similarities. Literary critics have interpreted the girls in several different ways: as lesbians (Smith 8), as the two halves of a single person (Coleman 145), and as representations of the dichotomy between good and evil (Bergenholtz 4 of 9). The ambiguity of these two characters allows for infinite speculation, but regardless of how the reader interprets the relationship their bond is undeniable. The most striking example of their connection occurs right before the accidental death of Chicken Little. In the passage preceding his death, Nel and Sula conduct an almost ceremonial commitment to one another that is sealed permanently when "the water darkened and closed quickly over the place where Chicken Little sank" (Morrison 61):
-Toni Morrison uses strong diction to resonate the central message that the most unexpected people/places have the deepest meaning in life. In the novel it states,“ In the safe harbor of each other’s company they could afford to abandon the ways of other people and concentrate on their own perceptions of things.” (Morrison, 55) Toni Morrison shows how they were important in helping each other understand the world around them. By the author using the word abandon, she displays how they needed to escape the world when it came to focusing on their relationship. She could have easily used “they left the world” but by using the word abandon it adds more depth to just how powerful they were to one another. Toni Morrison used perceptions to help relate to the powerful bond of their friendship. In the novel, Sula and Nel saw things very different. Sula perceived the world with its imperfections by rebelling against society. Nel perceived the world in a warped sense and felt the need to follow society’s rules. Sula was an unexpected force in Nel’s life, which impacted her view on the world and her future.
The lack of support and affection protagonists, Sula Peace and Nel Wright, causes them to construct their lives on their own without a motherly figure. Toni Morrison’s novel, Sula, displays the development of Sula and Nel through childhood into adulthood. Before Sula and Nel enter the story, Morrison describes the history of the Peace and Wright family. The Peace family live abnormally to their town of Medallion, Ohio. Whereas the Wrights have a conventional life style, living up to society’s expectations.The importance of a healthy mother-daughter relationship is shown through the interactions of Eva and Hannah Peace, Hannah and Sula, and between Helene Wright and Nel. When Sula and Nel become friends they realize the improper parenting they
The book “Sula,” written by Toni Morrison, it’s about the power of friendship and adolescence. What is friendship between women when unmediated by men? The two main characters are friends Sula and Nel. Nel is a quite girl who was raised by her imperious mother Helene. As the narrator explains, “Under Helene’s hand the girl became obedient and polite.
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.
...al stereotypes to allow the readers to make their own assumptions based on their personal thoughts and beliefs. Many of the stereotypes that Morrison chose to use portray more of a socioeconomic class and not discriminating by race. As the setting or environment changed, it will be seen as a symbol of transformation of both Roberta and Twyla friendship. Each circumstance that they went through was distinctive. It tested the strength of their relationship with one another and exemplified their struggles they were facing in society. They had to adjust their beliefs to match the changing phases in the United States as many blacks and whites today still face problems in society about racial stereotypes and segregation. Toni Morrison portrayed racial identity not by black and white, but as irrelevant to relationships but rather by means of distinguishing between people.
Life puts their friendship to the test by toying with love and sex, life and death, and good and evil, eventually breaking the strong bond of their friendship apart. Sula and Nel's friendship can be thought of as a magnet, Sula, being the negative end; Nel the positive. When Sula and Nel become friends, they produce a perfect combination, perfect complements of one another. They both grow up in completely different households and encounter different upbringings. Nel's mother, Helene, does what she can to drive "her daughter's imagination underground" (Morrison 18), raising her to be polite and obedient.
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
Through the negative experiences that she has had with motherhood, Sula does not want to become a mother. She sees Hannah’s sadness and frustration with Eva and recognizes her poor relationship with Hannah and does not want to repeat it. Sula’s insufficient relationship with her mother is exposed when Sula watched her mother burn and die. Sula does not attempt to help her mother, she only stands silently and watches her mother die. Eva notices this but, “remained convinced that Sula had watched Hannah burn not because she was paralyzed, but because she was interested” (78). This shows her lack of care for motherhood. She does not have kids and dies without having any. But during her life, she ends up in a similar situation as her mother She focuses only on men and people begin to hate her for this. She begins to take friends’ and neighbors’ husbands the same way Hannah did. Sula even turned on her only friend, Nel, and took her husband too. She is the reason that Nel’s husband left her. Sula adopted the same principles as her mother, and Hannah was shaped by Eva.
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.
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."
Her friend Nel has been married and has had children, just as she is expected to do. Sula quickly decides to live a life where she is unconcerned about these expectations. Living in a racist world and a sexist community, she defends herself by living on the edge. She refuses to settle for the traditional lifestyle, resulting in the women of the Bottom to despise her. After having an affair with Jude, Sula feels no remorse or guilt for actions. In the novel it says, “She had no thought at all of causing Nel pain when she bedded down with Jude. They had always shared the affection of other people...Marriage apparently, had changed all that... “ (119). Shown through this quote, Sula becomes puzzled about Nel’s feeling of betrayal. Throughout their entire lives Sula and Nel share everything, including boyfriends. Sula’s deepest affection is for her best friend and assumes that their friendship will trump everything. When this is not the case, she becomes saddened and confused. The Bottom's community despises Sula because she has an independence that contrasts the community's own small-mindedness. In the novel it says “She was a pariah, then, and knew it” (Morrison 122). Sula accepted the fact that she was an outsider and embraced it wholeheartedly. Even Sula’s birthmark is perceived differently by several characters. Ultimately, the birthmark is represented as a rose. This rose is a
... but instead reunites the two women's spirits. "We was girls together," Nel says, and it becomes clear the importance of this revelation to her. She cries "circles and circles of sorrow" for the lost itme between herself and Sula (Morrison 174). Perhaps she also cries for a whole history of lost women seperated by societal functioning and a world built my men.
In Toni Morrison’s novel Sula, the theme of the story is good versus evil. It’s embodied into the story in various forms to question what defines right and wrong. Good versus evil is presented in forms that are understood on the surface and beneath the surface which gives it multiple meanings. The relationship between Sula and Nel is the main expression of this theme, however, there are also many other contributors such as color schemes, gender and race differences, and life and death. This theme sheds light on the significance and interpretation of issues of everyday reality which includes controversies related to identity struggles, super natural forces, the impact and relevance of upbringing on development, family structure, and racism. Morrison demonstrates the importance of good versus evil with her writing in the way that she overlaps them and interprets them as products of one another. The friendship of Sula and Nel creates a presence of good and evil within their relationship to each other and their community.
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...