Racism In Sula Research Paper

Unlike most novels that were being published in the 1970’s Toni Morrison, an African American writer published the novel Sula which had such an “insightful portrayal of the African-American lifestyle”(Umich) that it was nominated and received the Ohioana Book award. The novel Sula is a story of two girls Sula and Nel who have completely different upbringings but are the best of friends and went from childhood to adulthood together while having to deal with many hardships along the way. The theme of loss of innocence and racism are directly connected in the novel Sula due to the manifestation of racist acts taken by characters in the story towards Sula. My first example of how loss of innocence connects to racism is when Sula and Nel come face to face the group of Irish boy who had been bullying Nel. During their encounter Sula pulls out a pocket knife
Sula and Nel were by the water spending time together when the boy Chicken little came up and stayed with them. After Nel had made some snide comments Sula tried to distract him from crying, She started spinning him around in a circle, however things went astray when Chicken little flew out of Sula’s hands and right into the water where he then drowned . This connects to the theme for the reason that because Chicken Little was black, the Authorities did not look into his death after a man on a boat had found the body and Sula and Nel were the only ones that would ever know what had actually happened that day, or so they thought. This example was loss of innocence because while Sula was left to mourn the death and have to live with what she had done, Nel had felt some sort of satisfaction in his death. This had left open an area for them to question who they really are and what they are capable of, after dealing with something no child should ever have to deal