The Significance of Shadrack in Morrison’s Sula

The people of the Bottom in Medallion, Ohio “knew Shadrack was crazy but that did not mean that he didn't have any sense or, even more important, that he had no power” (Morrison 15). In Toni Morrison’s novel Sula, Shadrack is a brief, but largely considerable character. His significance stems from the fact that he personifies one of Morrison’s main themes in the novel, which is the need for order, as well as that he serves as human embodiment of the community’s repressed feelings. As is often the case with any introverted emotion, the townspeople’s eventual acceptance of Shadrack causes both liberation and grief. However, Shadrack is not a sage, omnipotent being; he is merely an undiluted representation of the thoughts which others within the community cannot and will not express.
Appropriately, Shadrack is the first major character to be introduced in the novel, much as an unfiltered thought is the first that comes to mind in any given situation. He is an ancestral presence - a husband, a father, a provider dispensed by the gods to “always” be there as the voice in the back of one’s head, constantly present and ever providing the most candid guidance (Lewis 92). People of the Bottom fear Shadrack not only because of his peculiar behavior but also because he does not look like them. Earlier, while he was in the hospital recovering from shell-shock “his fingers began to grow in higgly piggly fashion like Jack's beanstalk, all over the tray” (Morrison 9). This is especially significant as, although Shadrack grew up in the Bottom, he began to look different as he grew older and, subsequently, the community began to fear him. In a similar fashion, as one matures the inner voice becomes more precise and defined and, often, is ignored in lieu of emotions which are more familiar and comforting, though potentially juvenile.
Shadrack’s reputation as the town outcast is