Thematic Analysis Of Maternal Love In Sula By Toni Morrison

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Chirinos 1

Bianca Chirinos
Professor Perry
English 2900
November 2, 2017
Thematic Analysis of Maternal Love in Sula by Toni Morrison
For most women, getting pregnant and becoming a mother transpires them to a time in their life that is filled with joy and gratitude. Such enthusiastic emotions arise from the fact that the soon to be mom realizes she will have someone to love, influence, and guide. Marking the start and development of maternal love. In Toni Morrison's novel, Sula, every major character's life is shaped by the presence or absence of maternal love. Being that the mother-child relationship has the ability to positively or negatively define the child's identity development.
Although maternal love is defined as a bond …show more content…

"She lifted her heavy frame up on her good leg, and with fists and arms smashed that windowpane [..] and she threw herself out of the window. Cut and bleeding she clawed the air trying to aim her body toward the flaming, dancing figure. (Morrison 75). Although Eva misses Hannah by a difference of "twelve feet" (Morrison 76), she still witnesses her daughter being engulfed by the flames, much like Plum. In her writing, Morrison makes it known that Eva's altruism arises once again as she never hesitates in jumping out her second-floor bedroom window for Hannah. In spite of the fact that it could have cost Eva another …show more content…

The boys move into Eva's new household and integrate themselves with the Peace family. Despite the fact that all three boys are from different backgrounds, Eva's perception of them is all the same. As a result of this, she gives the same name to all three of them and eventually everyone addresses them as one single entity. They "spoke with one voice" (Morrison 39) and were "a trinity with a plural name … inseparable, loving nothing and no one but themselves." (Morrison 38). For the duration of the narrative, Eva never mistreats the Dewey's as what is usually expected and portrayed by adoptive parents. All the opposite, she fed, clothed, and raised the boys to the best of her ability until she was sent away. Exhibiting yet another level of her instilled maternal nature as she never had any obligation to adopt the Dewey's. Nonetheless, Eva still opted to once again sacrifice her time, money, and home for the three little boys in order to be a maternal figure for

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