Wolgang Behringer's Analysis

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Recommended: Sula character analysis

On top of the name-callings-roach, bitch, witch-the people in the Bottom think that Sula embodies danger and evil. The people in the Bottom hold Sula responsible for all the misfortunes of their community. The people in the Bottom’s mass hysteria toward Sula’s nonconformist (mis)behavior reflects their actual subconscious impulse to find a reason-but ironically a scapegoat- for their misfortunes. Wolgang Behringer proclaims in Witches and Witch-Hunts: A Global History that people who suffer most sharply the pains of displacement brought about by structural change tend to be pulled most easily into witch-hunts (Behringer 26). Behringer’s remarks are useful in describing the black people in the Bottom’s shared subconscious and mass hysteria,

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