The Importance Of Friendships In Sula

Similar to Hannah and Eva, Sula treated men as if they were only sexual objects not capable of love. The novel states, “Eva’s arrogance and Hannah’s self-indulgence merged in her and, with a twist that was all her own imaginations, she lived out her days exploring her own thoughts and emotions, giving them full reign, feeling no obligation to please anybody unless their pleasure pleased her” (118). Like her mother and grandmother, she rarely had a desire to love or be loved by a man instead her experiences with men were usually strictly to receive pleasure from sexual intimacy. It seemed that the women of the Peace family avoided romantic love and their lack of experience may have caused them to become more willing to disrupt the love of married couples. Overall the Peace family was dysfunctional and because it was all Sula knew she adopted their way of life into her own adulthood, instead of breaking the cycle as Helene did. Ultimately, this created turmoil.
The friendship between Sula and Nel was unstable but they never allowed pure hate to consume their relationship. Instead their unconditional love made forgiveness acceptable and hate unlikely. It is normal to believe that relationships with family members should be held to a higher importance than friendships. …show more content…
The behaviors of the characters in these relationships are due to the experiences that they have in their childhood. However, it is their choice to adopt the behavior of others or reject them and make a better life for themselves. The factor that determined the success or the failure of relationships was love. In “Sula” love was most apparent and in the most acceptable form in Nel and Sula’s friendship. The dysfunctional family relationships and friendships that were depicted throughout the novel “Sula”, proves that love is dynamic so it can be expressed in various