Prejudice And Racism In Toni Morrison's Sula

Raised in an orthodox community where an antiqued belief system clouded the minds of its residents, Sula totally disregards societal expectations by freely expressing herself in all aspects, including her words and her sexuality. Her fearless nature and genuine complacency with life and her own characteristics distinguished her from other members of her community. Despite the fact that those in her community see her as “evil”, she ironically causes more good in the community than others seem to think. Her dynamic character influences the community in ways that the community as a whole fail to even realize. Her treatment of life with a grain of salt allowed for her free self-expression and strong sense of character. Even as a child, Sula possessed …show more content…
Placed at the top of a hill yet referred to as the Bottom, this community is inhabited by mainly African Americans who live above their white counterparts. Despite their physical location of being above a white community, residents of the Bottom face a large amount of racism and racial tension. To add on to the external issue of racism, the town had a long list of internal issues that made it such a distinct place to live. People struggled to live comfortably with the labor choices in the Bottom, where “planting was backbreaking” and opportunities for jobs were few and far in between. The Bottom was also a place were secrets did not exist; townspeople had so much time on their hands that their “jobs” were to involve themselves in other people’s business and judge those around them. This idea added on to the irony of the Bottom, because although the community was so fixated on gossip, their conventionalism and strict belief system gave no room for self-expression—something that Sula had and made her the main topic of conversation. Their fixation on Sula and her life became something that turned into a part of their daily …show more content…
After her abandonment of her community and her return ten years later, this idea becomes more evident. Staying true to the identity that she created for herself when she was younger, Sula focused more on happiness and being content with herself rather than conforming to society’s standards of how a woman should be and act. Nel even comments at one point that Sula is “acting like a man”, by being independent and doing whatever she wanted to do. It is this behavior that makes her the town’s focal point. Other woman in the Bottom were so used to being raised in a different way and living a domesticated life that what Sula did and how she was living seemed like a foreign concept. Her comfortableness with herself and her habits were something that that no one else had in the community, including having relations with several different men and refusing to settle down and have children. The other women in the Bottom hate her and view her as evil only because it reflects the hate that they have for their own boring and uneventful lives. However, because Sula is different, she makes a good scapegoat for the Bottom, which is a role she happily