Assess The Importance Of Nannie's Monologue In Sula

One instance in which speech plays an important role in this novel is also one of the first which begins on page 12 when Nanny sees Janie kiss a boy and decides to bestow upon her the wisdom and responsibilities she sees fitting of a woman. This moment is pivotal because Janie is still a young girl exploring herself but her grandmother in a way, steals her innocence from her by deciding that it was time for her to carry the burdens of Janie’s mothers own unfortunate life, and try to correct them. Nanny speaks in a long monologue especially on page 15 through 20 and her speech is what incites Janie to spend her life searching for a man although she will struggle between her grandmothers expectations and her own desire for true love. Another …show more content…
Sula exudes sexual energy and draws others to her even though they can’t seem to decide what it is about her they admire. On page 104 Nel and her husband Jude are captivated by Sula’s unique views on the world. Jude so much so that he leaves Nel just so he can be around this woman. Jude says “she stirred a man’s mind” and he, like the other man in her life simply desire to try and decipher Sula’s peculiar ideas and escape the monotony of everyday life as she does with her mind. Sula’s relationship with men is where the true nature and danger of her artistry comes into view. It says on page 118 “she lived out her days exploring her own thought and emotions, giving them full reign, feeling no obligation to please anybody”. It is this full reign of her thoughts and emotions that made Sula dangerous. Her body and her words were her art form and she used them as she pleased without a care for the wellbeing of those whose lives she would enter briefly. Sex is what allowed Sula to become intimately connected to her own body and emotions, like any artist to their art form. On page 123 she describes how after having sex even that which felt unextraordinary she would be left to, “the postcoital privateness in which she met herself, welcomed herself, and joined herself in matchless harmony”. Sula never feels the need to lie which is what makes her so raw and honest. It is only on page 121 that she references lying to Nel because she is the only person she cares about. It is this ability to lie seamlessly and only when it will benefit herself that it is clear how at her core Sula is manipulative, and calculating, two characteristics that only add to the vastness of her mind and her creative nature. One could imagine Sula could talk herself out of any negative situation, and get what