Sulla's Death In Sula, By Toni Morrison

Although the ideas of the novel are complex, the author’s writing style is straightforward. She purposely describes the story in third person’s point of view. The omniscient narrator presents all the characters’ behaviors and their thoughts to avoid any judgments on them. Therefore, readers are clear about what happened and why it happened. However, the author does use satire in Sula’s death. People in the Bottom indicate that Sula’s death brings a good impact on community. Ironically, Sula’s death actually has a negative impact on the Bottom community because the harmonious life is dissolved without Sula’ evil, which influences townspeople to cherish others. In addition, the author uses heavy descriptions of black women characters, especially …show more content…
The roles of black women in this novel are complex. They are wives, mothers, daughters and female friends. They struggle to seek their identities in the black community, and in the patriarchal American society. For example, the protagonists, Nel and Sula, take different approaches to define themselves. They learn about the oppression in very young age, note, “they were neither white nor male, and that all freedom and triumph was forbidden to them, they had to set about creating something else” (Morrison, 2002, p.78). Although Nel accepts the passive roles of a black woman under her mother’s influence, she recognizes the power of womanhood at the end of novel. Unlike Nel, Sula is full of feminist spirit, and she lives an experimental life to challenge racial segregation and sexism. However, many women in the Bottom suffer from oppression. They are harassed by men; they suffer domestic violence at home; they depend on their husbands economically; they suffer racial discrimination. For instance, because Eva is abandoned by her husband, she has to sacrifice her leg to obtain money from insurance for raising her children. Nel and her mother are prohibited to use bathroom in the train because of their race. Although the oppression frequently appears the novel, Morrison takes the feminist’s perspective to encourage black women to understand their sufferings and strengths. As a critique of Morrison’s novels from International Journal on Multicultural Literature points out that, “She propagates the consciousness of the African Americans especially feminists to love themselves, their race and their culture and not get swayed away by the American culture and colour” (Samantaray, 2013, p.75). Sula is the typical