Toni Morrison's Sula Research Paper

In life there are very few constants- rules that govern both the affluent and the destitute. Rain does not target the man who cleans the building any more than the man who owns it. Hurricanes are indifferent to human existence, never has there been a storm that changes course so as not to inconvenience the people it eventually destroys. Nature is detached, and it will continue influence the world long after humans are gone- it is the king that cannot be over thrown, and it governs without resistance. In her novel Sula, Toni Morrison presents nature as an all controlling force over people in the Bottom by emphasizing the embodiment of nature in powerful characters, by depicting a sense of liberation in death, and by illustrating a lack of agency in the Bottom’s population. Morrison first suggests the pervasiveness of nature in the lives of people in the Bottom by creating parallels between powerful characters in the community and natural forces. With this humanized view of nature’s …show more content…
Second, Morrison illustrates nature’s strong grip on the Bottom’s inhabitants by detailing an impression of freedom accompanied by death. Morrison indicates that to people in the Bottom, death is simply a release from the enclosure that is the natural world. Last, Morrison emphasizes the influence of nature in the Bottom by describing a lack of agency in the Bottom’s population. Morrison constructs a perception that the people of the Bottom are stuck in their situations and lack the capacity to completely control their own lives, as that role has already been filled by natural forces. In Sula, Toni Morrison portrays nature as an all