Sula

Toni Morrison’s Sula challenges the heteronormative ideas about women and their sexual identities by characterizing both Nel and Sula as a protagonist. Beginning in the year 1919, the novel highlights moments of adversity and various experiences that have influenced these women’s lives in Medallion, Ohio, a confined black community. As the story follows the friendship of the two women who seemed inseparable, their relationship is corrupted by the roles women are expected to fulfill in their…

He was born in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, in Barrio Cabanas- one of the most dangerous cities in the entire world. There were a low of shootings, a lot of killing, a lot of violence, and little to no opportunity. Growing up, they lived next to a really dirty creek. This is a memorable…

community and belonging, no matter who mothered you. With this said family expectations can easily come from close loved ones we have in our lives. In Sula by Toni Morrison we witness Nel Wright battle with not only the family rejection and fear of female liberation but also the expectation to exclusively be free within her female friendship with Sula Peace. Nel through this struggle loses the sense of self and get’s lost in the worlds of the loved ones around her instead of dedicating time to…

In the novel Sula, by Toni Morrison, the main character, Sula Peace, has a birthmark over her eye that each character she meets interprets differently. The way these characters see Sula’s birthmark highlights their individual relationships with her, as well as some of their own character traits. Jude Greene, the husband of Nel, who is one of Sula’s childhood friends, sees her birthmark as a copperhead snake the first time he meets Sula. Jude’s perception of Sula’s birthmark as a copperhead…

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…

on a community. Specifically, one of the most evident themes of criticism is seen with the main character Sula. Sula portrays this character who has not experienced moral guilt and has no recognition for social convention. She is entirely independent, and she even has sexual interactions with most men, married and unmarried, in the town. After Nel, Sula’s childhood best friend, catches Sula having sexual relations with her (Nel) husband, she says, “You a woman and a colored woman at that. You…

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…

The mentally ill are treated unfairly due to the negative stigma surrounding mental disorders. Mental illness is not just a problem in the real-world, it is also portrayed in many works of literature. For example, in the novel, Sula, by Toni Morrison there is a great focus on mental illness with Plum and Shadrack who both suffer with forms of PTSD from wartime. People suffering with mental disorders are less likely to seek help due to the negative stigma surrounding mental health. National…

Is the glass half-full or half-empty? The novel, Sula by Toni Morrison, sees the glass half-empty. Morrison constantly depicts the evils in the 1920’s black community in her story, and for that she teaches her characters that goodness does not normally exist. All of characters have a relationship with another, be it mother-daughter, husband-wife, friends or family, and many of those relationships end in disaster. Toni Morrison’s pessimistic nature is the reason behind the many failed loving…

In 1971, she began teaching literature and creative writing at the State University of New York at Purchase as an associate professor. Morrison continued her successful emergence as a writer with the publication of her second novel, Sula (1973), it is a novel about a girl who lives in a small town in Ohio whose community is destroyed by World War I. It also shows the story of friendship between two African American women that begins in childhood and is damaged by the inability of the surrounding…