Issues of Sexual Morality and

Sula wanted nothing to do with a husband that would betray her and cheat on her and come home and just be horribly mean to her.  I think the biggest emotional obstacle Sula endured was watching her mother burn to death. Sula went through an obstacle course of emotions and relationships.  Poor choices were made, which led to her ultimate demise, however, her demise was her own choice. It was pretty ironic how the dislike for Sula brought the community together. With their dislike for Sula they forgot about the problems they had with each other.

Her mother and grandmother, who obviously favor her brother, essentially ignore Sula. Hannah, her mother, is a very sexual woman who enjoys the company of many men in town to the disapproval of Sula. Because of her mother’s actions, Sula views her with an indifferent and callous sense of hostility. Still, Sula reacts in a negative way when hears her mother say, “‘I just don’t like her’” in reference to her daughter. (57) The difference between loving someone and liking someone is made clear here. It develops the idea of a mother’s ambivalent love. When a child is aggravating, it can be frustrating to love them. But for Hannah, she simply does not like the person Sula is becoming. This realization, for Sula, removes her from

She too sleeps with only the husbands of other women. Sula has never witnessed a healthy relationship between a man and a woman. This is regarded by the community as terrible. Sula uses the men she sleeps with for pleasure, taking no consideration as to how the men feel. She refuses to have such patriarchal relationships as Hannah did. Hannah may indeed have received pleasure from the men she slept with but she remained the submissive participant in her relations. "Hannah rubbed no edges, made no demands, made the man feel as though he were complete and wonderful just as he was- he didn’t need fixing..." (p 2012). Sula, on the other hand, has a need to feel in control right down to the mechanics of her affairs. "And there was the utmost irony and outrage in lying under someone, in a position of surrender, feeling her own abiding strength and limitless power." (p2048). She not only took sex from men as pleasure, but sought out to claim power over them. "Sula was trying them out and discarding them without any excuse the men could swallow." (p2044). This made the women upset and furthered their hatred for Sula. Sula had power by sleeping with these very same men who held power over submissive wives. The town regards all of Sula’s actions as evil. They called her a "roach" and a "bitch", but above that spread a nasty rumor that she slept with white men. "There was nothing lower she could do, nothing filthier." (p2043). Though it is mentioned in

she had” (Morrison 83). In the book Sula by Toni Morrison, Nel represents the women who follow all the social conventions and normative expectations. Nel and many women in our society are taught how to survive in this patriarchal society and their desperation for freedom and equality are rubbed down when they were young. On the other hand, the main character Sula is a self-defined woman. Sula is a representation of extreme individualism since she remains single and has sexual relations with countless married and single men. She also sends her grandmother to an elderly home and does not care about the feelings of the people around her. Morrison uses Sula to

In Toni Morrison’s Sula, gender heteronormative relationships are demonstrated in a very punishable manner. The two main characters Sula Peace, and Nel Right share a very strong, well connected friendship. The two of them are a mirror reflection of each other, with the same desires. Heteronormative institutions in the book do not seem to be stable for the most part. Hannah Peace, the single mother Sula, lives a disordered life in her household while Helene Wright belongs to a conservative and peaceful life, but her husband is never around. With the two daughters of both families being part of each other’s lives, they create a friendship that shows the privilege for female-female bonds over male-male bonds.

She makes every man attractive towards her. Hannah peace loves to have sex with other wedded men. Hannah Peace never has friendship with another woman, even if very short. She makes disappointed the women in the town. Hannah Peace manner of sleeping around with different wedded men in the town is not acceptable in the society. She is still remarkable because despite of word abusing that she often gets from the town women “Who resented Hannah’s generosity” (Morrison 44). She still gets what she wants at the end of the day for those women just genuine talk and no further action. Sula finds her mother sleeping with a man. “Sula came home from school and found her mother in the bed, curled spoon in the arms of a man” (Morrison 44). Sula is taught by her mother sex is pleasant, happier, and continuous remarkable. On the other hand, Sula Peace is a heavy brown with large quite eye. She has rose-shaped birthmark on her face. These rose-shaped birthmark makes to understand, she is independence, attractive girl, emotional, and beautiful girl. Sula

The value judgments of Helda through the descriptions reinforce the narrative’s male gaze because Helda’s worth as a human is evaluated by her ability to provide others with food and sex. Helda, along with most other women in this story, do not have complex emotions or backgrounds, and the fleeting glimpses into their existences are nearly exclusively related to an interaction with a man. Since women do not have a role apart from their male counterparts, how they are viewed is essential to understanding the women themselves. Unfortunately, women are valued with confining and stereotypically feminine attributes, like being sexy and good cooks. It is “okay” that Helda’s chicken is dry; she can be forgiven because she’s hot when she dances “for” Jimmy. Jimmy and Zits perceive Helda’s actions as solely existing for their pleasure, hence the “for,” and they base her worth on her effect on others, without any regard to her own individual humanity. The male gaze in this book is egregious, to a truly absurd degree, because women are never allowed to be their own people; their entire existences revolve around the presence, thoughts, and criticisms of men.

The novel Sula was written by Toni Morrison in 1973. The book was written around the time of many controversies including racism and women’s rights. It tells the story of Sula Peace and how she handles the many situations in her life. She has many trials and tribulations when it comes to her family and also her peers. She has many different types of conversations, which all of them basically end with Sula making them mad or even confused. The novel talks about the battle between good vs evil. It shows the many topics of love, betrayal, and just how she is different from any other people in her community. Sula is an inspirational character and new world woman, because she beats the odds, being fatherless, poor, and being raised in the shadow of a woman who “gets around”. She is only focused on living life to the fullest. “I don’t know everything, I just do everything (Sula 143)”, she tells Nel. She’s an African American, a woman, and also very outspoken. She doesn’t let anything stand in her way or define her.

Though, Sula is prideful and independent, she was a woman a head of her time. Even in two-thousand sixteen these traits would result with her being ostracized, but I very much relate with her. As a Black woman, I repeatedly have to face the difficulties of being prideful or independent. I have to face statements of, “How are you going to get a man if you can’t cook?” “You’re too independent, you’re going to give a man a hard time.” And many other questions or comments about getting a man or being independent. As, a Black woman, or just as a woman, it seems that our worth isn’t truly recognized until there is a ring on a finger, a man in the house, and a child in the belly.

Sula never marries, does not start her own family, and according the community has loose morals when it comes to sexual encounters. Unfortunately, upon returning to Bottom after leaving for ten years, she is not warmly welcomed. Although it is expected as she mimics the role of Rochelle in the community, Bottom carries a stronger distaste for Sula. Because of her defiance, she is looked down upon by the community for living her life immorally. Because she is an immoral individual it is not difficult to see why the community has shunned her, yet the community has not shunned Ajax or any of the other men who treat women in a similar fashion.

Unlike all the other women in the story, Sula is tough and does not let others interfere with her. She lives her life by her own rules and standards. The people in the town notice that "except for a funny-shaped finger and that evil birthmark, she was free of any normal signs of vulnerability" (115). Again, the rose symbolized Sula's growth and carefree way of life.

Because of the sexual confidence Hannah Peace has, Sula must disguise her difference, just like her grandmother Eva had too. Eva’s drastic measures were repeated by Sula an act of survival and denial of powerlessness and vulnerability. Nel and Sula are regularly picked on by the same group of boys, causing Sula to take matter into her own hands. At one point, Sula takes out a knife and cuts off part of her finger saying, “ ‘If I can do that to myself, what you suppose I’ll do to you?’ ” (54-55). This severe act if Sula’s moment of self-recognition of her connection to her grandmother Eva. Here, Sula realizes that she has to fight against her own vulnerability, and establish her identity, hereby following her grandmother Eva’s example. Though this moment shows Sula’s inner strength, it can never disguise her enough of being different from the rest of her community. Just as Eva and Hannah, Sula continues the unpreventable, mature line of breaking past the typical gender roles of the time. Eva’s overly independent attitude and removal from caring and mothering a daughter correctly, leaves her daughters with unlearned, societal caretaking skills. This results in Sula’s highly inappropriate and unnecessary act of clumsy caretaking within her relationship with Nel. Yet, it is understandable because Sula has never been taught normal and conventional means for problem solving. The denial of motherly love from

While society's view of evil is really based on the disapproval of anything that would break down way society works, Sula's view of evil is based on a different goal and she acts according to a different set of standards. In other words, "Sula was distinctly different" (118). Sula "had been looking all along for a friend" (122) and that is the goal she is really trying to reach. In sleeping with many men, she is sort of looking for a release for her "misery and...deep sorrow" (122). She is trying to find a friend who she can

Toni Morrison’s Sula novel constructs the feeling what is like to be African American within each character of the novel. “Morrison’s novel is imbedded in the context of the Black experience in America, the author of Sula succeeds in bringing to the reader of any race the joys, suffering, and pain of Eva, Hannah, Sula, Jude and Shadrack” (724). In the novel Morrison constructs each character to experience different ways of suffering. Suffering is what the characters go through only overcome it in different ways.

Sula as the main character in which the book is named, would be expected to have quite the character development as the story progresses, but this is not how the story progresses. Sula, as a child, receives little attention from her mother and grandmother (Reddy). This forces her to learn how to care for herself as well as become independent at young age, thus her childhood being cut short. Sula’s mother, Hannah, has a well know reputation for sleeping with all of the men of the Bottom (Reddy). Although Sula disapproves of her mother’s tendencies, her mother’s actions make their mark on Sula’s personality which we see later in the book.