Sula By Toni Morrison Research Paper

Sula has many themes. One of them is about friendship and the difficulty of transitioning from a childhood friendship to an adulthood friendship. During Nel and Sula’s lives, it was always them against the world. However, when they got older and experienced different things, they went in different directions. Sula became that woman everyone hated and looked down upon, and Nel became the average housewife. They had disagreements and fall outs throughout their years, but at the end when Nel was the only person who came to see Sula on her last day. Also Nel was the only person Sula thought about during her death. Nel was also hit with this notion when she found herself alone and thinking about her life after Sula’s funeral. She begin to weep

Though from two completely different households, Nel and Sula form and quick friendship which is the central aspect of the novel. Nel, through her mother has inherited a calm, ladylike and unconfrontational demeanor whereas Sula has gotten the fiery and passionate nature of the Pearce women. These personality and identity characteristics are underscored by

Sula dislikes her disheveled house, and wishes that she could live in a household as clean as that of Nel. Sula?s positive view of Nel?s home challenges Nel to see it in a new light, teaching her to appreciate. This concept stays current throughout the early years of their relationship, each opening the other?s eyes to new idea and ways of living and as they do their friendship grows stronger. The two become practically inseparable, living completely symbiotically and depending on each other for everything. However, this relationship is destined to change.

Unlike Nel who is taught that her value lies in how she is controlled, Sula is taught that having any value is pointless because there is no emotional attachment and loss is

Being oppressed by her mother, Nel has an attraction to Sula's carefree environment which, unlike her own, lacks any oppression. Likewise, Sula has an attraction to Nel's peaceful and orderly environment. They both desire something that the other does not have, and that's where such a strong attraction comes from. Together, they are perfect- Nel finds in Sula the youthfulness and the fun she's missing, and Sula finds order and stability in Nel.

The novel Sula by the Author Toni Morrison, depicts the story of a character name Sula who embarks in an adventure in her town. She faces many endeavors throughout the story but it’s her struggles which define the way she views life. Nether the less an interesting character in the novel, is her close friend “Nel.” Sula and Nel are viewed like one mind, because of that it’s sometimes difficult for them to separate each other thoughts. The town often tells them they are the same person because of that reason Nel’s uniqueness is overshadowed and she struggles to figure out her own identity. With this in mind she meets a guy, Jude, who in the process allows her to find an identity. The different aspects of identity that Jude expresses to Nel allow her to be viewed as a singular person compared to the town which viewed her like one mind with Sula.

As seen by many different mothers in the novel Sula by author Toni Morrison, mothers play an important part in kid’s life, shaping how they view different beliefs in the world and setting up values in their child. Every individual’s life is shaped by personal relationships they have with others. The mother and child relationship greatly affects the identity development in the kid. As seen in the racist community in the novel, the mother and kid relationship is important in the sense that the mothers and children share understanding of the sexist oppression, intertwining their lives together even more than they

Upon her return, Sula notices the affect societal ideals has had upon Nel, who is now a mother and homemaker, fitting the perfect description of a wife for her husband. Sula tells Nel, “You’ve changed too. I didn’t used to have to explain everything to you” (Sula 100). In this statement Sula points out how Nel’s new domestic lifestyle has altered her, removing her individuality and diminishing the unspoken understanding they used to have between each other when they were children. What ultimately solidifies Nel’s loss of individuality for about 25 years is the end of her friendship with Sula. When Nel walks into her bedroom to see that “they had been down on all fours naked, not touching except their lips right down there on the floor” (Sula 105), she feels betrayed by both Jude and Sula. She had trusted both and yet they had betrayed her. And so, both left, leaving Nel dependent to society’s grasp as a single mother. Thus, due to the untimely end of both her marriage and friendship, Nel lost the remnants of her individuality, trading it in for the security society could offer her and her

Nel, on the other hand, grew up with a proper, strict mother. Her name was Helene, and she was a woman of strict order, who made the expectations for her daughter high and clear. Nel grew up under this parenting heavily influencing her everyday behaviors. Due to this difference in family life, they were attracted together as friends, fulfilling the statement, “Opposites attract”. There was also a personality difference between the two girls. Sula had always been the rougher, tougher one, as opposed to the quieter Nel. Nel, although quieter, as an adult was married and never cheated on her husband, Jude. Nel breaks the promise she made to herself to develop her own identity, by choosing to marry young just as her mother had. Her husbands idea of a happy life is him working an inferior man's job, however his marriage contradicts that. Nel fulfills Helene's expectations of marriage, letting go of her goal to be independent and live on her own terms. A bond that holds the two friends so closely together is the good and bad between the two, in the particular case of the death of Chicken Little. Nel is just as guilty for not doing anything about the death as Sula is for committing the crime, however this strays from her perfect reputation she hold in the Bottom.

In the novel The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison confirms the existence of racism within the African American community. Unbelievably, many African Americans suffer from what is termed internalized racism. Internalized racism produces the same effect as racial racism: feelings of worthlessness, inferiority, and unattractiveness. In addition, the effect can produce the opposite feelings: superiority, hatred, and feelings of self-worth. Pecola, an 11-year-old black girl, desires to have the physical characteristics of a white person, namely blue eyes. Polly, Pecola’s mother, prefers the white culture living rather than her own. The feelings that the black race experience stem from the programming of a racist society to think that the white race is better. As a result, African Americans long to be white or look white. This consumption of whiteness represents internalized racism.

Destruction by Motherhood Motherlove and maternity are key drivers in Toni Morrison's novel, Sula. The concepts tie together several important values in African-American culture, including freedom and community. The novel does not address the positives of motherhood, however, but rather focuses on the destructiveness of it. Dayle B. Delancey suggests that the "leitmotif of motherlove as killer" is a main theme in the novel. In Sula, Toni Morrison depicts motherlove as a destructive force that burdens a woman by threatening her physical and emotional well-being due to stresses that come from an obligation to raise a child in addition to ensuring her own physical and social survival.

Analysis of Recitatif The story “Recitatif”” by Toni Morrison is a powerful short story that examines two orphaned children that come from two various racial groups, which is a key aspect of the story. Two characters, Roberta and Twyla encounter a relationship within the confinement of the orphanage, St. Bonny’s for children. The girls bond based off the premises of similarity in the abandonment from their mothers due to refractory situations, despite initial judgement that is drawn at the surface of the short story. Morrison disputes the orthodox approach of understanding race and racism in the manner that the characters Roberta and Twyla are presented in the story, through the exhibition of racism in a non-specific manner.

Sisters Frieda and Claudia know they were getting a new sister. Well not exactly. Because Pecola’s father burnt down their home, she was sent to live with the MacTeer family until her family was able to take her back. Frieda and Claudia do not know what to make of Pecola. First off she is ugly, this little black girl, whom no one will ever call beauty. What she long for is blue eyes. The bluest eyes in the world, as if she was like all those blonde fair skin blue eye girls, her family would love her, and mend their broken home. Where Pecola very view times get to narrates her story, it is told from other perspective, including events to led to her home life. From Claudia’s point of view of Pecola, to how her parents were both raise and met,

Sula is a story that tackles the ideas of "good" and "evil", and how nothing is easily determined as one or the other. Focusing on the complexities of life, Sula addresses many well-known conflicts

However, Nel does fall into such relationship which ultimately leads to her alienation as a result of her submission. Sula on the other hand, refuses to marry as she believes marriage is nothing but the extermination of one’s identity. After returning to Medalliion, Eva-her grandmother, asks her about her marriage, Sula replies, “I don’t want to make somebodyelse. I want to make myself.” She abjures marriage, children and all such attachments that pose limitation to the role of black women. She enters the church scantily dressed and moreover, she sends her grandmother to the old folks home thus subverting the doctrines of the role of daughters and wives. Notwithstanding her transgression, the community considers her as a pariah and outlaw. What is considered as a bold departure by black males Sula’s interracial sex though when it comes to white women, they would not give it a second thought. The whole people unite in regarding Sula as an evil as she transgresses their impositions, she negates all the limitations and her only concern is her belief in her own ‘Self’. She doesn’t need anybody’s shoulder for herself and acts according to her own will. She is an embodiment of the resilience and willpower among women which paves the way for their survival amidst the patriarchal norms. Sula’s faith in herself is delineated in the novel through her death scene. Her conversation with Nel prior to