Sula Character Analysis

Nel said, "You can’t do it all. You’re a woman and a colored woman at that. You can’t act like a man. You can’t be walking around all independent-like, doing whatever you like, taking what you want, leaving what you don’t." (142). This imitation of being a man is what Sula did. This is because she wanted to live her life free. Free from the norms of a patriarchal society who sees a woman primarily by the relationship women have with men. Sula’s story shows that when a woman doesn’t have a relationship with a man or doesn't uplift socially accepted responsibilities, she is seen as evil. In the end Sula died doing what she wanted, and staying true to her beliefs. Sulas life experiences shaped her into the women she was and she wasn't ashamed of it. All throughout the novel she did not let the words of others and their perceived societal norms to influence her into

Only two characters, Nel and Shadrack, maintain a static interpretation of Sula’s birthmark, revealing their alienation from society at large. Nel’s unchanging perception of Sula’s birthmark as a stemmed rose highlights her own need for consistency.

Although Nel thinks of herself as the "good" one and considers Sula the "bad" one, at that point you

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.

Nel and Sula’s relationship is a complex one, which allows for the novel to become incredibly in depth and driven by interesting characters. Sula’s relationships with her mother and grandmother are opposite of Nel’s relationship with her mother. This is, perhaps, why their personalities differ so much once they reach adulthood. Both become their mothers.

Despite being presented as opposites of good and evil, Nel and Sula are actually quite similar, as both Nel and Sula posses the traits that defined the other, effectively blurring the lines between good and evil. As young girls, Nel pushed herself to become friends with Sula in the first place as “Nel, who regarded the oppressive neatness of her home with dread, felt comfortable in t with Sula, who loved it and would sit on the red-velvet sofa for ten to twenty minutes at a time… As for Nel, she preferred Sula’s wooly house”(29). As a child, Nel yearned to be free and independent, and to be her own individual self separate from who her mother expects her to be. Sula however already lives this life of living in a non-traditional home and

Since they are taught at such a young age, they do not have the critical thinking skills and they automatically believe the ideas that their parents taught them. For example, in Sula, Nel is under the control of her mother. After she sees her mother places herself in an inferior position and smiles to the men on the train, she realizes that she does not want to be like her mother. Nel says, “I’m me. I’m not their daughter. I’m not Nel. I’m me. Me” (Morrison 28). She wants to be wonderful, unique and free. However, since she is too young, she cannot persist her dream of freedom under the control of her mother and she utterly gives up. Morrison writes, “Under Helene’s hand the girl became obedient and polite. Any enthusiasms that little Nel showed were calmed by the mother until she drove her daughter’s imagination underground” (Morrison 18). She finally becomes one of the “normal” women who does follow all the social conventions and loses her sense of self. She cares about how other people and the society think instead of how she feels. She marries a man and their marriage is not based on love, but instead, it is aimed to satisfy the normative expectation of their community. Therefore, one of the reasons why Nel loves Sula is because Sula succeeds in being unique, free and ignores all the social conventions that she does not like agree

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.

She is completely free of her goals, with no money minded, and no jealousy. She is faced with a racist small medallion town and a sexist society. She defends herself by creating a life, however strange, that is rich and experimentally. She denies to settle for a woman’s traditional marriage, raising child, labor, and pain. The women of the bottom hate Sula because she is living criticism of their own terrible lives of public notice. Furthermore, gender inequality is another major issue that the readers won’t be able to miss as they read the adventures of Sula, Nel, and all other interesting people living in the Bottom. Sula Peace is a black woman who fights for against the racist, conservative thinking, and bottom line women in small town. “Unconventional young woman growing up in a black community that was founded on worthless land once given to a freed slave” (Cassidy, Thomas). She wants to destroy traditional thoughts and beliefs; such as belief on conservative traditions, get married, have kids, raise kids, and live under the patriarchal society. In addition, Sula is a strange, extra-ordinary, super feature birth mark on her eyes; symbolizes bold and independence from the bottom line

Her desire to make Nola happy shows that she is trying, but inside thoughts show that she does not like the way Nola dresses, or the clothes she picks out, or the restaurant they eat at. Her emotional attachment and need for her daughter overpowers her knowledge that it is time for Nola to grow up.  She would prefer for Nola to remain young.  Despite her mother's desire, Nola is growing up and becoming her own person.

During this time of their separation, the strength of their friendship appears evident. They both long to still be friends, to talk again. However, Nel sees this event as a true betrayal of friendship from Sula, while Sula sees what happened as casual and not a big deal.

After her marriage, Nel becomes a conventional, settled down woman. Her life when Sula is not around is much like her life in the “oppressive neatness”(Morrison 29) in her mother’s house. She loses her true unique self after Sula is gone. She realizes this when Sula comes back to Medallion. “Nel felt new, soft and new. It had been the longest time since she had had a rib-scraping

The novel Sula, is a work which contrasts the lives of its two main characters Nel and Sula. They appear, on the surface, to be the epidemy of binary opposites but this is in actuality their underlying bond. The differences in their personalities complement one another in a way that forges an almost unbreakable alliance. Sula is compulsive and uncontrollable while her counterpart, Nel, is sensible and principled. To prove Nel human by subscribing to the theory that a human is one who possess both good and bad traits, one must only look at how she interacts with Sula, here both negative and positive traits are evident.Nel’s "good" traits obviously come to the forefront when looking at her character. One might say this is a result

In Toni Morrison's Sula, the reader meets the protagonist, Sula, and her friend Nel when both girls are roughly twelve years old. Both girls are black, intelligent, and dreaming of

What makes a man worthy to be honorable? Is his greatness something earned through struggle or just a title that has been passed down? It is the man Sundiata is destined to have been, the greatest king, as he is portrayed in D.T Niane’s classic tale “Sundiata: an epic of old Mali. This classic tale shows the impact of courage, power, and motherly love on the life of the ancient africans kingdom's greatest king. D.T Niane’s shows the life of a man once being looked down upon, to now being known as one of the greatest in history.