Racism and Sexism in Toni Morrison's Sula Racism and sexism are both themes that are developed throughout the novel Sula, by Toni Morrison. The book is based around the black community of "The Bottom," which itself was established on a racist act. Later the characters in this town become racist as well. This internalized racism that develops may well be a survival tactic developed by the people over years, which still exists even at the end of the novel. The two main characters of this novel are Nel Wright and Sula Peace. They are both female characters and are often disadvantaged due to their gender. Nel and Sula are depicted as complete opposites that come together to almost complete one another through their once balanced …show more content…
The town unites social as they band together against Sula and her radical actions /"evil ways." Nel follows all the stereotypes of what a woman should be. She is a simple God-fearing, church going women who marries young and is very domesticated, tending to the house and her children. Nel chooses to settle into the conventional female role of wife and mother while all throughout her life she has been careful to stick close to the "right" side of conformity. She was raised in a stable, rigid home by a family that has always been careful to keep up a socially respectable persona and an immaculately clean house. Sula on the other hand is the complete opposite. Sula gives social reforms no mind and is in a sense a wild woman that can not be tamed. She defies social conventions by never marrying, leaving her hometown to get an education and having multiple affairs with different men. The home she grew up in was in a constant state of disarray supplied by a steady stream of borders, three informally adopted boys all of whom were renamed Dewey and a line of men waiting for her openly promiscuous mother. One example of racism in this book is Helene, Nel's mother, who is overly concerned about her daughter's physical characteristics. Helene sees being fair skinned as an advantage but also has the mentality that "had she been any lighter-skinned she would have needed either her
She saw her mother having intimate relationships with married men, and she thought in friendship we could share everything just like they shared everything when they were kids and she had no idea that Nel would be so upset about this. Sula’s huge attachment and fondness is for her friend, and she believes that it’s over everything else in her life. So Nels reaction leaves her being confused and
The climax of the story is when Nel finally confronts Sula. Each girl carried demons, guilt, and frustration over their lives and their choices. Nel finally vents her anger and pain and asks for an explanation from Sula. Nel's " thighs were truly empty and dead too, and it was Sula who had taken the life from them" (Morrison pg. 110-111). After leaving Eva at the home, Nel is so upset that she heads to Sula's grave. She sadly thinks about how none of the townspeople mourned her death. Nel calls out for Sula and it is then she finally forgives her for cheating with Jude. She starts crying, for the first time in years. Nel finally finds peace by grieving for Sula. When reading that part I think it was then that she realized it was Sula who she was missing & not Jude. When reading the story I couldn’t help but feel mixed emotions for Sula. It was a combination of sadness for all
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
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
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 has, 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, 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
Sula and Nel are the exact example of opposites attract. Nel comes from a stable home and Sula comes from a home where everyone views her mother and her grandmother as “loose”. Sula and Nel became very close friends. There was once an accident where Sula swung Chicken Little, a little boy, into a river where he drowned and died. Following this incident, Sula and Nel began to draw apart from each other. One day, Sula’s mother’s dress caught on fire and she died because of the severe burns.
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
Sula’s propensity for not being able to rely on another human being, coupled with her youth-like conceptions of
Morrison portrays how the relationship between Nel and Sula to be one that has transitioned from childhood to adulthood, their bond and how its
Blackburn continues by providing a summary of Sula. While her summary remains accurate, her word choice has a somewhat negative connotation, and could almost be considered mocking. She refers to Nel as a "goody-goody", Sula as insistent and the black community as "scrabbling" (par 4).
Sula misses Ajax and his absence is unbearable for her, like for the rest of the women in the novel who experienced men’s departure. After Ajax leaves, there is nothing left but emptiness. Sula has the impression that there is nothing new waiting for her in the world and that she has already seen everything there is to see: “There aren’t any more new songs and I have sung all the ones there are”(Sula 137). Sula’s life becomes discontented once she was willing to submit to a man and she starts to spend more time at her house, just like her grandmother did when her husband BoyBoy left her and consequently falls seriously ill. Sula is viewed as an outcast in her community because she does not honor the laws of the community. Another reason why people in the
Through place and time, there are those who find themselves questioning. For there are choices and risks in every relationship. There are good and evil in each and everyone. In this time it is the 1900s set in Medallion, Ohio. Toni Morrison 's Sula takes readers on a journey through pillars, betrayals and tragedies surrounding two girls; Nel Wright and Sula Peace.
Since childhood, we all have been taught that “racism is bad” and should be avoided at all costs. We have been told that “everyone is a child of God and we are all created equal.” In fact, Americans are praised for the so-called equality they possess. However, renowned author Toni Morrison sheds light on the sheltered and unspoken truth that everyone—to some extent—is racist. “Home” is a reflective essay in which Morrison explains that her triumphs against racist ideologies are evident throughout her various novels (“Home” 3). In Morrison’s first novel, The Bluest Eye, instead of establishing a home where race does not matter—a home which she dreams of in her essay—she creates just the opposite (3). In this novel, by using direct