Sula by Toni Morrison - Essay Example

Sula by Toni Morrison begins in the year 1919 and proceeds with chapters titled 1920, 1922.1927,1937, and so on to the year 1965. Each chapter represents a particular event around which resolves the past, present, and future significance. The narrative unfolds like a firmly interwoven oral folktale. In this novel the past present and future collapse into a kind of synchronic action.

 The setting in Sula is an isolated neighborhood called “The Bottom”, but it is a neighborhood of recent historical past and therefore “The Bottom and its inhabitants assume, like a narrative itself, a mythological quality. They and their environment are drawn from the rich tradition of black folktale and legend. However, the inhabitants of “the Bottom are not often prey to the extreme seduction of the dominant culture. Patrick Bryce Bjorn in the “ The Novels of Toni Morrison: The search for self and Place within the community says that instead they are presented as having a world of their own, and thus the delimiting of an external gaze and the valorization of black values and traditions further emphasize Morrison’s singular concern for black life”.

 Morrison. in all her novels likes to examine the community and its characters. It has become a familiar motif in all her novels. In Sula, this motif is played conspicuously in the dialectal tension between communities as monolithic status. The novel has the family of self-sustaining black female characters Matriarch, Eva Peace, her daughter  Hanna and her granddaughter, the protagonist of the novel Sula Peace, who combine to provide the oppositional energy to redefine both selfhood and black womanhood.

The novel begins with the end to “The Bottom “a neighborhood once isolated from and eventually destroyed by white progress in Medallion City, Ohio. A master gave this “the Bottom to slave and it was considered as a gift given to his master to his former slave. He made them believe that the land is worthwhile because it is closer to heaven .thus there grows a particular community. But there is a threat from the white that they decided t build a golf course there. The first living being introduced to the reader is Shadreack who returns to the Bottom. In order to overcome fears of death invents National Suicide Day. He is a representative of those who dislikes war.  Sula the protagonist is friendly with Nel. They are from different family setups.  Nel is from a conventional family. The theme of friendship is treated effectively in this novel. The converging point in the novel is the death of a boy Chicken Little while playing with Sula and Nel. They hide this fact. But guilt consciousness arises in the mind is Sula. She considers herself responsible for the death of the boy, She is suffering from the acute feeling that she is an evil character. At the same time, Nel develops a positive attitude to life and she slowly began to move away from Sula. Soon we find that Sula’s mother dies of burning. When Sula takes a different path of fierce independence and total disregard for social conventions Nel takes the path of a peaceful married life. Sula leaves the bottom for ten more years. During that time she makes affairs with the especially white man. When she returns to “The Bottom” the people consider her as a figure of evil, particularly because of her interracial relations. She even develops relations with Nel’s husband Jude. Jude abandons Nel for that. Later when Sula dies Nel herself blames herself admits her mistake of blaming Sula for the death of the boy.  Nel has to admit that she shares some of the guilt for the death of the boy. Finally, we get the picture of Nel lamenting at the cemetery near the grave of Sula.

                     The struggle to recognize good and bad, or evil and goodness is treated effectively in the novel Sula. The novel treats the confusion in the relation, emotions, and every aspect of human life is depicted in this novel.  To a great extent, Saul is also responsible for her own destiny. She blindly wishes to get something more from Nel that cannot be given to her by Nel. After Sula took her last breath she said ‘it didn’t even hurt. Wait’ll I tell Nel.” 

                            Minor themes like influence family relations are also stated in it. Sula lacks care and love from her mother. The influence of the family shapes the identity of a child. The second comes the society or the community to which the child belongs.  Sula’s identity contains many of the feminist nature however the way in which the community treats her is like that of a devil.  Sula‘s concept of family is also different.  “ The narrower their lives the wider their hips”. This statement clearly shows Sula's attitude towards the men-women relationship.

.         But Nel is treated differently by Helen.  The importance of friendship is also explored through the relationship that exists between Sula and Nel. Sometimes it acts as a pillar when there are a lot of problems. But it has a difficult side also.

On the whole Sula is a novel treating the theme of race, gender ie to some extent deals with the experience of blacks in America. Toni Morrison’s novel Sula also highlights the timeless and universal themes that exist within the black struggle.