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Essay on Toni Morrison's novel Sula
Essay on Toni Morrison's novel Sula
Portrayal of women in literature
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Recommended: Essay on Toni Morrison's novel Sula
The Provinciality of Sula's Character's
In her review of Toni Morrison's novel, Sula, Sara Blackburn complains that the setting and characters "seem somehow frozen, stylized"(1). While Blackburn talks favorably about Morrison's past novels (The Bluest Eye in particular), she is of the opinion that Sula is less successful because the characters are confined to one location and one mode of thought.
Morrison hasn't endowed her people with life beyond their place and function in the novel, and we can't imagine their surviving outside the tiny community where they carry on their separate lives (1).
While I agree with Blackburn that the characters remain inside the confines of the Bottom and the way of life there, I disagree with her that the characters are nothing more than their place and function in the novel. After reading this review, I began to think about other famous authors and novels and I realized that most stay within a certain setting and way of life. Morrison is not writing her characters as flat by making them a product of their environment and upbringing; she is simply mirroring the reality of life and human nature. I also disagree with Blackburn that the character of Sula is the exception in the novel. She too is simply a meshing of her surroundings and the people who raised her and whom she came into contact with. Had Sula not been raised by a mother prone to taking other women's husbands into storage closets, she would not have slept with her best friend's husband and then act as if she had done nothing wrong. Morrison say's the following in the novel about how Sula became the woman she was:
Eva's arrogance and Hannah's self-indulgence merged in her and, with a twist that was all her own imagination, she lived out her days exploring her own thoughts and emotions, giving them full reign, feeling no obligation to please anybody unless their pleasure pleasedher (118).
I also disagree when Blackburn says that Sula is a novel "whose long-range impact doesn't sustain the intensity of its first reading"(2). How can that be true when the character's actions are never those that the reader expects. The reader is forced to wonder why about so many different situation in the novel, that it sticks with them way after they've put down the book. How could Eva justify burning alive her own son?
In examining the two distinct characters of Nel (Wright) Greene and Sula Peace from Toni Morrison's Sula, a unique individual soul emerges from the two women. This soul takes into account good, bad, and gray area qualities. They gray area qualities are needed because, while Nel exhibits more of the stereotypical "good" qualities than Sula, the stereotypes of good and bad don't fit the definition completely. Nel and Sula combined create a type of ying and yang soul, each half including some of the other half. While at times the two women are polar opposites of one another in point of view, they arrive at their opinions with the help of the other. The two characters need each other in order to exist to the extent that they become "two throats and one eye" (Morrison 2167). A physical example of how connected the two girls are is seen when they line up head to head forming a straight, continuous, and complete line (2124).
In the book Sula by Toni Morrison, Morrison’s ambiguous link between good, evil, and guilt, she is able to show that these terms are relative to each other and often occur mutually. In her comparison of good and evil, Sula states that "Being good to somebody is just like being mean to somebody. Risky. You don't get nothing for it" (145). Good and evil are being compared as if they are equal and that is how the book is structured. For instance, Eva's burning of Plum is a complex conjunction of motherly love and practicality and cannot be described as simply being a good act or a bad one. The killing of Chicken Little is a similarly ambiguous situation from which Sula and Nel's feelings are unclear. Lastly Sula, upon her death bed, questions what it means to be good and suggests that it what may be considered bad could in reality be good. Both in the syncopated style of Morrison's writing and the morally ambiguous portrayal of characters, cause the reader to question morals and think about them on a larger scale.
Sula by Toni Morrison is a compelling novel about a unique, self-confident woman. As in many other books, each secondary character in the story serves as a vehicle to explain the main character. Hannah, Sula's mother, is dominated by the element of air; she is free spirited, frivolous and child-like. On the other hand, the element of fire is prevalent in Sula, who is impulsive, hot-tempered and passionate. Despite the differences between the two, Hannah's lifestyle intrigues and influences her daughter. The effect Hannah has on Sula is reflected in many of her daughter's perspectives and actions. As a result of the ubiquitous presence of fire within her, in contrast to her mother's blithe spirit, Sula carries all of Hannah's immorality and actions to a more extreme level. Both women have promiscuous tendencies, do not have close friendships with women, and become easily irritated by Eva. The difference is that Sula's fiery character leads her to act more cruelly than her mother.
The lack of support and affection protagonists, Sula Peace and Nel Wright, causes them to construct their lives on their own without a motherly figure. Toni Morrison’s novel, Sula, displays the development of Sula and Nel through childhood into adulthood. Before Sula and Nel enter the story, Morrison describes the history of the Peace and Wright family. The Peace family live abnormally to their town of Medallion, Ohio. Whereas the Wrights have a conventional life style, living up to society’s expectations.The importance of a healthy mother-daughter relationship is shown through the interactions of Eva and Hannah Peace, Hannah and Sula, and between Helene Wright and Nel. When Sula and Nel become friends they realize the improper parenting they
Since the late 1980’s the Russian people have experienced one of the most drastic transitions seen in the world to date, a transition from an attempt at communism to a workable capitalist system. As one would expect, this transition has not been painless and has been the impetus of many distressing problems for the Russian people. One such problem is organized crime. This paper will explore how organized crime during Soviet rule and the Russian Federation has created obstacles in this transition to a functioning market economy. It will illustrate how organized crime has done this by analyzing its transition from the USSR to the Russian Federation, the reasons behind its existence today, and how its operation impairs Russia’s attempts at a market economy. It will also provide some possible solutions for the crises organized crime has created, which currently plague the Russian people. Organized crime has worked its way through openings provided by the transition economy to become a setback to the Russian society and economy. Its existence disables successful economic reform by influencing important issues such as competition, entrepreneurship, capital flight, the shadow economy, and violence.
Toni Morrison’s novel Sula is rich with paradox and contradiction from the name of a community on top of a hill called "Bottom" to a family full of discord named "Peace." There are no clear distinctions in the novel, and this is most apparent in the meaning of the relationship between the two main characters, Sula and Nel. Although they are characterized differently, they also have many similarities. Literary critics have interpreted the girls in several different ways: as lesbians (Smith 8), as the two halves of a single person (Coleman 145), and as representations of the dichotomy between good and evil (Bergenholtz 4 of 9). The ambiguity of these two characters allows for infinite speculation, but regardless of how the reader interprets the relationship their bond is undeniable. The most striking example of their connection occurs right before the accidental death of Chicken Little. In the passage preceding his death, Nel and Sula conduct an almost ceremonial commitment to one another that is sealed permanently when "the water darkened and closed quickly over the place where Chicken Little sank" (Morrison 61):
On April 20, 1999, within the tiny, suburban city of Littleton, Colorado, two high-school seniors, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, enacted a full-scale assault on columbine high school throughout the middle of the school day. The boys' idea was to kill many of their colleagues. With guns, knives, and a large number of bombs, the two boys walked the hallways and killed. Once the day was done, twelve students, one teacher, as well as the two murderers were dead; and 21 of them were wounded. The haunting question remains: why did they decide to do this?
...ow much more independent he has become. His reaction to his father's death also represents this loss of innocence: “I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep. But I was out of tears” (Wiesel 112). This scene reveals the fact that Elie has realized that there are many evils in the world. His lack of emotion and tears shows that he understands how bad the Nazis' actions are and how cruel the world can be. This realization ultimately represents his loss of innocence and maturation.
Stein, Karen F. "Amy Tan." Critical Survey of Short Fiction, Second Revised Edition (2001): 1-3. Literary Reference Center Plus. EBSCO. Web. 13 Apr. 2011.
In the story, “Recitatif,” Toni Morrison uses vague signs and traits to create Roberta and Twyla’s racial identity to show how the characters relationship is shaped by their racial difference. Morrison wants the reader’s to face their racial preconceptions and stereotypical assumptions. Racial identity in “Recitatif,” is most clear through the author’s use of traits that are linked to vague stereotypes, views on racial tension, intelligence, or ones physical appearance. Toni Morrison provides specific social and historical descriptions of the two girls to make readers question the way that stereotypes affect our understanding of a character. The uncertainties about racial identity of the characters causes the reader to become pre-occupied with assigning a race to a specific character based merely upon the associations and stereotypes that the reader creates based on the clues given by Morrison throughout the story. Morrison accomplishes this through the relationship between Twyla and Roberta, the role of Maggie, and questioning race and racial stereotypes of the characters. Throughout the story, Roberta and Twyla meet throughout five distinct moments that shapes their friendship by racial differences.
What comes to mind when you think of sexual harassment? Most people picture an individual grabbing another individual unwillingly in attempt of committing nonconsensual sex. However, sexual harassment can be something as insignificant as being called something negative. It is anything that makes a person feel uncomfortable about his/her sexuality. According to the law, sexual harassment is anything from unwelcome sexual advances and requests for sexual favors to verbal statements of a sexual nature. It violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Sexual Harassment Policy, which is currently in place in all schools and work places, is aimed at providing an educational and work environment free of harassment. This includes sexual harassment and every form of intimidation or exploitation.
Sexual Harassment in the workplace is defined as “offensive or pervasive conduct in the workplace related to a person’s sex that negatively affects a reasonable person’s employment.”(aauw.org) Sexual Harassment violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because it is a form of sex discrimination. According to aauw.org, Title VII is “a federal law that prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, and religion, and it applies to employers with 15 or more employees, including federal, state, and local governments.” Victims of sexual harassment in the workplace may feel like there is nothing they can do about the situation....
Sula by Toni Morrison is a very complex novel with many underlying themes. Some of the themes that exist are good and evil, friendship and love, survival and community, and death. In Marie Nigro's article, "In Search of Self: Frustration and Denial in Toni Morrison's Sula" Nigro deals with the themes of survival and community. According to Nigro, "Sula celebrates many lives: It is the story of the friendship of two African-American women; it is the story of growing up black and female; but most of all, it is the story of a community" (1). Sula contains so many important themes that it is hard to say which one is the most important. I agree with Marie Nigro when she says that Sula is a story about community. I believe that community and how the community of Bottom survives is an important theme of the story. But I do not believe that it is a central theme of the story. When I think back on the novel Sula in twenty years, I will remember the relationship and friendship between Nel and Sula. I will not remember the dynamics of the community.
Portales, Marco. "Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye: Shirley Temple and Cholly." The Centennial Review Fall (1986): 496-506.
... named in the1970s, workplace sexual harassment has increasingly been the subject of legal measures, awareness campaigns and workplace policies in countries across the world. Through these initiatives, a broad consensus around how this kind of treatment should be defined has been developed: it is usually identified as sex-based or sexual behavior unwelcome to its recipient. The research conducted on its extent and dynamics has confirmed that workplace sexual harassment, although it has male victims, is overwhelmingly directed at women. Moreover, it appears to be more often encountered by those who are in a less-powerful labor market position, including young workers, domestic workers, women in non-traditional jobs, migrant workers and women in the informal sector. It is also apparent that sexual harassment imposes heavy costs on both its victims and their employers.