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Thematic concerns in the novels of toni morrison
Character of sula in sula written by toni morrison
Character of sula in sula written by toni morrison
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Aristotle once said, "I count him braver who overcomes his desires … for the hardest victory is over self." Unfortunately, most people don't understand the sheer meaning of Aristotle's quote because they live as servants of their community where one's identity losses its shape. Such end is the inevitable result of living under the constraints of binaries. Toni Morrison's Sula is packed with numerous binaries that define the nature and acts of the novel's characters such as the Self/Community binary. The identities of Sula, Nel and Eva are sketched out by the diverse choices they make in relation to this binary: controlling the privileged side, being controlled by the unprivileged side or sticking in between.
To begin with, Sula enjoys the superiority of her pivotal self. Galehouse in her article, "New World Women" states that "despite any real or perceived limitations imposed by her family, her community, or the era in which she is depicted, Sula does not put any limits upon herself"(341). Her disinterest in what the Bottom community glorifies forms her narcissistic identity and creates her "I want to make myself" motto (Morrison 121). For Sula, all the worn-out traditions promoted by her community worth nothing more than her own "dirt" for at least the latter is her own production. Sula`s identity as a new world woman is highlighted by her "daring, disruptive, imaginative,… out-of-the-house, uncontained and uncontainable" personality, as Morrison puts it (qut in. Galehouse 339). Moreover, throughout the novel, Sula`s self controls every aspect of her social and intellectual life resulting in full appreciation of her angelic, as well as, demonic actions. On the one hand, when cutting her finger in an attempt to...
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...ng? Finally, I idealize Eva, but does she idealize her own self? Questions remain unanswered just as the Self/Community binary remains unchanged even in our legendary 21st century.
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Works Cited
Bergenholtz, Rita. "Toni Morrison's Sula: A satire on Binary Thinking." African American Review 30.1 (1996): 89-99. Academic Search Premier. Web. 22 March 2012.
Galehouse, Maggie. "New World Woman: Toni Morrison's Sula." Papers on Language and Literature 35.4 (1999): 339-355. Jstore. Web. 21 March 2012.
Morrison, Toni. Sula. New York: Penguin Books, 1993. Print.
Pessoni, Michele. "She was laughing at their God: Discovering the goddess within Sula." African American Review 29.3 (1995): 439-442. Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 March 2012.
Ed. Toni Morrison. New York: Library of America, 1998. 63-84.
Given the title of the novel, Sula Peace is a complex and thought provoking character in Toni Morrison’s, Sula. Her thoughts and actions often contradict, leaving the reader unable to decipher whether Sula should be praised or demonized. As a child, Sula grows up in a chaotic household that is run by strong-willed women. Because of this constant commotion, Sula loves quiet and neat settings, which is shown through her behavior at Nel’s home. In the novel it says, “She had no center, no speck around which to grow” (Morrison 119). This quote points out how much her home life as a child affects her behavior as an adult. Her mother, Hannah, has almost no sense of right and wrong. Her promiscuous behavior is observed by Sula and sets the foundation
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):
In the novel Sula, there were other important characters besides Sula. The character in this book I would like to focus on most is Eva Peace. Eva is a woman who has a disability but remains strong, and this will be the focus of this paper since it wasn’t focused on so much in the book.
Although the people surrounding Susanna feel perturbed towards her lack of social-conformity, which is demonstrated through others questioning her “self-image”, she knows that she is simply exp...
herself and her attempt to break through the strict bonds of society that all the other
Toni Morrison was born Chloe Anthony Wofford on February 18,1931 in Lorain, Ohio to George and Ramah Willis Wofford. She was the second of four children. Her parents influenced her writing because of their contrasting views. Her father had a very pessimistic view of hope for his people; however, her mother had a more positive belief that a person, with effort, could rise above African-Americans’ current surroundings (Carmean 1-2). Her parents also influenced her because they were “gifted storytellers who taught their children the value of family history and the vitality of language”(Carmean 2).
Vickroy, Laurie. "The Force Outside/the Force Inside: Mother-love and Regenerative Spaces in Sula and Beloved." Obsidian II 8.2 (1993): 28+. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.
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.
Self-definition is crucial, not only to being, but to creating. As Gilbert and Gubar so astutely note in The Madwoman in the Attic, "For all literary artists, of course, self-definition necessarily precedes self-assertion: the creative 'I AM' cannot be uttered if the 'I' knows not what it is" (17). One way of describing this work of self-definition is as "learn[ing] to understand what around and about us and what within us must live, and what must die" (Estes, 33). But female definition has not been this sorting out process of self-definition. Instead, it has been a static male definition "by default" or "by intent." If the female is to create herself, she must begin with a process of self-definition whose first step is, of necessity, a negation of the hitherto established male definition of "female." Virginia Woolf calls this "killing The Angel in the House" (PFW 286). Before she can say "yes" by creating a positive form she must first say "no" to the false positive form created by a patriarchal society. Before she can reclaim herself from the negative space of t...
Her lessons in independence, which begin early in life, are fostered by circumstances and the accompanying experiences. Her tenacity not to let people and circumstances preside over her life is fortified in many ways by Eva Winkler, her best friend and neighbor. Eva, a person of subservient dispo...
In Toni Morrison’s novel Sula, the theme of the story is good versus evil. It’s embodied into the story in various forms to question what defines right and wrong. Good versus evil is presented in forms that are understood on the surface and beneath the surface which gives it multiple meanings. The relationship between Sula and Nel is the main expression of this theme, however, there are also many other contributors such as color schemes, gender and race differences, and life and death. This theme sheds light on the significance and interpretation of issues of everyday reality which includes controversies related to identity struggles, super natural forces, the impact and relevance of upbringing on development, family structure, and racism. Morrison demonstrates the importance of good versus evil with her writing in the way that she overlaps them and interprets them as products of one another. The friendship of Sula and Nel creates a presence of good and evil within their relationship to each other and their community.
Sula has a feminist spirit and refuses to melt into the typical mold of a woman. She "discovered years before that [she was] neither white nor male, and that all freedom and triumph was forbidden to [her]" (52). Because of this she decides to lead her life on her own terms. Sula encounters both racism and sexism and is placed in a situation in which she has no release for her wild spirit. She cannot live out in the world with the freedoms of a man, but doesn't want to live as a stereotypically sheltered woman either. In attempting to break these boundaries she is hated by the town and viewed as an "evil" person by the community in which she lives.
There are many aspects of story that come together to create a complete narrative. A lot of the tools used by writers are intentional and serve the purpose of driving home certain aspects of the story or creating and engaging, and entertaining narrative. Toni Morrison—the author of Sula—is no different. Morrison employs many writing techniques and tools in her narrative Sula. It is important for the reader to be aware of and understand some of these narrative tools that the author uses because it allows the reader to gain a better understanding and appreciation for the narrative. In Sula a few narrative techniques that allow for the argument of women experiences to shine through are the use of a third person narrator, and gaps; throughout the story these tools allow the reader to become interested in and focus in on women experiences.
First there is the presence of the old stereotypical woman character, a woman split between the conventional and nontraditional roles of women. No differences are apparent initially between Morrison's Sula and any other women's literature in the past. Women are depicted either as docile servants to men, like Nel, or ball-busting feminist monsters like Sula. The hidden aspect of the novel lies underneath these stereotypical surface roles, in the incomprehensible and almost inappropriate bond of the two women. In the final scene of Sula, Nel comes to the realization that the emptiness inside her is due to the loss of Sula, not Jude (Morrison 174). Her friendship with Sula is all that matters.