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Toni morrison recitatif analysis
Critical Essay on Toni Morrison's SULA
Toni morrison recitatif analysis
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When Two Make One in Sula by Toni Morrison Toni Morrison's novel Sula is about two young black girls that become close friends, but eventually split up and take different paths through life. Sula decides to go against social conventions and live a more independent, reckless life, while Nel on the other hand decides to marry and settle down. In the end both girls are nearly the same, even though they lived their lives very differently. Both girls grew up in a majority black neighborhood known as the Bottom. This neighborhood is located up in the hills of Ohio, looking down on the wealthier white town of Medallion. The Bottom got its name from a time when a slave owner, disliking the land, persuaded one of his slaves that it was "the bottom of heaven- best land there is"(5). Ever since then more people chose to live in the Bottom and it became a thriving community. Sula and Nel came from very contrasted families. Sula's mother was widowed, and "had a steady sequence of lovers, mostly the husbands of her friends and neighbors"(42). She did not have many woman friends, because most of them disliked her for her attitude towards her relationships. Growing up in an environment where her mother had so many different men taught Sula that "sex was pleasant and frequent, but otherwise unremarkable"(44). Nel's mother on the other hand, strived to be the pillar of the black community. She was a woman who "won all social battles with persistence and a conviction of the legitimacy of her authority"(18). She was a woman who tried her hardest to fit into an ideal social mold, and she taught her daughter the 'right' way to live. The two girls became friends while they were in primary school, and they preferred the other's home life. Sula liked the "oppressive neatness"(29) while Nel "preferred Sula's wooly house"(29). They became inseparable, understanding the other's thoughts and actions, one completing the other. "They found relief in each other's personality"(53). Nel was always the calm one, in control, while Sula was uncontrollable. To save Nel from harassing boys, Sula once cut the tip of her finger off to scare them away, and when Sula accidentally threw a neighborhood boy into the water, Nel remained calm after they watched him drown.
The symbiotic nature between Sula and Nel began during their adolescent years. Sula depended upon Nel for sturdiness and comfort, while Nel preferred the unpredictable nature of her counterpart. They used the other's lifestyle to compensate for their shortcomings by placing themselves in the other's surroundings. When Sula visited Nel's home, "Nel, who regarded the oppressive neatness with dread, felt comfortable in it, with Sula" (Morrison 29). In the same way, Sula found comfort within the walls of the Wright home. They took solace in each other's presence. Each one finds comfort i...
Her mother ruling with an iron fist, rules and structure. But that was all Nel knew. Then she left for New Orleans, and everything was different. “Me...I’m Me.”(28) She was Nel, away from The Bottom. She was Nel, away from Helene who drove “her imagination underground”(20). It is because of this that she is drawn to Sula, their shared loneliness that made them need each other. Sula, who was constantly left unattended who felt smothered by the noise and uncertainty of her house as a child. Nel, who loved the “wooly” feel of Sula’s house, found comfort in the chaos. They belonged to each other. Two halves of a whole that only truly worked in tandem. They find their home in each other. Then Sula left, and Nel fit so perfectly into the community that rejected Sula. Nel was never exiled, she had her house with her kids and her husband and it worked. Worked so well. Even though Sula walked straight out of Bottom, and then into the arms death, and that's when Nel was finally alone.
“He expected his story to dovetail into milkwarm commiseration, but before Nel could excrete it, Sula said she didn’t know about that” (Morrison 103). Jude assumes Nel will just feel sorry for him automatically. Her expected response is described as milky, warm, and able to be excreted, like a mother nursing a baby. Women are expected to be the caretakers, never stating their real opinions. “In a novel populated by mothers, maternal imagery abounds: the image of Nel ‘excret[ing]’, ‘milk-warm commiseration’ for her husband” (Morrison and Lister 246). Women are expected to be maternal beings at the mercy of their husband and children and are not given the option of taking another route. This imagery highlights that black women do not have the power to choose a different path easily and are merely looked at as only having the power to be potential mothers, nothing
Helene was raised by her grandmother because she mother was a prostitute in the New Orleans. When Helene has a family of her own, she refuses to make her background be known. Helene raises Nel with fear because she doesn’t want her to have the lifestyle she grew up in. Helene controls Nel’s life and makes her see the world how it is. Nel and her mother go on a train to New Orleans to attend the funeral for her great grandmother. On the train, Nel witnessed racial situation between her mother and the white conductor. “Pulling Nel by the arm, she pressed herself and her daughter into the foot space in front of a wooden seat… at least no reason that anyone could understand, certainly no reason that Nel understood,” (21). Nel was very uncomfortable throughout the trip and wasn’t able to communicate with her mother because she never learned how to since her mother was not supportive of her. Nel views her mother very negatively for the way she raised her. Nel starts to determine her life and great her identity when she became friends with Sula. The effect of negative maternal interactions on an individual is explained by Diane Gillespie and Missy Dehn Kubitschek as they discuss
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):
Nigro continues on describing the women of Sula. The struggles of Eva after Boy-Boy leaves, unable to get a decent paying job because she was a black woman. Finding herself sacrificing her leg for the love of her children. How Eva shaped the lives of her ...
In the novel it states, “ Still it was lovely up in the bottom.” (Morrison, 5) It was ironic that the bottom was really on top of a hill. Although, there was a much deeper meaning to the bottom being on top of the hill. The Bottom could be looked upon as an unexpected place. But the bottom became their home. The bottom had a deeper meaning because the African Americans believed the town was the “bottom of heaven”. The community as a whole grew together from the strength of one another. The bottom was thought of as the place the black people lived, although it was the place in which they found
Ever since they were twelve years old, Sula Peace and Nel Write have been inseparable. Opposites, they complete each other, making it only natural that they would spend every minute together and be unquestionably loyal to one another. When they got older, as Nel started a family, Sula found herself in her ability to sleep with whomever she chose. Nel’s loyalty to Sula blinded her from her knowledge of how Sula was around men. She wasn’t careful when she invited Sula into her home, and the visit ended with Jude cheating on Nel with Sula (Morrison 105). Loyalty cost Nel her best friend and husband. After this, Nel went into a depression for a long time; sad about losing her husband, and angry with her best friend. “She could not see it, but she knew exactly what it looked like. A gray ball hovering just there. Just there. To the right. Quiet, gray, dirty. A ball of muddy strings, but without weight, fluffy but terrible in its malevolence” (Morrison 109). Although it seemed for all this time that Nel was grieving the loss of her husband, after Sula died, Nel realized that she was grieving the loss of her best friend. “‘All that time, all that time, I thought I was missing Jude.’ And the loss pressed down on her chest and came up into her throat. ‘We was girls together,’ she said as though explaining something. ‘O lord, Sula,’ she cried, ‘girl,girl,girlgirlgirl.’ It was a fine cry--loud
The first type, Eva, the preserver of traditional community spirit, just follows the old custom without any particular criticism. The second type, Sula represents the new value of the New Negro, while her grandmother Eva does the established value of traditional community based on the white supremacy, and another character, Shadrack stands in the middle of these two, the awakening of the black identity. Sula notices the miserable status of her race in the society and practices her new value in daily life but her arrogant intelligence makes people turn their backs on her, so she dies alone being
"And Pecola. She hid behind hers. (Ugliness) Concealed, veiled, eclipsed--peeping out from behind the shroud very seldom, and then only to yearn for the return of her mask" (Morrison 39). In the novel The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, the main character, Pecola, comes to see herself as ugly. This idea she creates results from her isolation from friends, the community, and ever her family. There are three stages that lead up to Pecola portraying herself as an ugly human being. The three stages that lead to Pecola's realization are her family's outlook toward her, the community members telling her she is ugly, and her actually accepting what the other say or think about her. Each stage progresses into the other to finally reach the last stage and the end of the novel when Pecola eventually has to rely on herself as an imaginary friend so she will have someone to talk to.
The personalities of Nel and Sula form as a result of their childhood family atmosphere. Sula's unusual exorbitance results from an eccentric upbringing that openly accepts and welcomes transience. The narrator describes Sula's house as a "throbbing disorder constantly awry with things, people, voices and the slamming of doors . . ." (52), which suggests a family accustomed to spontaneous disruptions and fleeting alliances. Sula decides that "sex is pleasant and frequent, but otherwise insignificant." (44) Sula grows up in the atmosphere of an emotional separation between mothers and daughters in her family. The mothers provide only the physical maternal support but lack in the emotional attachment to their children. Sula overhears her mother, Hannah, say, "I love her [Sula]. I just don't like her, that's the thing." (57) Hannah's words act as a determiner of Sula's defiance. Hannah and Eva, her mother, are also alienated. "Under Eva's distant eye, and prey to her idiosyncrasies, her own children grew up steadily." (41) This dissatisfaction causes Hannah to ask Eva, "Did you ever love us?" (67) "I know you fed us and all. I was talking 'bout something else. Did you ever, you know play with us?" (68) Eva leaps out of the window to "cover her daughter's body with her own" (75) to save her from a fire; she raises her children single-handedly and even sacrifices her leg to get an insurance because she does not have enough money to feed her children. Proud of keeping her children alive through the roughest times, Eva does not re...
In November of 1973 Toni Morrison published Sula. This writing was written during the era of the Contemporary Literary Period, Black Aesthetic Movement, and the Women 's Era. The Black Aesthetic Movement happened during 1965 through 1976. Currently the Contemporary Period and the Women’s Era began in the 1970s and is still going on today. During the Contemporary Literary Period some of the themes focused on are race, gender, the complexity of the black race, and a new entrance in black history. The Black Aesthetic Movement mainly focused on the love of blackness.Smith, David, and "Black Arts Movement." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. 2008. "Black Arts Movement." Encyclopedia.com. HighBeam Research, 01 Jan. 2006. Web.
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 friendship. Nel is shown to be a good character because she plays a socially acceptable role as a woman, submissive wife and mother, while Sula conforms to no social stereotypes and lets almost nothing hold her back, thus she is viewed as evil by the people in her community. Both women are judged by how well they fit into the preconceived social conventions and stereotypes that exist in "the Bottom."
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.