Breaking the Rules in Sula
A community separates themselves from other individuals in a given society. Certain communities carry their own separate rules or laws. It combines a number of people into one group, one way of thinking. Many communities come together because they share the same common goal or interests. On may occasions, a group or community forms when someone is different from the majority. A good example of that would be when a child is being teased in school because he has glasses or braces. Toni morrison's Sula is a story about a woman whose individuality brought a little town in Ohio together to side with each other against her.
The novel Sula raises the question in how people or communities come together. In Sula's case, her abandonment of the town has sent her in a position of being an outcast. Sula's community views her carefree and wild ways obscene and inappropriate. A good example would be her need for many sexual partners. Sula beds with many of the men in her town, whether they were married or not. " It was the only place where she could find what she was looking for: misery and an ability to feel deep sorrow .Lovemaking seemd to her, at first, the creation of a special kind of joy." (122) Her community believes a good woman her age should be a mother, wife and server to her household. A woman should remain at home and be dutiful and respectful. Sula is was not any of those things. From the start, she has always have been different, she preferred to do whatever it is that she likes to do. She went away to college , something that most people from her town seldom did. Sula went away to pursue a career and to fulfill her need for knowledge. She wanted to do everything to see everything and experiences as much experience as she could possibly gain while she was still young.
It was peculiar to see the town coming together when Sula arrived back from college. Suddenly people in the town started siding with each other against Sula. They started viewing Sula as an oddball, a devil, as one lady described her, comparing Sula to the town outcast named Shadrack. The town started to look out for each other as well as they try to look out for themselves.
Community is defined as a group a people living in an area under the same conditions. Realistically, a community is so much more than this definition. It is people and their different beliefs that form a community. In the town of Milagro, Amarante Cordova, Ruby Archuleta, and a town coming together to rescue a fellow community member from jail exemplify the true spirit of what community is.
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.
Where many novels focus on the men and how they are the dominant figure in the society, Sula has the entire focus on the women, with men coming in only as sexual objects. Throughout the novel, the two main girls did not have male figures in their lives. Nel had a father but he was often away on trips, leaving her mother to raise her. Sula did not even have a father. The men she saw in the house were often there to have sex with her mother, Hannah, or exchange in flirtatious conversation with her grandmother, Eva. The man in this story is not the type to stay with his wife or to be faithful. Sula’s grandfather left, her father died, Nel’s father is never around. Hannah often slept with recently married men, and Sula sleeps with Nel’s husband, Jude, causing him to leave
Chapter three of Civil Liberties: Opposing Viewpoints inspired me to research today’s issues of school prayer. To understand how we got to where we are today, I first delved into our countries history of court cases pertaining to rulings on prayer in schools. Lastly, to update my audience on how our lives are being affected today, I directed my efforts toward finding current situations. By analyzing these situations, I gained knowledge for a better understanding of why society needs to be aware of these controversies. I don’t think there should be any form of organized prayer in today’s public schools.
-Toni Morrison uses strong diction to resonate the central message that the most unexpected people/places have the deepest meaning in life. In the novel it states,“ In the safe harbor of each other’s company they could afford to abandon the ways of other people and concentrate on their own perceptions of things.” (Morrison, 55) Toni Morrison shows how they were important in helping each other understand the world around them. By the author using the word abandon, she displays how they needed to escape the world when it came to focusing on their relationship. She could have easily used “they left the world” but by using the word abandon it adds more depth to just how powerful they were to one another. Toni Morrison used perceptions to help relate to the powerful bond of their friendship. In the novel, Sula and Nel saw things very different. Sula perceived the world with its imperfections by rebelling against society. Nel perceived the world in a warped sense and felt the need to follow society’s rules. Sula was an unexpected force in Nel’s life, which impacted her view on the world and her future.
For years now there has been a heated debate about whether or not prayer should be allowed in school,. Everytime the argument is rekindled, it ends in a stalemate, and is a topic that campaigning politicians tend to stay away from.
"God help, I'm so lost!" If you listen carefully, this is a common thought that is heard throughout many schools in the nation. Is this thought appropriate? The following statement clearly shows that the law allows students and adults to practice religion, but at the same time be respective of others and their beliefs even if they do believe or if they don't. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, or to petition the government for a redress of grievances." (First Amendment, The Constitution of the United States). Prayer is not normally permitted as a scheduled part of classroom activities, because it would result in the violation of the principle of church-state separation, which has been defined by court interpretations of the 1st Amendment to the U.S, Constitution. The separation principle is extended to Public school as an arm of the government, with an exception which can be permitted if, during the school year, a mixture of prayers, statements, etc are delivered, using material derived from a number of different religions and secular sources. So far, this has never been tried in a school or ruled upon by a court (Religion in Public).
Prayer in public schools became an issue in 1960: Madalyn Murray O'Hair sued the Baltimore MD school system on behalf of her son William J Murray, because he was being forced to participate in prayer in schools. Ultimately, her actions and the actions of the American Atheist Organization resulted in the Supreme Court ruling of 1962. (Tragically, she disappeared in August of 1995. In January 2001, a full five and a half years after they were last seen, the bodies of the Murray-O’Hairs were finally found on a sprawling ranch near the little town of Camp Wood, Tex.)
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.
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).
The Unhealthy Relationship of Sula and Nel Organisms in nature rely on one another for their well being. However, sometimes those organisms become greedy and decide to take in the relationship, instead of sharing with their symbiotic partner. Through this action, it takes on parasitic characteristics. In Toni Morrison's work, Sula, Sula Peace and Nel Wright demonstrate how a symbiotic relationship goes awry. When one and relationship, which causes Sula to wither away. In the midst of her death, Sula finally realizes that she needs the symbiotic relationship with Nel to survive. The interactions between Sula and Nel began symbiotically; however, it develops into a parasitic one with the dependence of Sula on Nel. The symbiotic nature between Sula and Nel began during their adolescent years. Sula depended upon Ne dislikes her disheveled house, and wishes that she could live in the clean house of Nel's. Nel likes the homeliness of Sula's house. As their relationship progressed, they began to act as an individual, or a symbiotic relationship where "associations are peaceful.cooperations between two entirely different types of organisms" (Simon 13). Symbiosis describes the friend's relationship, because they depended on each Little, by throwing him into a river, Nel stuck by Sula. They both took responsibility for the accident, even though Sula was the only participant. At Chicken Little's funeral, "[Sula and Nel] held hands and knew that only the coffin would lie in the earth; the bubbly laughter would stay aboveground [with them] forever" (Morrison 66). Through this incident, Nel acts like "the poisonous tentacles of a sea an The change of the relationship from symbiotic to parasitic begins with Sula's return to the Bottoms, signaled by the immense number of robins that entered the town. Just like Sula, the appearance of the robins came as a surprise to everyone except Nel. Nel understood this natural phenomenon signaled the beginning of a string of unexpected events brought on by Sula's return 95). Their relationship dwindled when Sula left to find a more prosperous life. She did not think that she needed the friendship that Nel bestowed upon her, but she did. Without Nel, she had numerous parasitic relationships with men, in order to replace the symbiotic relationship that she lost when she left Nel in the Bottoms. Sula needed fulfillment, and she gave Nel fulfillment, and vice versa. Betrayal lead to the separation of the symbiotic relationship between Nel and Sula. However, "The efficient parasite does not seriously harm its host through its individual activities" (Simon 15). Jude, Throughout this order of events, Sula was confused. They had always shared men, and Sula did not understand why she could not share Nel's husband too. They were best friends who shared everything. Why was the situation different now? Now Nel's " thighs were truly empty and dead too, and it was Sula who had taken the life from them" (Morrison 110-111). Sula took Nel's a new man. Ajax. Ajax was "a heroic warrior in mythological stories. During the Trojan War, he was second only to Achilles in bravery. When Achilles was killed, Ajax demanded his armor for himself, instead it was given to Odysseus. Ajax went crazy and committed suicide by falling upon his sword" (O'Neill 82). Sul knew that the relationship between them would eventually turn parasitic. He would not be a good symbiotic partner for Sula. The man that Sula had clung to for protection left quickly without so much as a note. She said after he left, "I didn't even know his name. And if I didn't know his name, then there is nothing I did know and I have known nothing ever at all since.  kill herself.
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."
Doing this and the concept map made me better understand why this is an issue and why it is debatable years later. Before starting the concept mad and breaking down the issue, I knew that school prayer was a social issue but never knew why. With my point of view, I would say that school prayer should be allowed except limiting what they can do. For example, a class have the moment of silence but the other students who have different beliefs can have their own time where they do their prayers and
Gaylor, Annie Laurie. The Case Against School Prayer. “Keep the Church and State Forever Separate.” Madison, Wisconsin: Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc., 1995. ( www.ffrf.org/pray.html )