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Roles of men and women
What are the influences of family in your development
Roles of men and women
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Every individual’s life is shaped by personal relationships that they have with others. Whether there are complications in the friendship or not, the person’s life is changed in some way. In Sula by Toni Morrison, friendships are put to the test. Single mother-child relationships and other friendships have hardships that they must overcome. Friendships between women when unmediated by men in a mother and child relationship create difficult decision-makings and ways of life, yet friendships between friends are less complicated and stronger without them.
The mother and child relationships greatly affect the identity development in the kids. As seen in the community, the mother-child relationship is important in the sense that the mothers help shape their children’s future and aid them while understanding the world. Eva was a good mother from the beginning. She always wanted the best for her children before taking care of herself. Though hard to understand by her children, she killed Plum to relieve him from his heroine addiction and to make her life a little easier. “Rocking, rocking, listening to Plum’s occasional chuckles, Eva let her memory spin, loop and fall… ‘Mamma, you so purty. You so purty, Mamma.’ Eva lifted her tongue to the edge of her lip to stop the tears from running into her mouth” (46-47). Eva’s love for Plum is clearly shown. With his addiction, he was unable to live on his own and this required a lot of money and time; time in which Eva did not have to help. Because he was so far into his drug problem, it would take a lot of money to put Plum in therapy or to help him overcome the addiction. By Plum no longer being alive, this is one less child to worry about feeding and providing support for. It was a difficult ...
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... life because Nel felt betrayed. Even though their friendship had not survived, Nel’s desire for a friendship with a female remains strong because she misses her other half. Alone, Sula and Nel had a great friendship. Once Jude got involved everything became more complicated. Because a man was mediated into their friendship, they lost the strong bond between each other that they wished would last forever.
Friendships when men are involved are much different than when men are unmediated. In a mother and child situation, a man unmediated leaves the mother alone to earn money and support her family. The mother is the only figure that the children have to look up to and this is why she must face difficult decisions and ways of life. In other friendships, involving men can cause complications. It can destroy a bond between females and ultimately weaken their friendship.
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 partner betrays the other, by taking instead of giving, the other partner suffers. Nel and Sula's relationship suffers because Sula unfortunately takes actions that lead to partaking in a parasitic relationship where she begins to wither away. Nel refuses the parasitic lifestyle 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.
No matter what actions or words a mother chooses, to a child his or her mother is on the highest pedestal. A mother is very important to a child because of the nourishing and love the child receives from his or her mother but not every child experiences the mother’s love or even having a mother. Bragg’s mother was something out of the ordinary because of all that she did for her children growing up, but no one is perfect in this world. Bragg’s mother’s flaw was always taking back her drunken husband and thinking that he could have changed since the last time he...
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).
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.
Viorst, Judith. Necessary Losses: The Lovers, Illusions, Dependencies and Impossible Expectations That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Grow. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 7-9. All Kinds of Friends. Print.
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
Looking back on the death of Larissa’s son, Zebedee Breeze, Lorraine examines Larissa’s response to the passing of her child. Lorraine says, “I never saw her cry that day or any other. She never mentioned her sons.” (Senior 311). This statement from Lorraine shows how even though Larissa was devastated by the news of her son’s passing, she had to keep going. Women in Larissa’s position did not have the luxury of stopping everything to grieve. While someone in Lorraine’s position could take time to grieve and recover from the loss of a loved one, Larissa was expected to keep working despite the grief she felt. One of the saddest things about Zebedee’s passing, was that Larissa had to leave him and was not able to stay with her family because she had to take care of other families. Not only did Larissa have the strength to move on and keep working after her son’s passing, Larissa and other women like her also had no choice but to leave their families in order to find a way to support them. As a child, Lorraine did not understand the strength Larissa must have had to leave her family to take care of someone else’s
Finally, I argue that “truth in mothering is a far better policy” (Thurer 334). As Eva observes during a prison visit, “it was following…pat scripts that had helped to land me in [this] room” (Shriver 44). In her letters, she is finally able to break free from the wife role and speak truths that the mask of motherhood had suppressed. Her authenticity with Kevin during the prison visits nets more progress in their relationship than all those years of pretending ever had. When she finally asks Kevin why he did it, he is honest about his uncertainty. Remorseful, he returns Celia’s eye to her and asks her to bury it. He then embraces her, showing vulnerability. As Eva and Kevin look upon each other in this moment unmasked, she finally realizes, “I love my son” (Shriver 400). Ruddick describes attentive love – a mother perceiving and supporting a child’s real experience – as a counter to the mask’s fantasy and inauthenticity (105). When Eva and Kevin finally unmask, she is able to attentively love him as he truly is. Eva’s love, in its unconventionality, is not the “continuous, unconditional” mother-love of myth; but in its authenticity, it is far more meaningful (Rich
However, Traister doesn’t talk about the female friendships that might not be like being in a heterosexual relation just instead with a friendship. She should’ve accounted the negative approach to friendships. Not all friendships are positive and there aren’t many delightful things about a friendship. Yet not all women’s relationships are positive but instead can be a negative relationship for some individuals. Though Traister focuses the book on the single woman who are graduating from college and are just about to start their careers in their profession. It appears as if she only focuses on one group of single women. Nevertheless, what about the woman who are over forty-five years or older who are divorced and woman who are widowed. There are many women who are over that age who are unmarried. While Traister has many descriptions of people who are starting their careers. There are many individuals who are unmarried and are aging. For example, Traister doesn’t mention any examples of older women and doesn’t mention what are the problems connecting to concerns of older single
It is normal for two organisms in nature to have a symbiotic relationship in which both rely on each another in order to mutually benefit. However, sometimes one organism becomes greedy and decides to unfairly take more instead of equally sharing with their symbiotic partner. By doing so the relationship becomes parasitic. Toni Morrison's Sula, focuses on this exact transformation in the friendship between Sula Peace and Nel Wright from their close childhood to their diverging paths as adults in their hometown Medallion.
Have you ever made any friends via Facebook, Twitter, or Snapchat that you have never met before? I know I have through Twitter due to having the same interests. Some may say those friends are not really your friends, but virtual ones instead. In the article, “The Limits of Friendships,” by Maria Konnikova, she talks about friendships that are made virtually and in reality. The author argues that the use of social media has hindered friendships and face to face connections within one’s social circle, however, she does not address that they have met their closest support group through social media. Face to face connections help identify who one’s true friends are and they are more realistically made when it is in person rather than over social media, but there Konnikova fails to address the fact that social media has allowed many to connect
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.
Nel is able to express her feelings and emotions when she is with Sula, which is good because she can’t do that at home because she has to be the obedient one. They understand each other completely, they never argue or compete with each other. Their relationship is invaluable; they met each other at the time where they both needed it the most. Their friendship is not dependent on obligation, compassion, or love, but on their conjuction of sameness and autonomy. At this point they are together because they want to, not because they have to or need to be. When Sula and Nel meet it’s the time when they realize that their spot in society is disadvantage, “because each had discovered years before that they were neither white nor male, and that all freedom and triumph was forbidden to them, they had set about creating something else to be” (Morrison, 50). They are best friends mainly because they grew up in the same neighborhood, they are the same race, gender, and age. They understand the needs of each other and each other’s problems. They experience the intimacy they were looking for in each
However in Sula, the friendship of two also has the change during adulthood when Nel is disappointed with closeness of Sula with her husband. But twenty-five years after Sula's death, Nel realizes that she has wasted all of her opportunities for self-discovery and happiness. In Nel's final moments with Sula, Morrison calls into question the priority of Nel's marriage over her friendship with Sula, for Sula asks of her having sex with Nel's husband,
When women are kept in their classical role of mother and caretaker, all is well and their lives are simple. Children relate positively to their mothers in this typical setting; while Dantés was in prison, during a time of distress, he remembered something his mother had done for him. For example, Dumas writes, “He remembered the prayers his mother had taught him and found meanings in them which he had formerly been unaware.” (41). Mothers teach their children to the best of their ability, evidenced in Dantés, as well as when Caderousse says Mercédès is instructing her son, Albert. It is in these moments that a mother’s love, compassion, and necessity are revealed. Lives are calm and enriched as long as women are in their niche. This includes non-maternal nurturing roles, for example, Mercédès attentiveness to Dantés father and Valentine’s special ability to care for Nortier. This loyalty is valued and shown as essential for the stability of life. Though The Count of Monte Cristo depicted women as best suited to the home, they intermittently stepped further out of that r...