B.A. Part–III Literatures in English Semester V Sula (Notes)

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Sula by Toni Morrison - Notes

Context

Morrison is the author of seven critically acclaimed novels and a professor at Princeton University. She won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel Beloved, and received even greater recognition when, in 1993, she received the Nobel Prize for Literature. Morrison was the first African-American woman to win the award.

Born Chloe Anthony Wofford in Ohio on February 18, 1931, Morrison received her undergraduate degree at Howard University and later completed her master's degree at Cornell. In 1958, she married Harold Morrison, a Jamaican architect; they divorced six years later. While she worked full-time as an editor at Random House and raised her two sons, Morrison began writing her first novel, The Bluest Eye.Sula is her second novel, and deals with themes of race, womanhood, the effects of history, and the contingencies of love, examining how all four intertwine to affect the beliefs and actions of individuals.

Noting that black writers have often had to pander to a white audience instead of concentrating solely on the business of writing, Morrison has said that she wanted to help create a canon of black work. Her literary efforts can and should be considered in this light, but while her fiction certainly deals with the complex experience of blacks in America, Morrison's work also highlights the timeless and universal themes that exist within this specific struggle.

Characters

Cecile - Cecile is Helene's strict, religious grandmother. She raised Helene from birth, and arranged Helene's marriage to Wiley Wright, Cecile's grand-nephew. When Cecile dies, Helene takes her 10-year-old daughter Nel to New Orleans for the funeral.

Chicken Little - Chicken Little is a neighborhood boy. One day, Sula playfully swings him around by his hands. She accidentally loses her grip, and he falls into the river and drowns.

The Deweys  - The Deweys are Eva's three informally adopted children, all of whom she named Dewey. They quickly became inseparable from one another. Although they look completely different, people have trouble telling them apart. They never grow into full adult size.

Old Willy Fields  - Old Willy Fields is an orderly at the local hospital.

Mr. Finley - Mr. Finley is a resident of the Bottom. Not long after Sula returns to the Bottom after a ten year absence, he chokes to death on a chicken bone.

Jude Greene  - Jude Greene is Nel's husband and works as a waiter in the Hotel Medallion.

Ajax (Albert Jacks)  - Ajax is the oldest of his mother's seven sons. Ajax has many lovers who often fight over him in the streets. He is always nice to his lovers, but he finds them uninteresting. The only true loves of his life are his mother, a conjure woman, and airplanes. At age twenty-one, he is a beautiful, graceful "pool haunt." Other men envy his "magnificently foul mouth." It is not that he curses often, but he has a way of infusing the most ordinary words with power.

Nel - The daughter of Helene, in adolescence she develops an intense friendship with Sula. Nel marries Jude, and is later abandoned by him.

BoyBoy Peace  - BoyBoy Peace was Eva's husband. He abandoned her when their three children were small.

Eva Peace  - Eva Peace was abandoned by her husband, BoyBoy, when their children were young. She struggled to keep her family away from starvation, but she succeeded only through the kindness of her neighbors. Eva later became the vibrant matriarch over a busy household, which included Hannah, Sula, Ralph, Tar Baby, the Deweys, and a constant stream of boarders.

Hannah Peace  - Hannah Peace is Eva's oldest child. She moved back in with her mother after her husband, Rekus, died when their daughter, Sula, was three years old. Like her mother, Hannah loves "maleness." She has frequent, brief affairs with the men who take her fancy. Many women resent her, but they don't hate her. Men don't gossip about her because she is a kind and generous woman. They often defend her against the harsh words of their wives.

Pearl Peace  - Pearl Peace is Eva's second child. She is actually named after Eva, but Eva gave her the nickname "Pearl." Pearl married at age 14 and moved to Flint, Michigan. She occasionally writes unremarkable letters about the everyday details of marriage and motherhood.

Ralph Peace  - Ralph Peace, nicknamed Plum, is Eva's youngest and best-loved child. He fights in World War I, returning home with troubling memories and a heroin addiction.

Sula Peace  - Sula Peace is Hannah's daughter. She has a birthmark over one of her eyes. Depending on their perception of her, people think the birthmark looks like different things: a stemmed rose, a snake, or Hannah's ashes. When they are young girls, Sula and Nel become close friends.

Rekus - Rekus was Hannah's husband and Sula's father. He died when Sula was three years old.

Rochelle - Rochelle is Helene Wright's mother. She is a Creole prostitute in New Orleans. Rochelle played little part in Helene's upbringing.

Shadrack - Shadrack is a World War I veteran from the Bottom. He spends two years in a hospital after he suffers a traumatic experience in the War. He has a terror of unexpected death, so he institutes National Suicide Day. Every year on January 3, he marches through the Bottom declaring that people should commit suicide or, if they want, kill each other.

Mr. And Mrs. Suggs  - Mr. and Mrs. Suggs are Eva's neighbors. Not long after BoyBoy abandoned her, Eva left her children with them, promising that she would return within a few hours.

Tar Baby - Tar Baby is a white alcoholic who lives in Eva Peace's home. She gave him his nickname as a joke.

Teapot - Teapot is a neglected, malnourished child living in the Bottom.

Helene Wright  - Helene Wright is the daughter of a New Orleans Creole prostitute, Rochelle. Helene's strictly religious grandmother, Cecile, raised her until she was safely married off to Wiley Wright at age 16. Helene lives a comfortable middle class life in the Bottom. After nine years of marriage, she gave birth to her only child, Nel.

Wiley Wright - Wiley Wright is Cecile's grand-nephew and Helene's husband. He is a seaman and is often away from home.

Summary

The Bottom is a mostly black community in Ohio, situated in the hills above the mostly white, wealthier community of Medallion. The Bottom first became a community when a master gave it to his former slave. This "gift" was in fact a trick: the master gave the former slave a poor stretch of hilly land, convincing the slave the land was worthwhile by claiming that because it was hilly, it was closer to heaven. The trick, though, led to the growth of a vibrant community. Now the community faces a new threat; wealthy whites have taken a liking to the land, and would like to destroy much of the town in order to build a golf course.

Shadrack, a resident of the Bottom, fought in WWI. He returns a shattered man, unable to accept the complexities of the world; he lives on the outskirts of town, attempting to create order in his life. One of his methods involves compartmentalizing his fear of death in a ritual he invents and names National Suicide Day. The town is at first wary of him and his ritual, then, over time, unthinkingly accepts him.

Meanwhile, the families of the children Nel and Sula are contrasted. Nel is the product of a family that believes deeply in social conventions; hers is a stable home, though some might characterize it as rigid. Nel is uncertain of the conventional life her mother, Helene, wants for her; these doubts are hammered home when she meets Rochelle, her grandmother and a former prostitute, the only unconventional woman in her family line. Sula's family is very different: she lives with her grandmother, Eva, and her mother, Hannah, both of whom are seen by the town as eccentric and loose. Their house also serves as a home for three informally adopted boys and a steady stream of borders.

Despite their differences, Sula and Nel become fiercely attached to each other during adolescence. However, a traumatic accident changes everything. One day, Sula playfully swings a neighborhood boy, Chicken Little, around by his hands. When she loses her grip, the boy falls into a nearby river and drowns. They never tell anyone about the accident even though they did not intend to harm the boy. The two girls begin to grow apart. One day, in an accident, Sula's mother's dress catches fire and she dies of the burns.

After high school, Nel chooses to marry and settles into the conventional role of wife and mother. Sula follows a wildly divergent path and lives a life of fierce independence and total disregard for social conventions. Shortly after Nel's wedding, Sula leaves the Bottom for a period of 10 years. She has many affairs, some with white men. However, she finds people following the same boring routines elsewhere, so she returns to the Bottom and to Nel.

Upon her return, the town regards Sula as the very personification of evil for her blatant disregard of social conventions. Their hatred in part rests upon Sula's interracial relationships, but is crystallized when Sula has an affair with Nel's husband, Jude, who subsequently abandons Nel. Ironically, the community's labeling of Sula as evil actually improves their own lives. Her presence in the community gives them the impetus to live harmoniously with one another. Nel breaks off her friendship with Sula. Just before Sula dies in 1940, they achieve a half-hearted reconciliation. With Sula's death, the harmony that had reigned in the town quickly dissolves.

In 1965, with the Bottom facing the prospect of the white golf course, Nel visits Eva in the nursing home. Eva accuses her of sharing the guilt for Chicken Little's death. Her accusation forces Nel to confront the unfairness of her judgment against Sula. Nel admits to herself that she had blamed his death entirely on Sula and set herself up as the "good" half of the relationship. Nel comes to realize that in the aftermath of Chicken Little's death she had too quickly clung to social convention in an effort to define herself as "good." Nel goes to the cemetery and mourns at Sula's grave, calling out Sula's name in sadness.

Sula is a novel about ambiguity. It questions and examines the terms "good" and "evil," often demonstrating that the two often resemble one another. The novel addresses the confusing mysteries of human emotions and relationships, ultimately concluding that social conventions are inadequate as a foundation for living one's life. The novel tempts the reader to apply the diametrically opposed terms of "good and evil," "right and wrong" to the characters and their actions, and yet simultaneously shows why it is necessary to resist such temptation. While exploring the ways in which people try to make meaning of lives filled with conflicts over race, gender, and simple idiosyncratic points of views, Sularesists easy answers, demonstrating the ambiguity, beauty, and terror of life, in both its triumphs and horrors.

Part I: Prologue-1920

Summary

The Prologue describes the changes taking place in the once all-black neighborhood known as the Bottom in the hills above the once all-white town of Medallion, Ohio. The old buildings that once functioned as the site of a vibrant African-American community are leveled to make way for a golf course as rich white people begin to encroach on the Bottom.

Local folklore has it that the Bottom received its name from a slave owner's greedy deception of a slave. The slave owner promised the slave that he would free him if he completed some difficult tasks. In addition, he promised the slave a plot of good "bottom land" in the valley. When the time came, the slave owner didn't want to part with any of his good land. He gave the slave a plot in the hills, stating that it was the "bottom of heaven" because it was closer to God. The slave was delighted to accept the "gift." Only later did he realize that hilly land was extremely difficult to farm.

In 1917, 20-year-old Shadrack suffers a traumatic experience in World War I. Afterward, he awakes in a veteran's hospital to find a tray of food. He is comforted to see that food items are neatly contained in separate compartments. When he tries to eat, he is horrified to see his hands growing rapidly. When a male nurse tries to force him to eat, Shadrack fights back in hysteria. After he is placed in a straitjacket, he is "relieved and grateful" because he doesn't have to look at his hands. He longs to see his face, but, confined as he is, it isn't possible.

Shadrack is released from the hospital a year later because his ward is short on space. He is later picked up by the police as he sits on the roadside crying. In his jail cell, he looks at his reflection in the toilet bowl. He is relieved to find that he does indeed exist. The sheriff sends Shadrack to his home town, the Bottom, with a farmer.

Shadrack is terrified that he might die unexpectedly. He institutes a self-proclaimed National Suicide Day as a means of coping with his fears. Every January 3rd, Shadrack marches through town ringing a cowbell and carrying a hangman's rope. He shouts that people should kill themselves or each other if they want to. The residents are disturbed at first, but eventually National Suicide Day infiltrates the consciousness of the community, becoming a part of the routine of their lives.

Helene Wright, the daughter of Rochelle, a Creole prostitute, from New Orleans, was raised by her strict, religious grandmother, Cecile. Helene was safely married off at 16 to Cecile's great nephew, Wiley Wright. They built a respectable life in the Bottom where Helene becomes a member of the most conservative church. After nine years of marriage, Helene gives birth to her only child, Nel. She raises Nel under the same strict rules that governed her own childhood.

When Cecile falls ill, Helene sews herself a magnificent dress in preparation for the journey she will have to make to New Orleans in the Deep South for the funeral. Despite the splendor of her clothes, she is insulted and humiliated by the white conductor on the train. She gives the conductor a dazzling smile, inciting the silent animosity of the black passengers. When she and Nel arrive in New Orleans, they discover that Cecile has already died. To Helene's discomfort, she finds Rochelle at Cecile's house. Nel is profoundly affected by her brief encounter with Rochelle.

Helene is displeased when Nel befriends Sula, a girl with a birthmark over one of her eyes, because Hannah, Sula's mother, has a loose reputation. However, Helene comes to accept the relationship because Sula seems well behaved when she visits Helene's immaculate home.

Commentary

Throughout Sula, things are not quite what they appear to be. The town of Medallion, with its rich, fertile fields, appears to be a more desirable place to live than the Bottom. The demolition of Bottom's old shacks to make room for a pristine golf course seems like an improvement. However, Morrison states the Bottom was once a vibrant community filled with laughing voices and a parade of unique, interesting people. The building of the golf course is in fact the displacement of a vibrant community; it is an example of homogeneity encroaching upon what was once unique.

Shadrack is suffering from severe shell shock. The horrors of the war annihilated the boundaries that once circumscribed his perception of reality, as can be seen in his weird sense that his hands are growing out of control. The world now seems to him a thing of chaos, and he is unable to deal with the excess of choices and paths it leaves open to him. In response to his fears, Shadrack develops an intense need to order his own existence. Suicide Day is an aspect of this effort: it is Shadrack's attempt to compartmentalize his fear of death into a single day. The need to "order and focus experience" is an important theme in Sula. Many of the major characters struggle to extract an ordered meaning from the events in their lives.

While Shadrack illustrates the terror of chaos, Helene illustrates the problems inherent in excessive order. Morrison suggests that much order breeds repression because it stifles an individual's personality. Celine raised Helene under the strict conventions of religion. She wanted to crush any spark of the wildness and independence that characterized Rochelle. Helene obeyed this imperative to conform by settling into an unremarkable middle class life. She later tries to force that same repressive order onto her daughter, Nel. In a sense, the pressure of dullness and sameness that Helene imposes on her daughter echoes the dullness and sameness that overtakes the Bottom decades later when rich whites move into the area and build their pristine golf course.

Though Helene's conventionality is implicitly linked to the rich whites of Medallion, Helene still suffers from racism, as can be seen by her experience on the train. The order and boundaries of her conservative, religious, middle class respectability do not protect her from racism. Helene tries desperately to maintain composure, but her dazzling smile has a hollow, disturbing implication. She inadvertently gives her approval to a biased, racist authority, inciting the anger and hatred of the other passengers. Her effort to placate and please the rude conductor only makes his sense of superiority more secure.

Nel realizes that her mother is not indomitable when she senses Helene's struggle to maintain her composure. She likens her mother's insides to custard, a weak, runny food. After meeting Rochelle, Nel realizes that there are women who defy the conventional boundaries, whether of religion, femininity, or race. Struck by the realization that convention does not necessarily equate to strength, Nel resolves to build herself according to her own rules, to find strength within herself.

1921

Summary

After Eva Peace's husband, BoyBoy, abandoned her, it is the kindness of her neighbors that kept her and her three children alive. Her baby Ralph, whom she nicknamed Plum, developed an impacted bowel. After listening to his piercing cries for days, Eva lubricated her fingers with lard and dug the compacted stools out of him, saving his life. Two days later, she left her children with a neighbor, Mrs. Suggs, promising that she would return within a few hours. She returned after 18 months. Over that time, she had mysteriously gained new wealth, but had also lost a leg. Her neighbors speculate that she deliberately placed her leg underneath a train in order to collect on an insurance claim.

When, later, BoyBoy briefly visited, Eva received him without outward signs of animosity. It appeared that he had come into a considerable sum of money. During his visit he never asked about his children, and when he left with his sophisticated, city girlfriend, Eva looks forward to the long-standing hatred she will hold for him.

With her mysterious money, Eva builds the rambling house where she now lives as a respected matriarch with her daughter and granddaughter, Hannah and Sula. The house also serves as home to three informally adopted children, all of whom Eva calls Dewey, and a never-ending stream of boarders. The Deweys become extremely attached to one another and consequently start first grade together despite their different ages. Tar Baby, a white alcoholic, lives in one room drinking himself to death.

Hannah and Eva both love "maleness." Eva enjoys flirting with men although she does not sleep with them. Hannah, on the other hand, sleeps with any man that takes her fancy, but she does not develop long-term relationships with them. When Plum returns from World War I, he is ravaged by his war experience and a heroin addiction. One night, Eva enters his bedroom to rock him in her arms. Afterward, she pours kerosene over him and burns him to death.

Commentary

The contrast between Sula's and Nel's upbringing is startling. Nel's household is bound by the social standards that define the conventional meaning of "family." Sula's household is built on an unconventional family structure. She lives in a multigenerational household run by women. Whereas Nel's household is static and repressive, Sula's household is vibrant, active, and subject to constant change. A constant stream of boarders complements the long-term residents of her house. The differences in the houses are evident in the physical structures themselves. Nel's house is always in order and well-kept; Sula's house is huge and rambling, as Eva has added on additional rooms piece by piece over time. The houses symbolize the differing potential for growth and change in the girls' families.

Eva's actions in killing Plum, her son, represents the ambiguous power of love. Of all her children, Eva clearly loved Plum the best. This has not changed even with his return from the war as a heroin addict, and Eva's decision to kill him is an expression of her love for him. Because she loves him she is unable to watch as he plummets further into addiction, and so she kills him. On one level, this is a sacrifice: a mother putting her son, whom she loves, out of his misery and thereby losing him. On another level, it is an act of selfishness: because she loves him Eva believes she has the right to decide what is best for him, and belives death is better than addiction. In the relationship of Eva and Plum, Morrison makes the claim that love is far more complicated than the way in which it is usually perceived. Love is not merely a thing of beauty and moral good, Morrison claims, it is rather a forceful amoral emotion that drives people to actions both selfish and selfless, both beautiful and horrid. In fact, as can be seen in Eva's killing of Plum, love is so complex and intricate; it can imbue a single action with both selfishness and selflessness. In other words, love is not subject to morality.

1922

Summary

Nel and Sula have radically different personalities: Nel is quiet and unassuming while Sula is spontaneous and aggressive. Together, the girls seem to form two halves of a whole person. Both girls are pleased when Ajax looks at their developing bodies and mutters, "pig meat." A group of Irish Catholic boys begins to harass black children. After Nel falls victim to their bullying, she and Sula avoid them by taking a circuitous route home from school. When they are confronted by the boys a second time, Sula draws a knife and cuts off the tip of a finger to demonstrate what she plans to do to them should they continue harassing them. The boys, disturbed by her calm, cool demeanor, leave them alone.

One day, Sula overhears Hannah tell some other women that she loves Sula, but that she doesn't like her. Later, Chicken Little, a neighborhood boy, happens upon Sula and Nel when they are alone. Sula defends him when Nel teases him. Sula playfully swings him around by his hands, but he accidentally slips from her grip. He falls into the river and drowns. She runs to Shadrack for comfort, accidentally leaving the belt of her dress behind. Nel remains cool and collected, stating that no one saw what happened. They never tell anyone about the accident.

A bargeman finds Chicken Little's body. The whites in positions of power consider the death of a black child to be of little consequence; one even suggests that the bargeman throw it back in the water. Sula and Nel both attend Chicken Little's funeral. Nel sits silent, burdened with a heavy sense of guilt. Sula cries freely, but she feels no guilt.

Commentary

The Deweys represent a parallel to Sula and Nel. Like the two girls, the three boys are intensely attached to one another, and the intensity of their friendship makes it difficult to draw a boundary between their individual identities. On the other hand, the close friendship between the girls gives Nel the ability to assert her independence, and she has begun to resist Helene's attempt to mold her according to her own desires.

Hannah's offhand comment that she does not like Sula even though she loves her again raises the ambivalence of a mother's love. Morrison insists that there is a difference between loving and liking someone. Her comment heralds Sula's loss of childhood innocence. Hannah's comment reveals to Sula that love is not a simple thing and conforms to no idealistic, romantic understanding. Instead, love can be an involuntary emotion carrying a heavy weight of responsibility; love can be something that engenders frustration and annoyance; it can feel unfair, or be a burden. Hannah's comment has the effect of making Sula feel simultaneously secure and insecure: her mother will never stop loving her, but that love is not the simple thing Sula had long believed it to be. Sula's confrontation with the ambivalent, often mysterious side to human emotions is her first inkling of the complicated world of adulthood.

Chicken Little's accidental death further drives the loss of childhood innocence. His sudden death shows Sula and Nel how easy it is to die. They are no longer protected by a childish sense of their own immortality. Shadrack assumes that Sula's tear stained face is connected to her fear of change. Morrison does not completely explain the significance of his statement, "always," to Sula until several chapters later. At the funeral, Sula does not feel the guilt that afflicts Nel. It is possible that Shadrack's assurance of her permanence relieves her fears that Chicken Little's accidental death has changed her good nature in any essential way. Nel's guilt arises partly from her upbringing. She has been raised not to question authority, and authority is that which judges. Later in the novel, we learn that she was thrilled when she saw Chicken Little sailing through the air. She remained calm while Sula became distraught. It is likely that she feels guilty about her lack of reaction, or her lack of the socially approved reaction, to the accident.

1923-1927

Summary

A fierce wind sweeps through the Bottom, tearing up trees and leaving behind a terrible heat wave. The next day, Hannah angers Eva when she asks if Eva had ever loved her, Plum, or Pearl. Eva retorts that the desperate struggle to feed and clothe Hannah and her siblings did not leave her enough time to indulge in playing with them as children. Hannah then asks her why she killed Plum. Eva begins to cry and states that Plum had wanted to crawl back into the womb. Eva explains that he had become a child again, and remembers the terror she felt at his life-threatening impacted bowel so many years earlier.

Hannah takes a nap and dreams of a red bridal gown. She tells Eva about it, but Eva is too distracted by 13-year-old Sula's adolescent behavior to think much about it. Later, Eva looks out her window in time to see Hannah's dress catch fire. She throws herself out the window, hoping to cover Hannah's body with her own. Mr. and Mrs. Suggs throw a tub of water on Hannah, but she is horribly scarred. Eva and Hannah are sent to the hospital in the same ambulance. Hannah is dead on arrival. Old Willy Fields, an orderly, barely saves Eva's death by blood loss, an act for which she curses him for years. In the hospital, Eva attributes Hannah's dream to a premonition of her death by fire. She recalls that she saw Sula standing on the porch, watching her mother burn to death. She is convinced that Sula was not stunned, but "interested."

20-year-old Jude Greene is a waiter at the Hotel Medallion. However, he longs to have a "man's job." When he hears that there is a plan to build a new road to the river, Jude hopes to take a job in the project. To his bitter disappointment, he learns that only whites are being hired. To secure a sense of manhood, he decides to marry and proposes to Nel. Shortly after her high school graduation, they are married in an elaborate ceremony. Nel, having embraced the conventional beliefs of her mother after the trauma of Chicken Little's death, gladly accepts the role of submissive wife. After the wedding, Sula leaves the Bottom to attend college. She does not return for 10 years.

Commentary

The conversation between Eva and Hannah again raises the ambiguity of a mother's love. Eva's harsh experiences did not allow her to express her love in affectionate terms. She struggled simply to ensure that her children survived. Her explanation for killing Plum again raises the question of whether such strong love is entirely positive. Eva couldn't face seeing the product of her own flesh live with the degradation of a drug addiction. She couldn't face the same terror she felt when he had an impacted bowel as an infant. Therefore, she chose to end her fear and suffering by killing him. At the same time, she ended his suffering. To simply praise or condemn her actions is a shallow response to the complexity of her dilemma. Judging from Eva's words, there seems to be both a constructive and a destructive aspect to love.

It may be a good thing that Hannah is not completely consumed with such love for Sula. Although Sula was hurt to learn that her mother did not like her, Hannah's words free Sula to a certain extent, as Sula realizes that she does not have to become or do anything to gain her mother's love because Hannah loves her regardless. /PARAGRAPH The Bottom is a superstitious community. Eva tries to understand Hannah's tragic accident by attaching special significance to the heat wave, Hannah's dream, and the fact that her comb was misplaced. Infusing these events with mystical significance allows her to find meaning in Hannah's death. Like Shadrack, Eva needs to order and focus the experience for herself, especially because she was unable to save Hannah. /PARAGRAPH However, it is not possible to simply dismiss the mysterious conjunction of the heat wave, the missing comb, and Hannah's dream. These unsual events imply that there is an order behind what appears to be random disorder. Moreover, Hannah died by fire just as Plum did. Maybe, this is the price Eva pays for intentionally killing Plum. However, it is also implied that Eva might have killed Hannah on the way to the hospital. We never know for sure. She was alive when she was placed in the ambulance with Eva, but she was dead on arrival at the hospital. Eva's attempt to symbolically lay the blame for Hannah's death on Sula could be an attempt to deal with her own secret guilt for Hannah's death as well as the guilt for Plum's. She condemns Sula for standing motionless while Hannah died by fire. She attributes her inability to correctly read the signs of disorder in time to Sula's fretful adolescent behavior; she did not read the warning in Hannah's dream because Sula distracted her. She attempts to define Sula as the source and origin of her inability to impose order on chaos. In the years to come, the community of the Bottom will do exactly the same thing.

Nel breaks her promise to define the boundaries of her own identity by choosing to marry young just as her mother had. A marriage is supposed to be a happy event; however, Jude chooses marriage as the inferior alternative to what he really wants: a man's job. Nel basically fulfills Helene's expectations by getting married rather than fulfilling her own original plan to live a wonderful and exciting life on her own terms. In the end, Helene succeeded in filing away the rough, unconventional edges from Nel's personality. The marriage thus symbolizes the reduction of possibilities. It signals a narrowing of the personalities of the people involved. It also heralds Nel's and Sula's separation from one another.

1937

Summary

Sula's return to the Bottom is accompanied by a "plague of robins." Her stylish, expensive clothing startles her old neighbors. When she visits Eva, their encounter quickly becomes antagonistic, as Eva criticizes her for remaining unmarried. Angered by Eva's judgmental statements, Sula orders her to shut up. She says that Eva's decision to cut off her own leg in order to collect insurance does not give her the right to control other people's lives. When, in response, Eva insinuates that Sula was a bad daughter, Sula accuses her of murdering Plum. Eva reminds Sula that she watched Hannah burn to death. Sula threatens to kill Eva in the same way Eva killed Plum. Frightened, Eva keeps her door locked at night. Not long afterward, Sula becomes Eva's guardian and commits her to a nursing home, shocking the entire community. They decide that Sula is truly evil, though Sula tells Nel that she put Eva in a home because she was afraid of her.

Sula and Nel begin to once more spend time together. One day, when Jude returns home and complains to Nel about some minor annoyance at his job, Sula teases him. Irritated, he comments that her birthmark looks like a snake. This early animosity, though, eventually leads to an affair. After Nel discovers the affair by stumbling on Sula and Jude having sex, Jude abandons Nel and their children. Nel is devastated by the betrayal of her husband and best friend.

Commentary

Sula breaks with social convention twice in this section: first, when she puts Eva in a nursing home, and again when she has an affair with Nel's husband. Her unpredictable behavior frightens the already suspicious community of the Bottom. In order to contain and understand their fear, they label her "evil." Like Eva, they impose order on her influence by retroactively imposing connections on seemingly unrelated events. The "plague of robins" becomes an evil omen of her return.

Considering Eva's own unconventional life, it is odd that she criticizes Sula for not following the conventional path. She criticizes Sula for remaining unmarried when she and Hannah never remarried. She and Hannah were fiercely independent, yet she criticizes Sula for her independence. Perhaps Eva's strange reversal of attitudes derives from her need to contain what she perceived as Sula's influence in Hannah's death. Eva and Hannah were not considered serious threats to the social fabric whereas the entire community, including Eva, considers Sula a threat.

It is also entirely possible that Eva does not want Sula to threaten her matriarchal control over her household. In some ways, Eva does believe that her sacrifice for her children gave her the right to control their lives. She did kill her own son partly because he did not fulfill her expectations. The Deweys gained a fierce attachment to one another by virtue of Eva's decision to name them all Dewey. However, they never grew to adult size, and they never developed independent identities. Perhaps Eva is unable to ever regard her children as full adults who can make their own decisions.

Sula's total disregard for the social rules governing marriage nearly destroys Nel. As a result of his extramarital tryst, Jude abandons his family for good. Although Sula's actions were selfish, it is important not to be seduced by the community's need to define her as an evil person, as their decision to place all the blame for the failure of Nel's marriage on Sula is rather facile. After all, Jude also chose to take part in the affair, and it was he who chose to leave his family. Sula did not force him to abandon his family. But because Sula remains in the Bottom, the community finds it much easier to concentrate their antagonism on her.

Nel's devastation is partly due to her weak sense of self. She always viewed her marriage as a combination of two halves of the same self. Nel cannot even cry after the end of her marriage. She did everything that social convention demanded, but she was still abandoned by her husband.

1939

Summary

The community mulls over the plague of robins,which preceded Sula's return, and the story about her reaction to Hannah's fatal accident. They decide that the birthmark over her eye represents Hannah's ashes. They are even more horrified that she has slept with white men. They attribute random accidents to her; for example, when Mr. Finley chokes to death on a chicken bone when he sees Sula, she is seen as the source of his demise. When Teapot, a neglected, malnourished child, accidentally falls off Sula's porch, Teapot's mother accuses Sula of pushing him. The town bands together in opposition to the evil they perceive in their midst and redouble their efforts to lead upright, moral, sober lives.

Sula's frequent affairs are all fleeting. Although she doesn't know it, she has sex because it opens her to loneliness and sadness. Ajax takes an interest in her because she is so unpredictable. He is "nice" to his lovers, and they frequently fight over him, but he finds all lovers boring. He and Sula have a passionate affair, enjoying one another's independence. For the first time in her life, Sula experiences the desire for possession of her lover. When Ajax senses her new domestic impulse, he abandons the relationship. She is devastated by his abandonment.

Commentary

As the community's animosity and hatred toward Sula grow, they impose meaning on random occurrences. They need to do so in order to solidify their definition of her as an evil person. Sula disregards their hatred and continues living as she pleases. Their horror at Sula's consensual affairs with white men reflects the extent to which racial segregation defines their lives and psychology

Ironically, the community's labeling of Sula as evil actually improves their own lives. Her presence in the community gives them the impetus to live harmoniously with one another. Teapot's mother was once a negligent parent, but she begins to care for her son as a result of her hatred for Sula. Sula's presence thus gives the residents of the Bottom a stronger sense of collective identity and strength. Her affairs with white men give them a stronger sense of outrage against the interracial relationships,which actually are exploitative. Therefore, Sula's presence also gives them a stronger sense of racial identity. Although the community regards her as an evil person, her return to the Bottom is actually far more than it appears to be. It is actually a blessing in disguise. What seems like a chaotic disruption in the social fabric is actually an ordering and focusing influence.

Sula's relationship with Ajax opens her to new feelings; she discovers the possessive nature of love. Earlier, she condemned Nel for conforming to the web of conventional social expectations, yet she herself is seduced by the promise of security that her love with Ajax seems to offer. Her ultimately negative experience with Ajax seems to confirm her suspicion that she will never have the close security in a relationship with a man that she had in her friendship with Nel. In this comparison rests an implicit contrast between the love that exists between women and that which women can find with men.

1940

Summary

When Sula falls seriously ill, Nel decides to go and see her for the first time in three years. She asks Sula if she can do anything to help. Sula asks her to go to the drug store for her. Nel finally gathers the courage to ask her why she slept with Jude. In the resulting conversation, they dance around the topic of morality and obligation. Sula denies Nel's assertion that black women can't afford to be alone and independent. She declares that every woman she knows is slowly dying. While they are dying like "stumps," Sula is "going down like one of those redwoods." She declares that her loneliness is her own whereas Nel's is a "secondhand" loneliness. Sula affirms that Jude simply filled a space in her head. Before she leaves, Sula asks Nel how she knows that Sula wasn't the one who had been good.

Wracked with pain, Sula ponders the past. She remembers that she was thrilled when she saw her mother burning and thinks that all emotions, actions, and words are just "something to do." She curls into a fetal position and puts her thumb in her mouth. She notices suddenly that her heart has stopped beating and that she has stopped breathing. She realizes that she has died and thinks that she can't wait to tell Nel that death is painless.

Commentary

Nel thinks of herself as a "good woman," and takes pride in that fact. When she goes to see the seriously ill Sula she feels that her generous action makes her Sula's moral superior because she sees herself as the betrayed party and Sula as the traitor. Like the community, she is blind to the blame that Jude bears for abandoning her. She blames Sula entirely for the end of her marriage.

The conversation Nel has with Sula raises the ambiguity of terms like "good" and "evil." Sula claims her loneliness and her sickness as her own. She has always remained true to her personal desires rather than those of society. Sula does not deny her actions, but refuses to accept total responsibility for the rupture of their friendship. She also refuses to accept total responsibility for the end of Nel's marriage. Sula states that she slept with Jude, but Jude chose to abandon his marriage. In contrast to Nel, who relies on a sense of herself as being "good" to make her way in the world, Sula can acknowledge the negative consequences of her decisions.

Sula reflects on her life without regret. She believes that so much of the emotion that people display is just something to occupy their time. People attach moral meaning to their feelings and their actions to give them a special significance, but in the end, Sula believes, they are just there to fill up the time. She marvels and pities that Nel would view her entirely in light of her affair with Jude. In Nel's mind, their close, wonderful friendship prior to the affair has been thrown into question. Sula acknowledges to herself that the sight of her mother burning thrilled her. Sula did not feel animosity toward her mother, but she reflects that her mother's death by burning was at least less monotonous than the way that most women die. Hannah went out of life as a ball of fire after a life full of good sex and good times. Sula herself prefers to die like a "redwood" rather than a stump.

Sula's last living thoughts are about Nel, the one person besides Ajax who aroused her curiosity. She wants to share her revelation with Nel that death doesn't actually hurt. Again, the novel proposes that things are not always as they seem: normally death inspires fear and horror, but for Sula, death is not at all frightening. She does not regret dying because she feels that she has milked all the experiences she can out of life.

1941-1965

Summary

The community of the Bottom regards Sula's death as a good omen. They go to the burial to verify for themselves that the "witch" is indeed in the ground. At first, her passing seems to herald good things. There are rumors that black workers will be hired for the construction of the tunnel under the river. There are also plans to build a new nursing home, which will house both black and white patients, including Eva.

However, a devastating frost overtakes the area, destroying crops and killing livestock. Many people cannot even get into Medallion, so they lose several days of much needed wages. The bitter cold snap brings in its wake a host of illnesses. The community begins to suffer from Sula's passing in other ways, as well. Without her "evil" influence to rally them together, the moral righteousness Sula inspired in the townspeople begins to crumble. Teapot's mother beats him furiously after he refuses to eat some food she has made for him. Wives cease to cherish their husbands as they did when Sula was alive. Thanksgiving and Christmas are bitter, ill-tempered affairs.

The weather finally warms on New Year's Day. The night before National Suicide Day, Shadrack begins to feel lonely for the first time since he came back from World War I. Only one visitor has ever come to his house. He fondles the belt, which provides the only evidence of her brief presence. When a frightened, crying child had come to his door years ago, the tadpole birthmark over her eye had signaled to him that she was a friend. She seemed to want to ask him a question. He could only muster the word "Always" to allay the fear of change,which he thought he saw in her face.

Suddenly, Shadrack doesn't want to go out to observe National Suicide Day. After seeing Sula's dead body with the same tadpole mark above the eye, he realizes that he had been wrong. There is no "always." Nevertheless, he gathers his implements the next morning and proceeds with his annual ritual. Many of the Bottom's residents, including the Deweys, follow him on his march. They walk to the tunnel where they begin to vandalize the construction site because the jobs have again been denied to black workers. Suddenly, it collapses, and many of Shadrack's followers, including the Deweys, drown.

In 1965, Nel reflects on the changes she has seen in her lifetime. The black community of the Bottom has slowly moved into the once all-white city of Medallion to build homes with their wartime wealth. Their job prospects have improved, but she laments the loss of community, which characterized the Bottom. Now, people live in isolated households rather than as a collective whole.

Nel spent most of her energy raising her children after Jude left. With the children gone, she feels that her life has passed her by, and that there is nothing waiting for her now that the Bottom is becoming a haven for rich whites. Nel visits Eva in the nursing home, but she is confronted with a sad, shriveled woman, a shadow of the vibrant matriarch Eva once was. Their conversation is rambling because Eva is going senile. During their odd talk, Eva accuses Nel of killing Chicken Little. Nel tries to blame the death entirely on Sula, but Eva reminds her that she watched. She doesn't think there is a difference between Sula and Nel's role because they were "just alike." Disturbed, Nel admits to herself that she shares some of the guilt for the boy's death. She remembers feeling thrilled when Chicken Little slipped from Sula's hands.

Nel visits the cemetery where Eva's children and Sula are buried. When she exits the cemetery, Nel sees Shadrack. Shadrack tries to remember who she is. Nel whispers Sula's name and then cries out in grief for her deceased friend.

Commentary

The community views Sula's death as a positive event. However, events are again not what they at first seem. Besides the natural misfortunes of weather and the social misfortune of racism, the community has lost the binding influence of Sula's presence. The community's moral resolve and harmony dissolve in the absence of the woman who, in breaking social conventions, motivated others to uphold them. /PARAGRAPH The final chapter closes the circular narrative of Sula. Nel reflects on the ambiguous blessings of "social progress." The former residents of the Bottom now have more civil rights, and they have been wealthier in the years following the war. On the surface, this seems like a positive thing. However, they have also lost something. The disintegration of the collective social identity that began with Sula's death has only grown worse; the community, which once defined the Bottom, has been replaced by a town in which the people live in relative isolation from one another.

Eva's comments during Nel's visit force Nel to confront her unfair judgment against Sula. Sula reacted to Chicken Little's death with a total rejection of all social responsibility; Nel responded by enveloping herself with it. Like Sula's fascination with Hannah's immolation, Nel was likewise thrilled when she saw Chicken Little drown in the river. Nel blamed Chicken Little's death entirely on Sula and set herself up as the "good" half of the relationship. As she questions why it felt good to watch Chicken Little falling, she realizes that her pleasure came from seeing the water peacefully close around his "turbulent" body. The water imposed an illusion of calm and order over the traumatic event. It erased the disorder and chaos of his flight through the air and his accidental death. Sula feared the monotony of calm and order, so she was thrilled by her mother's turbulent, dancing death. Nel loved order, and so she was thrilled to see the smooth water envelop the "turbulent" Chicken Little. Sula and Nel, the book insists, are two halves of the same equation; and as such, neither can be worse than the other.

In her trip to Sula's grave, Nel acknowledges her regret for the course of her life. When she cries out Sula's name, she is finally able to admit her feelings of love toward Sula and, therefore, is able to mourn her loss. And in grieving for Sula, in letting herself once more see the positives in Sula, Nel is able to mourn for herself, for the sacrifices she made to gain social acceptance, which Sula defined herself by refusing.