English Education

Feminism in Sula

Not very often are there books everyone can relate to regardless of race or gender. Enter Toni Morrison's "Sula" – a look at two black women coming to terms with their race and gender in a small, black mountain town in Ohio. Sula and Nel are friends that diverge drastically in their lifestyles. We come to emphasize with these women – seeing their potential and the limitations they face because of society. Combining their stories together, we see what it is like to be a black woman in America and how badly Feminism is needed.

In 1920, we are introduced to Nel's mother Helene who is of mixed heritage and is brought to live with her grandmother. Helene was taught to "be constantly on guard for any sign of her mother's wild blood" (Morrsion 17). She gets married and "rose grandly to the occasion of motherhood" 918) as well as "joined the most conservative black church and held sway" (Morrison 18). Nel is taught by her mother to always do the right thing. When her mother is accosted by the conductor on her way to New Orleans for sitting in the 'colored' part of the train (Morrison 21) and doesn't stand up for herself, Nel feels ashamed and longs to connect to her "blackness" – finding that strength when she meets Sula.

In 1921, we are introduced to Sula's grandmother Eva Peace and her mother Hannah. Her grandmother's husband had left her (Morrison 32), causing Hannah to want to prove her mother wrong by marrying for love. Unfortunately Hannah's sweetheart died (Morrison 41) – causing her to embark on a steady chain of lovers (Morrison 42). Sula caught her mother in bed when she came home from school (Morrison 44) and the continued experience of realizing what her mother was doing "taught Sula that sex was pleasant and frequent, but otherwise unremarkable" (Morrison 44). In result of growing up in a house so different from Nel's where the women did whatever they want and did not conform to gender roles, Sula never grew up with a sense of direction that she seeks in her friendship with Nel.

In 1922, Nel and Sula are both beginning puberty. It is summer and they are both on the way to Pool Hall – enjoying being watched by the older men (Morrison 50). Both of them dream of male companionship (Morrison 51). "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 52). Sula and Nel meet on the juxtaposition of their lives and are exactly what the other needs at the unique time of growing up.

Nel gets engaged in 1927 after Jude discusses marriage with her and she is described as "seemed receptive but hardly anxious" (Morrison 82). Nel is not opposed to marriage because she believes it is what she is supposed to do. Jude is described as having "wanted someone to care about his hurt" and as having chosen Nel because he believed her to be "someone sweet, industrious and loyal to shore him up" (Morrison 83). We can see from the narration that Jude chose Nel but he didn't love her. As Jude and Nel dance at their reception (Morrison 85), Sula looks on and smiles (Morrison 85) – a foreshadowing that their marriage would crumble and that Sula would become the one to tear them apart.

After going to college, Sula comes back to Medallion (Morrison 89). She has a conversation where her grandmother chastise her for not getting married (Morrison 92) and accuses Sula that "hellfire don't need lightning and it is already burning in you..." (Morrison 93). Sula goes to see Nel and ends up seeing Jude again (Morrison 102). Jude and Sula end up having sex (Morrison 105) and afterwards Jude leaves Sula (Morrison 106). Having her seemingly secure marriage broken apart by Sula, Nel tells herself that she "could never afford to look again" (Morrison 110) - accepting a life of reform and loneliness so she could continue to live up to the expectation of how a woman should behave in society.

Unlike Nel retreating into herself and accepting her seeming fate, Sula numbers herself out with more affairs. In regards to the women of the Bottom, Sula "would lay their husbands once and then no more" (Morrison 115). She causes resentment in the town by those clinging to their traditional roles of domesticity that compare themselves to her, leading her to having "no center" (Morrison 119) and becoming "dangerous" (Morrison 121) in her search for sexual pleasure. She begins an affair with Ajax (Morrison 124) and begins to discover that she desires "possession" (Morrison 131). Ajax then leaves her when things become too serious (Morrison 134) and "his absence" (Morrison 134) causes her to sing, "I have sung all the songs there are" (Morrison 135).

Nel visits Sula in 1940 (Morrison 138), picks up a prescription for her (Morrison 140) and administers syrup to Sula (Morrison 141). Nel chastises her, "You a woman and a colored woman at that. You can't act like a man" (Morrison 142). Sula chastises Nel for being unable to get over Jude (Morrison 143) and Nel chastises Sula for sleeping around/not thinking about the consequences, saying "you still expect folks to love you?" (Morrison 145). Sula believes she has lived life to the fullest in comparison to Nel and both can't agree on the proper roles of how a woman in society should behave. Soon after Nel leaves Sula, Sula stops breathing and dies (Morrison 149).

It's 1965 and Nel visits Eva Peace, whom says that Plum told her that Nel and Sula killed Chicken Little (Morrison 168-169). She visits Sula's grave (Morrison 173) and after leaving, she sees Shadrach (Morrison 174). Seeing Shadrach reminds her so heavily of Sula that she was struck with a revelation, "All that time, all that time, I thought I was missing Jude. We was girls together. O lord, Sula" (Morrison 174). Nel realizes that she is as much a part of Sula as Sula is a part of her – having lived two opposite ends of the same experience, being the only ones who truly understood the other. Nel also feels regret that she had spent so much time pining over how best she could act to keep Jude when she should have forsaken the idea of male companionship to spend the remaining time enjoying the company of Sula before she died.

Sula takes two very different women with two different lives and binds them by the common bond of friendship and womanhood. Sula is a novel that speaks to the female experience, the black experience and the human experience. Not only is Morrison criticizing racism and sexism through the awareness of intersectionality – the feminist awareness that multiple oppressions are linked, she is also saying that resentment and prejudice hide the common bonds of our humanity such as through labeling some women as good and others as evil based on their conformity or lack of to a patriarchal society. Through Sula and Nel's friendship, Morrison claims that all women are more alike than they are different and that men women should live their lives without seeking their sole validation through the eyes of a man. Sula and Nel are stronger together without Jude or Ajax but they are unable to realize it until after they live their lives conforming and rebelling to the patriachy. Sula is a rallying cry for the feminist movement that all women are better and stronger together in fighting oppression than they ever could be while being apart.

Works Cited

Morrison, Toni. Sula. New York: New American Library, 1987.