Essay about Friendship in Sula

Words: 1163
Pages: 5
Open Document
Friendship in Sula

In Sula, Toni Morrison questions what true friendship is by putting Nel Wright and Sula Peace’s friendship to the test. Morrison tests the phrase “opposites attract” in this novel. Nel and Sula have two different personalities yet they are able to compliment each other. They are opposites in the way that they relate to other people, and to the world around them. Nel is rational and balanced; she gets married and gives in to conformity and the town’s expectations. Sula is an irrational and transient character. She follows her immediate passions, completely care free of the feelings other people might have about her. To Nel, Sula’s return to Medallion is like “getting the use of an eye back, having a cataract …show more content…
Without Sula around Nel becomes totally dependent on her new husband Jude. Without Sula, Nel needs to adhere to other people because she does not have desires and motives of her own. Morrison puts Nel’s and Sula’s friendship to the test when Sula has sex with Nel’s husband Jude. Sula has sex with Jude and fails to understand the consequences that it may have on their friendship. Sula is amoral in that she does not think that she is doing anything wrong to hurt Nel. She actually thinks that she is doing Nel a favor by opening her eyes and showing her what her husband is capable of doing. She proves to be careless towards others when she says, “I didn’t kill him, I just fucked him. If we were such good friends, how come you couldn’t get over it (Morrison 145)? Even after seeing how she has hurt her friend Nel she has no remorse for her actions. Morrison shows what true friendship is when Nel goes to see about Sula after she becomes ill, even though Sula has betrayed their friendship. Even on her deathbed Sula is insensitive towards Nel’s feelings. In the end, Nel realizes that she has not been mourning the loss of her husband, but of Sula. “And the loss pressed down on her chest and came up into her throat. ‘We were girls together,’ she said as though explaining something. ‘O Lord, Sula,’ she cried, ‘girl, girl, girlgirlgirl” (Morrison 174). Her belated cry at the end of this
Show More

Related Documents: Essay about Friendship in Sula

Friendship In Sula Research Paper

in Toni Morrison’s novel “Sula” is friendship, specifically female friendship. The novel explores the theme of friendship between two women, Sula and Nel, from childhood to maturity. Their relationship reveals that friendship consists of betrayal and forgiveness. Friendships are formed out of various circumstances however, when a friendship is made out of secret, it has a strong possibility to manifest in destructive ways. Sula examines the forging of such a friendship and its over take on individuals…

Words 1021 - Pages 5

The Complexities Of Womanhood In Toni Morrison's Sula

Within Sula the novel displays several different complexities of womanhood. The main two that really appealed to me were– the lady and the tramp. This also ties in directly with the relationship of Nel and Sula. When examining the relationship between these two, it is imperative to examine the labels that they both represent individually. Sula is the promiscuous black woman that crept into the role of the tramp as a result of her attitude towards sex and womanhood: “To Sula, sex is disconnected…

Words 954 - Pages 4

Scapegoating In Toni Morrison's Sula

Morrison’s 1973 award winning novel, Sula, many aspects of what it is like to live in a Black African-American community in the first part of the twentieth century, are explored and exposed by Morrison’s two mirroring protagonists; Nel and Sula. The novel explores the friendship of the two girls from when they are young children to middle-aged adults and then to the passing away of Sula. An aspect which is seen throughout the novel is Scapegoating. The scapegoating of Sula by the community in which she…

Words 1119 - Pages 5

Sula: Fiction and Sula Essay

a small town simply named “the bottom.” This town is the center of life in Toni Morrison’s novel Sula. A story about Nel Wright and Sula Peace: two friends who devote their lives to each other in search of a lasting friendship. Throughout the novel, there are several conflicts within families that contribute to the chaotic bliss of the town. One of which is of Nel’s mother, herself, and her friend Sula. Nel’s parents are shown in the novel to be stern and demonstrative. In part two, the narrator…

Words 345 - Pages 2

The Importance Of Belonging

HSC Subject Guide Belonging 2009 HSC: Area of Study – English - related material English HSC 2009 - 2012 is Belonging. What does belonging mean? From the Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus: belong, verb, 1) to be rightly put into a particular position or class; 2) fit or be acceptable in a particular place or environment; 3) belong to be a member of; 4) belong to be the property or possession of. Belonging, noun, affiliation, acceptance, association, attachment, integration, closeness, rapport,…

Words 4133 - Pages 17