S ULA By: Toni Morrison

SULA Genre: Novel Publication date : November 1973 Author: Toni Morrison

T ONI M ORRISON  Born Chloe Anthony Wofford on February 18, 1931, in Lorain, Ohio.  A Nobel Prize-winning American author, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed black characters.  Among the best known are her novels “ The Bluest Eye”, “ Song of Solomon” and “ Beloved”, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in  In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Toni Morrison on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.

I NTRODUCTION Sula, focuses on a young black girl named Sula, who matures into a strong and determined woman in the face of adversity and the distrust, even hatred, of her by the black community in which she lives. And how the strong female relationships between the novel’s women and bonds both nurture and threaten individual female identity. Sula also explores the life of Nel, Sula’s best friend.

S ULA Nel and Sula are best friends even though they have completely opposite personalities. Sula is impulsive, daring, and independent; Nel, in contrast, obediently does what is expected of her. When Nel marries, Sula leaves the Bottom and goes to Tennessee, where she attends college for an unspecified amount of time. Ten years later, she mysteriously and unexpectedly returns to the Bottom, but it is immediately clear that she still has the fiery personality she had before she left; she still does the unexpected.

And she does more; she does the unthinkable: She places her grandmother, Eva, the family’s strong and domineering matriarch, in a nursing home, and she has a brief sexual affair with Nel’s husband, Jude. However, a few years later, Sula is near death, and Nel, who hasn’t spoken to Sula since she learned of her husband and Sula’s indiscretion, visits her old friend and forgives her. Shortly afterward, Sula dies.

C HARACTERS

P EACE F AMILY Sula Peace : the main protagonist, who affects the whole town of Medallion with her return Eva Peace : Sula's grandmother, who is missing one leg. Though the circumstances are never fully explained, it is assumed that she purposely put it under a train in order to collect insurance money to support her three young children. Hannah Peace : Sula's mother; Eva's eldest daughter. Hannah is a promiscuous and care-free woman who was unwantingly "burdened down" by Sula at an early age. Eva (Pearl) Peace : Sula's aunt; Eva Sr.'s youngest daughter and middle child Ralph (Plum) Peace : Sula's uncle; Eva's son and youngest child. Plum was a WWI veteran and a heroin addict. Eva burns him alive with kerosene because of his mental instability.

W RIGHT F AMILY Helene Wright : Nel's strait-laced and clean mother Nel Wright : Sula's best friend (can also be considered a main protagonist) who doesn't want to be like her mother because she will never be reduced to "custard" and she will not be humiliated by other people as her mother is.

O THER C HARACTERS BoyBoy : Sula's grandfather, who leaves Eva for another woman. Shadrack : A paranoid shell-shocked WWI verteran, who returns to Sula and Nel's hometown, Medallion. He invents National Suicide Day. Jude : Nel's husband, who leaves Nel due to a love affair with Sula. Ajax (Albert Jacks) : Sula's confidant and lover Tar Baby (Pretty Johnnie) : A quiet, cowardly, and reserved man who rents out one of the rooms in the Peace household. The deweys : three boys, each about one year apart from one another in age, who were each nicknamed "Dewey" by Eva. Their real names are never written in the novel, and after the introduction of these characters, the three were referred as one being, thus Morrison's use of a lowercase "d" in "dewey" for the rest of the novel. Chicken Little : The little boy that Sula and Nel accidentally drown by throwing into the river.

OPINION Sula is a novel that I enjoyd very much. It’s a book for all types of reader were kids can learn from and adults can identify with.