After Sula’s death, Nel will mourn her but even then she is mourning her own lost girlhood.
“We was girls together,” she said as though explaining something. “O Lord, Sula,” she cried, “girl, girl, girlgirlgirl.”
It was a fine cry – loud and long – but it had no bottom and it had no top, just circles and circles of sorrow.
“We was girls together,” she said as though explaining something. “O Lord, Sula,” she cried, “girl, girl, girlgirlgirl.”
It was a fine cry – loud and long – but it had no bottom and it had no top, just circles and circles of sorrow.
Sula, the character the book is named after, the outlaw, had served her friend and her community merely in defining themselves. For a period of time, she keeps them away from the chaos Shadrack represents. But Shadrack, the real hero of the book, is the one friend of Sula’s who never could become that. Sula, who “cuts out” whenever her path crosses Shadrack’s, is also shown to be undeserving. So do we trust the “madman” in his assessment?
"She had a tadpole over her eye (that was how he knew she was a friend – she had the mark of the fish he loved)"
Sula, though the central character, is denied the opportunity to realize the existence of a friendship through which she could have really transcended her boundaries. On her deathbed, she says of the community in the Bottom,
"Oh, they’ll love me all right. It will take time, but they’ll love me…. After all the old women have lain with the teen-agers; when all the young girls have slept with their old drunken uncles; after all the black men fuck all the white ones; when the guards have raped all the jailbirds and after all the whores make love to their grannies; after all the faggots get their mothers’ trim… then there’ll be a little love left over for me."
Sula then is about relationships that are frail, mortal… that don’t survive sexual politics. It is about ordinary people who experience loneliness but don’t know how to really cherish each other. Perhaps in a more ideal world it might be possible for agape friendships between people, especially women, to blossom and mature.
"She had a tadpole over her eye (that was how he knew she was a friend – she had the mark of the fish he loved)"
Sula, though the central character, is denied the opportunity to realize the existence of a friendship through which she could have really transcended her boundaries. On her deathbed, she says of the community in the Bottom,
"Oh, they’ll love me all right. It will take time, but they’ll love me…. After all the old women have lain with the teen-agers; when all the young girls have slept with their old drunken uncles; after all the black men fuck all the white ones; when the guards have raped all the jailbirds and after all the whores make love to their grannies; after all the faggots get their mothers’ trim… then there’ll be a little love left over for me."
Sula then is about relationships that are frail, mortal… that don’t survive sexual politics. It is about ordinary people who experience loneliness but don’t know how to really cherish each other. Perhaps in a more ideal world it might be possible for agape friendships between people, especially women, to blossom and mature.
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Hope you enjoyed the essay. Would love to know your thoughts....
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