Imagine swinging through 192 pages and realizing your assumptions led you stray? Oddly enough, Toni Morrison’s plot has a plethora of twists and happens to deceive us from the instant we set our eyes on the cover. With the novel being titled ‘Sula’, when we first hear her name in the readings, we automatically click to thinking she's the main character. However, due to the changes and pains that Nel endures throughout the novel, the way that Sula's actions affect her behavior and mindset and the way that Sula's death assists her in finding herself, Toni Morrison emphasized that the main protagonist is Nel and the emphasis of the plot is around their friendship. Within these facts we are indulged to learning that the purpose of the novel being titled Sula is to emphasize Nel Wright’s character development throughout in result of her friendship with Sula Peace. Them being women of color at the time has an eminent significance, substantially affecting them throughout their adulthood.
Moreover, Nel’s friendship with Sula doesn’t begin like typical, rather than her being insubordinate to her mother Helene; “the trip, perhaps, or her new found meness, gave her the strength to cultivate a friend in spite of her mother” (Morrison 74). Her mother had the right intuitions when it came to Sula, things were about to take a twist. She took a role in their friendship that her mother Helene even failed to fulfil just for Sula to later sleep with her husband Jude. I’d like to think Sula was not intentionally hurting Nel, it was just all she knew. Morrison clearly delivers through context how Sula learns to be traitor from early on in her life from the moment she hears her mother say “sure you do. You love her, like I love Sula. I just don’t like her. That’s the difference” (Morrison 59). Of course, Nel is the one who helps her cope with the anguish that made her feel and pulled her away from hearing any further dialogue. As Science Direct has found on childhood maltreatment studies, “emotional abuse/neglect…are risk factors for a broad array of personality outcomes in a non-clinical sample” (Tyrka, Wyche, Kelly, Price, Carpenter), it is plain to sight how she was being entangled into Sula’s traumas.
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Furthermore, perhaps Sula was unaware that she had found her companion and had a loyal friend by her side. Intentional or not, Nel witnessed murder but she didn’t critique her for the incident with Chicken Little, instead kept her secret safe and even stood up for her when it came to Eva accusing them. Anyone finding out would involve her in severe complications but that was a risk she was willing to take for Sula. It’s undeniable that Nel easily picked up on Sula’s pride. Character development is essential here since we are deceived that she is harmless rather than malicious
Additionally, Sula in her last moments was most importantly hurt by seeing her friendship with Nel dissolve. As it is mentioned in Help Guide pertaining to grief, “for real healing, it is necessary to face your grief and actively deal with it” (Smith, Robinson, Segal). Upon Sula’s passing, Nel takes an active approach in evolving her identity, essentially realizing she felt unremorseful towards Chicken Little’s death and she was deceiving herself. Although she contradicted Sula’s placement for Eva being a woman of color, upon visiting her, she leaves her talking to herself in repugnance. Nel finds similarities with Sula more than she ever cared to admit and was grateful for their friendship.
To say the least, Morrison seems to have proposed a controversy with the title. The novel being titled ‘Sula’, when we first hear her name in the readings, we automatically click to thinking she's the main character. However, due to the changes and pains that Nel endures throughout the novel, the way that Sula's actions affect her behavior and mindset and the way that Sula's death assists her in finding herself, Toni Morrison emphasized that the main protagonist is Nel and the emphasis of the plot is around their friendship. Needless to say, she experienced the most loss, pain, changes and sacrifices, she finishes stronger than she started. As many would agree, Sula Peace and Nel Wright’s friendship was unique and almost like a roller coaster but one thing that is clear is that Nel was shaped into a stronger woman in result to all that they lived together.
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