HOW WAS SULA SHAPED?
Uploaded by PandaRose on May 26, 2004
To what extent do the surroundings of an individual affect who they become? Does free thinking really exist? Almost everything an individual does is touched, determined or influenced by the people and circumstances surrounding them. However, I still believe that there are things that the world’s sway cannot touch. In Sula, written by Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, the main character is a girl, who grows up and experiences life with her best friend Nel. Sula takes a path that is clearly shaped by her surroundings, but her personality shows traits that are unique and seem to sprout from within as well. She is made up of sexual innuendoes, compassion and zeal all huddled into a package blanketed by evil, devilish wrapping paper. Inquisitive minds may wonder how she came to be that way; I would certainly like to know what made Sula.
Sula is a very sexual person, but not without reason. I don’t believe she just became that way out of spite, I think she fell victim to the pre-determined roles for women in her family. “With the exception of BoyBoy, those Peace women loved all men.” (pg 41) They hated BoyBoy, he was the abusive, womanizing man who married Eva, Sula’s grandmother, and then abandoned her and her three kids. However, other than him they were man-crazy. Hannah was a “daylight lover”. “She would fuck practically anything, but sleeping with someone for her implied a measure of trust and definite commitment.”(Pg 44) Hannah, Sula’s Mother, refused to live without a man. The traits Sula would develop from witnessing sex treated as “pleasant and frequent, but otherwise unremarkable” (pg 44) became evident early on in her life. It becomes clear to me that Sula will spend at least part of her life as something of a promiscuous thing when she and her best friend are going for ice-cream on a cold day so that the older men will look at them. It’s not that this is a sure indication that someone will become a certain way, but I guess I just had a feeling about this girl. Later on in life she ends up having sex with countless men and is caught in a compromising position with Nel’s husband. I don’t think she wanted to be bad though she was only being herself. It’s not her fault she was brought up seeing men and sex as something insignificant, how...