Sula Marie Nigro States of Term Paper

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Whereas the pristine manicured lawns of the course might seem to be a boon for Bottom, the encroachment of white culture onto African-American culture will prove devastating. The golf course signifies white control over newly-gained black property, the imposition of white culture on that of African-American culture, and also the reclamation and reformation of land, something that African-Americans had only recently been permitted to own. While it would seem that such a tragic possibility would serve to strengthen the tries between Bottom residents, by the end of the novel, black families are slowly edging their way out of Bottom and into Medallion, destroying the integrity of the African-American community. Added to the moral and ethical conundrums symbolized by Sula, the problem of American race relations threatened to shatter Bottom's fragile identity.

Sula becomes an unwitting martyr for her community. "In Sula, the character of Sula must sacrifice her 'self' completely in order to define the community," (174). Her death brought to light the depth and nature of the divisiveness that unfortunately plagued Bottom residents. Death also helped to define the individual identities and relationships between the novel's main characters. Early in the novel, Sula and Nel's is threatened and challenged by the death of Chicken Little. Both girls were present when the boy drowned by accident, but Nel and Sula reacted differently to the tragedy. Their respective reactions contributed to their growing senses of self as the girls entered adolescence. Nel's tendency toward convention and tradition contrasts sharply with Sula's passionate and adventurous nature. Their outlook on life, their self-respect, and their self-definitions are all shaped by the community: Nel's in conformity to community values and Sula's in rebellion to them. Nel becomes traditional housewife and Sula follows in no one else's footsteps, in search of a unique identity.

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Nel reacted to her personal growing pains much as Bottom did. Just as Nel sacrificed the difficult duty of self-assertion through independence, so too did Bottom sacrifice the same type of self-assertion over Medallion. The inability of Bottom's residents to take a clear, decisive stand against Medallion demonstrates the difficulty by which communities can come together and respond to external or internal crisis. Comprised of different people with different personalities, beliefs, and worldviews, communities like Bottom do not necessarily fare well in times of crisis. Even though many of Bottom's residents united under common ethical, economic, and political causes, the collective attempt to dichotomize good and evil ultimately failed. Only Sula, who laughed in the face of conventional morality, succeeded in creating a clear self-concept, Her personal boundaries were created in opposition and antagonism to others, but they were nevertheless unequivocal.

The failure of Eva to openly embrace progressive social values also created conflict between her and Sula, and resulted in Eva's spending her senior years in a nursing home. Sula's disillusionment with the world outside of Bottom brought her home with the hope of rediscovering strength and beauty in the community. When she was greeted not with welcome but with scorn, she inadvertently became a catalyst for community growth. However, Bottom was too fragmented, its individual residents besieged by their own personal, internal conflicts of interest. With Sula, Toni Morrison examines the conflicts between various sets of social values and groups. Progressive or liberal values are pitted against traditional and conventional ones. Class and race-related values are also key conflicts in the novel. Each conflict plays itself out on two distinct stages: the personal lives of individuals and the life of the community as an….....

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