“Motherhood Is a Refining Fire”: Exploring Constructions of Black Motherhood and Fire Imagery Throughout Toni Morrison’s Sula Kimber Andress College

Since its publication in 1973, Toni Morrison’s masterpiece Sula has awed readers with its thought provoking imagery and themes. Sula tells the story of the Peace family, which consists of Eva, Hannah, Plum, Pearl, and Sula. The Peace family faces many hardships throughout the years, but their love for one another and desire to survive and thrive prevails. Morrison provides readers with three different views of motherhood within the Peace family. First, is Eva whom many would consider to be a stereotypical “matriarch”. Eva is a self-sacrificing, strong-willed woman who arguably cut off her own leg in order to feed her children. Eva does what is necessary for the Peace family to survive, which includes putting Plum out of his misery by burning him to death, and also jumping out of a window to attempt to save Hannah from burning to death. Next, is Eva’s daughter Hannah. Hannah, like her mother is strong-willed and independent, but she also displays a lot of sexual freedom which is passed down to her only daughter, Sula. Hannah also claims to “love Sula”, but she just doesn’t “like her” (Morrison 57). Sula inherits traits from both Eva and Hannah, but the most important and differing aspect of Sula is that she is more interested in...