The Earth Where They Stood: An Exploration for Place and Community in Sula Joe DiConsiglio College

Through the first line of Sula, Toni Morrison gives a sense of place, community, and culture. By starting the novel after all the events of Sulahave taken place, she is able to give the reader the notion that every single detail is responsible for the destruction and replacement of the Bottom. Morrison’s acute awareness of her language gives unclear references that foreshadow deep events happening later in the novel. She uses descriptive, not difficult, language that tends to mirror how the reader thinks.

To further the sense of place, the first line makes a reference to earth, “tore the nightshade and blackberry patches from their roots” (3). This corresponds with multiple events later in the novel including the scene in 1922 when Sula and Nel dig holes with their twigs that had been, “stripped to a smooth, creamy innocence” (58). Morrison describes the imagery in this scene ironically to foreshadow what is about to happen and explain that neither Sula nor Nel are innocent. They begin to throw debris into their conjoined dug out holes and cover it up as if they were applying some positive impact to what they just did, “carefully they replaced the soil and covered the entire grave with uprooted grass” (59). It doesn’t matter...